[ehutch79]

Pretend you're talking about photos and cameras. You mean you can see the image? even though the camera isn't pointed at it now? Like it's really seeing it?

Same idea. You're seeing it, but you know it's just a memory of the thing, not a live view. Like pulling up a video or jpg instead of a live feed.

[bigyikes]

Let’s suppose you have perfect recall.

Pull up the image on your phone and look at it. Now close your eyes and imagine the image as accurately as you can.

Is it as though you didn’t close your eyes at all? Do you see it the same way as when your eyes are open?

[k__]

No.

When I'm fully awake, the mental images are more like someone attached a new camera with a field of view that ends at the edges of the object/scene I try to generate.

[more_corn]

I’ve got a hollow log from an apple tree in front of my parked car. I know the contractor put a bucket upside down on it, I could walk out my front door with my eyes closed and kick it (I know exactly where it is) But is the bucket at an angle to the left or right? I don’t have a picture I can reference. I know that I don’t know because I’d have to have noticed and remembered.

Does your photograph allow you to faithfully recall details you didn’t notice at the time or is it a simulation of an image?