[brotchie]

When reading "picture an apple with three blue dots on it", I have an abstract concept of an apple and three dots. There's really no geometry there, without follow on questions, or some priming in the question.

In my conscious experience I pretty much imagine {apple, dot, dot, dot}. I don't "see" blue, the dots are tagged with dot.color == blue.

When you ask about the arrangement of the dots, I'll THEN think about it, and then says "arranged in a triangle." But that's because you've probed with your question. Before you probed, there's no concept in my mind of any geometric arrangement.

If I hadn't been prompted to think / naturally thought about the color of the apple, and you asked me "what color is the apple." Only then would I say "green" or "red."

If you asked me to describe my office (for example) my brain can't really imagine it "holistically." I can think of the desk and then enumerate it's properties: white legs, wooden top, rug on ground. But, essentially, I'm running a geometric iterator over the scene, starting from some anchor object, jumping to nearby objects, and then enumerating their properties.

I have glimpses of what it's like to "see" in my minds eye. At night, in bed, just before sleep, if I concentrate really hard, I can sometimes see fleeting images. I liken it to looking at one of those eye puzzles where you have to relax your eyes to "see it." I almost have to focus on "seeing" without looking into the blackness of my closed eyes.

[rimprobablyly]

Exactly my experience too. These fleeting images are rare, but bloody hell it feels like cheating at life if most people can summon up visualisations like that at will.

[theshrike79]

Watching someone clearly just transfer what's in their mind to a drawing is just jaw-dropping to me.

Like they'll start at an arm and move along filling the rest of the body correctly the first time. No sketching, no finding the lines, just a human printer.

[derektank]

I can't recall it ever being useful outside of physics and geometry questions tbh

[brisky]

I think I have it as well. But my theory is that we might have imagination but it is only accessible to subconscious. It is as if it is blocked from consciousness. I have ADHD as well, might be that this is protection mechanism that allows my kind of brain to survive in the world better (otherwise it would be too entertaining to get lost in your own imagination). As a kid I used to daydream a lot.

[typpilol]

I've come to realize that's how they all are.

No one really sees 3d pictures in their head in HD

[hamdingers]

I'm a 5 on the VVIQ. I can see the 3D apple, put it in my hand, rotate it, watch the light glint on the dimples in the skin, imagine tossing it to a close friend and watch them catch it, etc.

It's equally astonishing to me that others are different.

[Workaccount2]

I can see I my head with ~80% the level as seeing with my eyes. It's a little tunnel visiony and fine details can be blurry, but I can definitely see it. A honeycrisp apple on a red woven placemat on a wooden counter top. The blue dots are the size of peas, they are stickers in a triangle.

It not just images either, it's short videos.

What's interesting though is that the "video" can be missing details that I will "hallucinate" back in that will be incorrect. So I cannot always fully trust these. Like cutting the apple in half lead to a ~1/8th slice missing from one of the halves. It's weird.

[voidUpdate]

I absolutely do. For example, when I'm playing D&D, or listening to a podcast of other people playing D&D, I can "see" a fully realistic view of what is happening in my head. With the apple test, I can see a nice red apple, with the little vertical orange streaks, three blue dots arranged in a triangle, and I can rotate the apple in my head and have the dots move as you would expect from a real apple. I have a very vivid imagination

[theshrike79]

Talk to people who read a lot.

There are people who actually "see" a full-ass movie in their head when they read.

These are also the people who get REALLY angry when some live-action casting choice isn't exactly like in the book. I just go "meh", because I kinda remember the main character had red hair and a scar and that's it. :D

[marak830]

Welcome to the aphantasia club. We would make signs for our next meeting, but no one's come up with a good design yet :s

You may notice when doing the apple test, once you try and define a texture, your brain adding things you think should be there.

Scared the crap out of me a few years ago when I realized I had it. Came to grips with it now.