My Brain Doesn’t Picture Things • Hacker News Board

Re: My Brain Doesn’t Picture Things

#51

Post by d-lisp » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 7:50 AM UTC

ozmodiar wrote: post #29

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m currently not sure if I have aphantasia or not. I don’t remember the number of windows in my house, and I’m currently not in or near my house, but no problem — I simply wander through my house in my mind, and count the windows: 9. So I cannot have aphantasia, right? How can I “visually” count the windows in my house without the capability to “see” in my mind? But all those tests? I never really “see” that darn ap…

I would describe my mental vision as working the same way as you, and have always tested highly in my ability to mentally manipulate 3D objects. I don't think this is aphantasia so much as a language issue when describing mental processes. I am a little surprised that some comments here reference people who claim to be able to generate mental images as if they see them, that's certainly a different level of visualiza…

Honestly, that's hard to explain; I truly see colors, shading, lighting, can touch textures, feel weight of objects and etc... It's just that my body isn't truly performing these things. How do you remember a scene from your childhood ?

Re: My Brain Doesn’t Picture Things

#52

Post by frabcus » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 6:40 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #19

"I have what is called “aphantasia,” the absence of voluntary imagination of the senses. I know what a top hat is. I can describe its main characteristics. I can even draw an above-average impression of one on a piece of paper for you. But I can’t visualize it mentally. What’s wrong with me?" How can you draw a thing without visualizing it? Do the coordinates of the vertices appear in your head or instructions about…

It's hard! There are some professional artists who are aphantasic, e.g. this YouTube video talks about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI

IIRC, the artist does lots of sketches, and looks at them to see what looks right. And also uses computer models to get angles of what she's drawing which she struggles with otherwise.

Re: My Brain Doesn’t Picture Things

#53

Post by throw1234651234 » Wed, Oct 11, 2023, 2:23 PM UTC

Nevermark wrote: post #45

circuit10 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can definitely visualise those things in a way that sort of feels like seeing it but when I do that my brain really works with abstract concepts where if you focus on something in particular you make up the finer detail on the fly

Yes, I can visualize almost anything, but there is a huge fovea aspect where my focus has to zoom around to check/see all the details. But if the details are unconstrained conceptually, or not tied to a remembered object, then details won’t be consistent as I move around. The memory palace thing works for me too, if I am not constantly moving things around.

Memory palace works just fine without CLEAR visualization. CLEAR visualization is when you can do what was claimed of Tesla - move around complex systems and actually see them to scale / detail. There is no way in hell most people can take a transmission and put it together in their head and re-arrange it. Working memory doesn't allow for that, unless it's some entirely different system of processing in the brain.