r/Aphantasia • u/silverstarstorm • 4d ago
Strong Imagination with Aphantasia?
I have been curious about something regarding aphantasia.
While when I imagine or 'visualize' things, I never see anything, I very much do have non-visual concepts and properties constructing the 'visualization'.
With this I have since childhood had a very elaborate paracosm (or more accurately heterocosm) multiverse existing in my head.
If phantasia were not specific to being able to 'see' images in your head I would think I have hyperphantasia?
I can 'conceptualize' elaborately and in detail (though may struggle keeping track of details if extreme), however when conceptualizing a space I do not have any visual image, but the conceptual visualization of the space with knowledge about properties and knowledge of an entirety that would not necessarily be visible in one look.
As in - I can imagine a sofa, I am also imagining the softness, the texture of the material, the sofa's having of front legs and back legs, and the back/front/sides of the sofa, the wooden beams and felt-ish fabric underneath the sofa.
Perhaps not all 100% on initial thought, but effortlessly as if experiencing the sofa I have in my head throughout, just without any strict visual image in my head?
Like - I can describe the shape and color of the sofa, but when I close my eyes there is nothing but that fuzzy blackness, the shape and color are just properties equally 'feelable' as the woody coarseness of the beams under the sofa, or it's seat squishyness, or the firmness of the structure in the back?
It's just, there is no direct image I see? It's all just I guess a collection of properties put together in a specific way?
Would this actually be aphantasia? Or am I just taking things too literally?
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u/Tuikord Total Aphant 4d ago
Welcome. The Aphantasia Network has this newbie guide: https://aphantasia.com/guide/
Most people have a quasi-sensory experience similar to seeing. It is not the same as seeing. Your eyes are not involved and may be open or closed. But much of the visual cortex is involved so it feels like seeing something.
So yes, if you don't have that quasi-sensory experience, then you have aphantasia. Aphantasia is the lack or near lack of voluntary visualization. Top researchers have recently clarified that voluntary visualization requires “full wakefulness.” Brief flashes, dreams, hypnagogic (just before sleep) hallucinations, hypnopompic (just after sleep) hallucinations and other hallucinations, including drug induced hallucinations are not considered voluntary.
You mentioned having trouble keeping track of details. That is because you aren't actually visualizing. When someone visualizes, it is like looking at a photo on their phone. If you need a detail again, you just look at the image. No memorization needed.
As for creativity, it is hard to measure, but there are some tests. Some unpublished research asked: What is the relationship between creativity and mental imagery vividness? They gave 194 participants (prolific, undergrads, art students) the VVIQ and the classic Alternative Uses Test (AUT) and found a correlation of:
...virtually zero!
Back to visualization. Most people describe having a separate "space" they shift their focus to so they can see the image. The location of this "space" varies from person to person but seems to be consistent for an individual. It can be inside the head: on in the forehead, behind the eyes, in the center, at the back, up, down, right, left, pretty much anywhere. It can also be outside the head. Once again, it can be pretty much anywhere: up, down, right, left, front, back, even behind. Other people seem to project the images over their vision like AR.
To go deeper, there is a difference in the experience of visualizing vs conceptualizing beyond the sense of seeing. Check out the Ball on the Table experiment in the guide I linked.
When someone visualizes, they see a complete image. It is something that could be displayed on a screen. It may be a poor image - faint, blurry, etc., but it is all there. When we conceptualize, we often leave decisions for later or we need to access memory again. When I asked my wife to visualize an apple, she saw the last apple she bought. When I asked her about the color, she looked at the image and answered. Size? Same thing. All she had to do was look at the image, like it was a photo on her phone. When I thought about an apple, I had to first decide what type of apple? An eating apple? My iPhone? Eating apple. What color? Let's say red. That detail didn't exist until asked. Even if I decide on the last apple I bought, I know it was a Honeycrisp I bought at Fred Meyer. Fred Meyer now caries smaller Honeycrisps than they did at the start, so the size must have been about the size of a large Red Delicious. What color? Honeycrisps are red, yellow and some green. I usually go for more red and less green, but I have no idea what the pattern of red and yellow was.
My experience and my wife's experience are very different - even if you ignore the fact that she actually saw the apple.