Forum: Author Hangout

Just ran across this article: People Who Can't Picture Anything Are Rewriting the Science of Imagination. I'm really not sure it's the best article, but it triggered a few thoughts.

Ever since I heard of aphantasia (it's a surprisingly new thing - the first recorded mention of it is 1880, but the term, and academic study of it, comes from 2015), I've known I'm probably a aphantasic.

If you don't know the term, aphantasia is not being able to form pictures in your mind. The 'apple test' is one of the classic tests for it. The prompt is: think of a bright, red apple. Picture it in your mind.

I can't, unless you give me a picture of a bright, red apple. I know what one looks like, but I don't see it as a picture. More or less, what I have in my mind is the concept of 'apple' applied to the concept of 'red'. 'Apples' are round, have stems, and so forth. I can broaden it out to yellow apples, green apples, and so forth. None of them come with pictures.

As far as I know, I've always been this way. What we know of it suggests that most people are that way, but some people acquire it via aging, injury, etc.

All of this is almost beside the point. It's just been a curiosity for me. Nice to know, because I've always been confused when people talk about 'mental pictures' of things. I'm good with tasks that allegedly require 'mental pictures' (mental spacial manipulation, etc), but I think that's a good memory for geometric relationships.

What got me to thinking was another test, the 'ball test'. This has two parts:
1. Close your eyes and imagine a ball resting on a table
2. Picture someone walking up and pushing the ball, then watch what happens next.

I can't do that, but I immediately jump to a mental model of 'ball' sitting on 'table', 'person' walking up and pushing it, ball 'rolling'. Great, right?

Then come the questions:
What color and size is the ball?
What gender and appearance is the person?
What shape and material is the table?

Um ... I don't know that? (Cue Monty Python 'Aaaaaaaaaa' off the bridge, into the pit). To have a concept of 'ball', I didn't need color or size. Ditto 'person', when the role of that person was 'ball-pusher'. And the same for the table.

I strongly suspect this affects my writing. I don't naturally form mental pictures of anything, so details that my mind thinks are extraneous are ignored. That's not necessarily a bad thing - writers get poked every so often to 'leave room for the imagination.'

But it also means I sometimes get questions from an editor such as, 'This person has been in your story for a long time now, and I don't know how tall they are.' Well, yes. I don't either! But, most likely, I should know that. I just don't, because it never occurred to me to ask the question.

I know how tall my major characters are, because that matters and I wrote it down, and sometimes it gets referenced. But I have to go look at it.

I know there are at least one or two writers here with aphantasia. There might be more - allegedly about 4% of us are like this. But who knows?

But I'm curious about how other people perceive the world. I can't do what other people do, and I spent quite a lot of time assuming no one else could, either, and that people forming 'mental pictures' of stories or characters was either a cute metaphor or maybe 'so-and-so is X tall, Y weight, etc, and celebrity A is about that, so they probably look more-or-less like celebrity A, who I know I think is pretty/handsome/plain/ugly/etc, so that's them' - a very conceptual, thought-based approach. It certainly changes what I think other people do while reading, and most likely while writing.

I had never put a name to it, but it's an issue that I have to varying degrees. At times, I can actually imagine pictures, though usually not perfectly, at other times I can't at all, or something in between. I'm pretty sure it's a result of head trauma, as I remember being immersed in pictures of everything I read when I was young. It changed after I had a bad concussion and retrograde amnesia that took half a year from my memory. It goes hand in hand with prosopagnosia - a difficulty to remember faces (an even younger term from the mid 1940s), which in turn makes it incredibly hard to remember names if there isn't a meaningful story and emotional anchor attached to the person. It feels like the visual thing often happens in a part of my brain that's just out of reach and lacking the necessary "wires".

It also means that, depending on the story I'm writing, I sometimes get stuck when I need detailed visual descriptions. Sometimes mental exercises like autogenous training get me into a state where visualizing works enough, sometimes (less often) I get up and it just does, other times I'm stuck for days. AI has been a huge help in that regard lately. I can throw a relevant part of a story at an LLM and tell it to create an image AI prompt, then generate an image that is reaonably close to what I need to describe and that fills in some of the blanks I'm struggling with.

It seems I'm still lucky that it's not all black and white for me. Totally with you about the geometric visual models to the rescue.

I have to admit to finding it really strange, and contradictory, that people who can't picture things in their mind, can write good stories, as you so obviously can. I would have thought the main ability of a writer was the ability to picture things in their mind.

I'm not an expert but that model of the brain doesn't seem consistent with an article I read recently about a Stanford University study. My archaic computer can't access the actual study, but here is a link to another article about it.

AJ

I'm, like a lot of you, in the same situation. It's so bad, that when I'm meeting someone, like my ex-wife, sister or brother, I can't even recognize them at the airport unless I visually picture an older family photograph of them.

Thus, as a coping mechanism, when writing if concentrate on the story, and once I've gotten the basics (i.e. the entire first draft), I'll then double back, pick random online photographs of actual people, pick whoever looks the most like how I picture my characters, and then use those to provide the descriptions of the characters, as otherwise, I couldn't describe a single thing.

However, aphantasia is often a side-effect autism, as many of those suffering from Asperger's, the higher end of that spectrum, are not only incredibly bright and highly focused ("tunneling" is the new term for what used to be known as a "coping mechanism" to overcome ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), yet at earlier ages, that 'coping mechanism' or "tunneling" means we cope by overcompensating, focusing on only a single thing at a time until when finish it, when we them move onto out next item.

Unfortunately, folks like us generally can't cope with a traditional nine-to-five job, so we're instead drawn to either technical or creative fields, where we can work our own hours, spending as much time as required to do each one.

That surely doesn't include every author, yet it does categorize those of us who have exceptionally high IQs with little in the way of 'functional' IQ (i.e recognizing social cues and behaviors). So those like Steve Jobs, great at designing and programming yet terrible at dealing with people.

Which leads directly to these types of discussions: online with no direct person-to-person dialogue, focus-driven attention to details and an outsized sense of 'my way or the highway' individualism.

Though how far we extend along either side of the spectrum can vary considerably.

Yet for me, 'borrowing' public photos, which I don't publish, so there are no direct legal (copyright or misrepresentation) issues.

Though I too had a sizable concussion at one point—significant enough that a brain scan identified a good-sized 'dead spot' within my brain, but I've always considered that part of my associated 'autism walk', where I have trouble both with my limbs and my balance, so we're also extremely klutzy at times.

However, the ability of picture abstract images actually cuts both ways, as Einstein, also suffered from the same condition, yet he was better than the 'norms' at visualizing specific theoretical situations, as that's how he resolved the inherent problems with relativity, by quite literally imagining it, even while unable to recognize his own pupils in everyday encounters.

As for "prosopagnosia", I've even covered that in stories (my newest, by the way, where the protagonist explains how he remembers names by 'associative memories', where you tie their name to their specific facial appearance. (As that was also how I memorized things back in the olden days, by linking the phrases together as 'associating' them to each other phrase in the sequence).

Speaking of blindness, I had one doctor completely butcher my own retinopathy treatment, as my eye bled afterwards, blocking the valves draining the eyes, so now I'm completely blind (effectively only seeing out of one eye—some vision, but I can't merge the vision between the two eyes anymore).

Finally, about not being able to picture what you've never seen, I've worked fairly extensively over the years with the blind via the Lions Clubs, and those who are born blind have none of those issues, only those who grew dependent on their vision in describing things.

I have never heard of aphantasia; or I cannot recall having heard, or read about this affliction. (I have multiple TBI, so I might have learned about it, but cannot remember.)

However, for more than 40 years I have heard that between 33% and up to 60% of people cannot translate the terrain (or even just roads/streets) on a Map, to what they see around them.

The US Army's definition of a Map is: "A Graphic Representation of a portion of the Earth's Surface, as Seen From Above."

(I have been retired from the US Army a bit more than a decade, so I may no longer remember the definition of a Map, verbatim. However, the gist of that definition has been vital to me since before age 17; I joined the CAP [Civil Air Patrol] an Auxiliary of the US Air Force, and a Search and Rescue organization at age 11, and participated in the Sport of Orienteering since I was 8.)

I cannot recall ever getting lost when I had a map (and when appropriate a compass); as well as being remarkably good at plotting artillery fire, air drops or strikes, etc.

Not to say that I haven't been disoriented on occasion (not knowing my precise location), sometimes requiring that I perform a Resection, or other method to confirm my location. (Resection is taking the bearings of two (or more) known locations, such as mountain tops, radio towers, etc. Calculating the back azimuth, then draw those lines on a map, where they intersect is where you are. If you have correctly identified the 'Known Locations'...

When driving in an area I don't know, and without a map, or good directions, I have been uncertain. So, I stop and get directions, and a map, if possible. I loathe people who Won't ask directions.

If you are ever in such a situation, I strongly recommend stopping at a Fire Station. They are always open. Even in the age of GPS, they have a huge Map on a wall, and at least one of the firefighters will be able to give you Directions, and be aware of construction, or other matters that might effect your choices of route.

I have some ability to study a map, and plan where to situate military units to the best Tactical (and Operational) advantage. Certainly there are people who are significantly better at that than I am. (My focus tends to be too Tactical, but that was my level of command, so...). I can also accurately estimate the number of vehicles, per hour, that should be able to travel on a particular route.

Similarly, I can visualize how much gear will fit in a rucksack, and also where things should be stowed, so that priority items may be accessed, without having to dig through items less likely to be needed.

Loading personnel, weapons, ammo, and other gear into vehicles is also an Art. Being able to visualize what will fit, and what won't, and how to ensure that vital items, such as ammo, or medical kits, etc. are rapidly accessible, is a valuable trait.

I always thought that soldiers who couldn't visualize map locations, routes, areas of tactical advantage, or vulnerability, how to load a ruck, or a vehicle, were just lazy, or they hadn't been taught!

When I was told the high (33%+) who cannot do so, I accepted the statistic, but didn't understand how a person who 'wasn't blind' couldn't comprehend; particularly if they received a modicum of training. The older I got, the more I was forced to concede some people don't seem to be able to read a map, or visualize what will fit where.

While I don't remember all of my dreams. Since I was a child, I could imagine / day dream, etc. objects, aspects of stories, and apply that to my reading, and later to my writing.

Most of my life I have enjoyed reading, and listen to radio plays. I didn't understand why other people didn't enjoy such things as much as I do. Perhaps aphantasia is a significant part of the reason?

Lucy Freud claims to have aphantasia, diagnosed via an on-line test. She thinks she probably inherited it from Lucian Freud, her father.

AJ