Aphantasia vs Hyperphantasia - where do you fall?

[Syt]

Prompted by a reddit thread I saw, I was reminded of how different people think.

On the one hand there's people who have a constant inner monologue/voices, or people who find it easy to visualize or imagine/recall things - images, sounds, music, feelings of touch, smells, or tastes.

On the other side are people who have no such inner monologue and who can't visualize things, or to a certain extent.

Neither side is inherently better or worse, and people generally fall somewhere between the extremes. What's fascinating to me, though, is that many (most?) people just assume the way their mind works is the "normal" one and everyone else experiences it the same, until they meet people who - literally - think differently.

Where do you guys fall?

For me, I have a constant voice (or songs ) going on my head, though it has the advantage that I can change the tone, so if I want my thoughts to be in the voice of Stephen Fry or Morgan Freeman I can do that for a bit.

I also generally find it easy to imagine or recall things. E.g. reading Star Wars novels I always had vivid images of the action in my head, the movie characters would show up and look like in the movies, have the voice etc. But even with books for which there's no movie. E.g. I read Chuck Wendig's Wanderers last year, and when I think back to it, I remember not the words so much as the "head movie" from when I read it, with the characters, events, their voices etc. I can imagine a leather jacket and what it feels like to touch or wear it, or the characteristic smell. Or I can imagine standing in a winter landscape, e.g. a forest, with a cold wind blowing in my face to the point I start shivering.

When I dabbled in writing I could picture the scenes and characters in my head and "only" needed to write things down or describe what I saw (still too lazy to do it, though ).

On the other hand this proves problematic when reading pure factual texts with little or no narration for my mind to latch onto. I can understand concepts and patterns quite well, but purely theoretical things require more effort than remembering a story unless I can attach them to something. I was good at math and physics in school, but I forgot much of what I learned there, but I can recall many texts I read in German, French, or English class.

What about you, where do you fall?

[Eddie Teach]

Constant sounds. Picture requires effort, especially if I'm conjuring it from text.

[celedhring]

I have a rather constant inner monologue and I constantly reproduce or make up conversations, with people real or imagined. Sounds too, but mostly voice. No, I'm not schizophrenic 

It does help in my job, since for me it's very easy to run a scene over and over in my head. Unlike Syt, I don't picture images or voices when I read books, but I picture them when I write. In general, however, my mind is no good at tackling visual stuff. I have absolutely no aptitude for drawing.

I'm good with patterns, logic and organization. I can keep complex structures in my brain and navigate them. That said, I have never been good with pure memorization - in fact I don't have a great memory, which surprises people. I always got great grades at school by just spotting the internal logic of stuff (i.e. math, history, etc...) rather than putting it to memory. It has its drawbacks, if I can't put something in a box, I feel lost.

I also have this thing where my brain doesn't work well in "real time". I.e. in work meetings I rarely contribute much compared to others (and I have had some employers calling me on it, until they get to know me better). I need to go and sit down with whatever is the issue and solve it. I always say that my brain has a low max speed but plenty of horsepower. This also extends to social interaction, I'm not a great conversionalist since I have a hard time coming up with interesting stuff to say "on the spot".

[Syt]

I'm good with patterns, logic and organization. I can keep complex structures in my brain and navigate them. That said, I have never been good with pure memorization - in fact I don't have a great memory, which surprises people. I always got great grades at school by just spotting the internal logic of stuff (i.e. math, history, etc...) rather than putting it to memory. It has its drawbacks, if I can't put something in a box, I feel lost.

I could do that in, say physics, or economics. "If this variable goes up, this one goes down, therefore the formula must be ..." Rote memorization worked to some extent, but I find I'm mostly good at remembering weird and useless trivia of all sorts.

One weird thing - when I was 5 or 6 we had a one volume encyclopedia in our home which on page 832 "Römisches Recht" (Roman Law) had a list of the Roman emperors. I told a family friend proudly that I would always remember that. She said, "Nah, eventually you'll forget." It's now almost 40 years later, and this useless fact is still lodged deeply in my head.

[Josquius]

I'm very good at remembering generalities, less so specifics. I would be awful at mid 20th century history classes that are all about dates whilst actually knowing about history and discussing it is fine.

And I always remember the weirdest things which come back to me and start bothering me years later for no reason. For instant recently I have remembered and become upset that I probably missed out on a threesome at one point in the distant past.

I think I'm pretty good at visualising things but I'm awful at reproducing that, I suck at art.

[Razgovory]

Take a guess, the answer may not surprise you.

[celedhring]

I'm good with patterns, logic and organization. I can keep complex structures in my brain and navigate them. That said, I have never been good with pure memorization - in fact I don't have a great memory, which surprises people. I always got great grades at school by just spotting the internal logic of stuff (i.e. math, history, etc...) rather than putting it to memory. It has its drawbacks, if I can't put something in a box, I feel lost.

I could do that in, say physics, or economics. "If this variable goes up, this one goes down, therefore the formula must be ..." Rote memorization worked to some extent, but I find I'm mostly good at remembering weird and useless trivia of all sorts.

One weird thing - when I was 5 or 6 we had a one volume encyclopedia in our home which on page 832 "Römisches Recht" (Roman Law) had a list of the Roman emperors. I told a family friend proudly that I would always remember that. She said, "Nah, eventually you'll forget." It's now almost 40 years later, and this useless fact is still lodged deeply in my head.

The biggest ever memorization crunch I ever did was for my Audiovisual Technology classes at uni. I had to memorize 250 pgs of 1990s film/TV tech (so, all pre-digital) which is now completely and utterly outdated, but parts of which are indelibly ingrained in my brain. Do you know what an Alternating Optic Copier is? I do, and I might be the sole human that still does.

[Syt]

 

I cruised through school without having to study much and was an A student, (or B depending on subject and my interest in it ). When I got to public admin school with all its law subjects I nearly crashed and burned, and graduated with a D+ equivalent.

[The Brain]

Constant autistic screeching. And in my head I can "hear" and "see" things quite vividly.

[HVC]

not constant sounds, but i do have a pretty regular inner monologue. And while i can picture objects and locals quite well, i have trouble with faces.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

monologue/dialogue and pretty vivid imagery to boot. And the memory of a decent sized elephant.

[Maladict]

My mind is a silent movie. All images, no sound.

[Razgovory]

I have a fairly vivid imagination, for instance if an unpleasant intrusive thought comes into my head I will actually flinch.  I have an inner monologue and it causes me to talk to myself.  I kind of wonder what my neighbors thought when they saw a 13 year old paperboy carrying on an animated discussion with himself.

[Admiral Yi]

Tons of inner monologue and dialogue, a leading cause of my difficulty sleeping.  Visual memory very good, came in handy for setting up cardboard war games.

[11B4V]

Huh?