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Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

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Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#131
post #79

Does anybody else experience a similar phenomenon but with their auditory system? Whenever I'm falling asleep in a room with white noise (usually a fan) I swear I hear people talking, songs, animal noises... But it's just the fan.

Check out Exploding Head Syndrome! I have it. I have only experienced it as a kind of electrical "boom", but the bursts of sound some of you describe sound related, especially since they happen while you are drifting off to sleep.

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#132

Wow, so many people don't see anything, almost as if aphantasia isn't a real thing and it's just normal.

I see a tonne in this flashing thing, and the way I think is like a movie screen. I can't comprehend how thinking without vivid imagery is even possible. I really think there's variety in how brains are wired and very different experiences of thinking out there.

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#133

I watched this for ten minutes and didn't see anything (apart from a flashing red screen). I'm supposed to be the artistic one in the family, so I can't help but feel slightly disdapointed. I've always suspected that people who claimed they could visualize things with great clarity were lying (the "images" in my mind's eye are very fleeting, lacking in detail, and can't be focused on -- like they're on the extremes o…

They aren't lying, your brain just works differently. It even has a name: https://www.webmd.com/brain/what-is-aphantasia

Not sure why they talk about it being "wrong" since obviously you are functioning enough to be commenting on a site on the internet rather coherently....

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#135
The technical description of this phenomena is a bit conflicted. It seems to say the differing experiences are probably a result of different people having different visual refresh rates, and then somehow makes a logical jump to the test telling us about how visual spacial people are as thinkers. It seems to me that this would tell us a lot more about how our visual cortex interprets input. This is an experience of actual vision, not visualization.

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#136
To put things in perspective:

The actual survey result says that most experience simple shapes (60%).

39% saw colors other than red and black.

24% report very vivid colorful and complex images.

25% didn't see anything (answer "No").

(doesn't add up to 100% because multiple options could be selected)

A quick internet search reveals 1-3% of people have aphantasia.

I wouldn't rely too much on the results of this test w.r.t. aphantasia.

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#137
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a test I'd like to give someone with your abilities one day, and I'd love if you took the time to try this. I forget where I originally saw it, but it goes something like this: Imagine you're looking down on a grid of squares. It's a little bit like a chess board, but it's only four squares wide and four squares high. In each square is a single letter, and each horizontal row spells a four-letter word. The to…

> My suspicion is that people who claim they can visualize images perfectly won't be able to do this Note: I do not "claim" to visualize, I can do it, like many others. Remember that aphantasia is the uncommon condition. I cannot see vertical or diagonal words and in fact have trouble focusing on the words. I can see one at a time clearly, but if I focus on the others the rest become blurry. I can see the checkered b…

Thank you for your answer. The reason I wanted to give this test is that I think we may be experiencing the same thing, but interpreting what we see differently.

I too can recall scenes from my last holiday trip. I can "see" the night time scene at the bar, the placement of me and my friends around the table, the lady in a white shirt delivering our drinks -- but it's not the same as a real photograph. It's a different type of vision altogether. It's possible that there are people who are experiencing the same thing as I am, but are describing what they are seeing as a clear photograph. My argument is that it's not a clear photograph if you can't inspect any details.

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#138
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My suspicion is that people who claim they can visualize images perfectly won't be able to do this Note: I do not "claim" to visualize, I can do it, like many others. Remember that aphantasia is the uncommon condition. I cannot see vertical or diagonal words and in fact have trouble focusing on the words. I can see one at a time clearly, but if I focus on the others the rest become blurry. I can see the checkered b…

Thank you for your answer. The reason I wanted to give this test is that I think we may be experiencing the same thing, but interpreting what we see differently. I too can recall scenes from my last holiday trip. I can "see" the night time scene at the bar, the placement of me and my friends around the table, the lady in a white shirt delivering our drinks -- but it's not the same as a real photograph. It's a differe…

Oh, agreed. It's not as clear as a photograph and you have to make an effort to "pin down" the image.

In fact, I suspect many of my mental images are inaccurate and my brain is making some stuff up. I'm not claiming to have perfect recall, just that I see visual imagery with my mind :)

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had those dreams from time to time, it looks equally disturbing like those AI memory images: https://imgur.com/ocplHAy Sometimes it is very fast morphing shape of objects and events, morphing into other shapes and events ... But what is most disturbing is that during the dream everything looks logical and known, it is feeling like tapping to some higher source of knowledge, but as soon as I wake up, it seems my bra…

This reminds me of people's reaction to this image: https://twitter.com/melip0ne/status/1120503955526750208

Wow, exactly, and at the same time looking at it braking my brain, I hope it will clear up in my dream :D

Re: Simple test reveals if your mental images are more vivid than other people's

#140
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My suspicion is that people who claim they can visualize images perfectly won't be able to do this Note: I do not "claim" to visualize, I can do it, like many others. Remember that aphantasia is the uncommon condition. I cannot see vertical or diagonal words and in fact have trouble focusing on the words. I can see one at a time clearly, but if I focus on the others the rest become blurry. I can see the checkered b…

Thank you for your answer. The reason I wanted to give this test is that I think we may be experiencing the same thing, but interpreting what we see differently. I too can recall scenes from my last holiday trip. I can "see" the night time scene at the bar, the placement of me and my friends around the table, the lady in a white shirt delivering our drinks -- but it's not the same as a real photograph. It's a differe…

Out of curiosity, can you also not hear "vivid" music in your mind? My friend can't, at best he can "hear" himself mumbling something resembling the original piece.

I however can hear passages of music I remember well: the opening from Star Wars, parts of Kind of Blue or songs from Pink Floyd, the intro song of many TV shows, etc. I probably cannot pass a test equivalent to the crossword puzzle either, but I definitely can hear the music and it's not just me mumbling in my head.

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