The first layer of internal visual experience I have when reading is a degree of synesthesia (letters have colors). Most of the time I’m not aware that this is happening. It does make recalling writing easier (I sometimes deduce missing letters, words or numbers from the color).
Then there is the “internal blackboard”, which I use for equations or formulas. I use conscious effort to make the equation appear as a visual experience (in its written form). I can then manipulate this image as if the individual symbols or symbol groups were physical objects that can move and react with each other. This apparently allows me to solve more complex equations in my head than most mathematicians. (I believe this is a learnable skill.)
Finally, there are the visual experiences that I use to understand concepts. I’m not sure how to describe these, because these certainly aren’t actual images that are actually possible. More like structures of shapes, spatial relations and other “sub-visual” experiences. It’s not like I can actually visualize an n-dimensional subspace, but it isn’t simply a lower-dimensional analogue either. It looks thin, but with a vast inside, in a way that would be contradictory in “normal” visual experience.
Whenever I read about a concept that seems interesting (e.g. Moloch), I pause. Then I take the verbal experience of what I’ve read, and use it as a guide for some internal thought process to follow. The nature of this process is the creation and manipulation of impossible visual experiences of this kind.
These days my visualization is a lot fainter than it used to be, so faint in fact that sometimes I barely see anything at all, in spite of knowing what I’m (not) seeing. This includes my dreams, and maybe even waking experience (how would I tell?), and I believe this is unnatural. This only seems to have a negative effect on the “internal blackboard”, but not on any of the other mechanisms I mentioned.
The first layer of internal visual experience I have when reading is a degree of synesthesia (letters have colors). Most of the time I’m not aware that this is happening. It does make recalling writing easier (I sometimes deduce missing letters, words or numbers from the color).
Then there is the “internal blackboard”, which I use for equations or formulas. I use conscious effort to make the equation appear as a visual experience (in its written form). I can then manipulate this image as if the individual symbols or symbol groups were physical objects that can move and react with each other. This apparently allows me to solve more complex equations in my head than most mathematicians. (I believe this is a learnable skill.)
Finally, there are the visual experiences that I use to understand concepts. I’m not sure how to describe these, because these certainly aren’t actual images that are actually possible. More like structures of shapes, spatial relations and other “sub-visual” experiences. It’s not like I can actually visualize an n-dimensional subspace, but it isn’t simply a lower-dimensional analogue either. It looks thin, but with a vast inside, in a way that would be contradictory in “normal” visual experience.
Whenever I read about a concept that seems interesting (e.g. Moloch), I pause. Then I take the verbal experience of what I’ve read, and use it as a guide for some internal thought process to follow. The nature of this process is the creation and manipulation of impossible visual experiences of this kind.
These days my visualization is a lot fainter than it used to be, so faint in fact that sometimes I barely see anything at all, in spite of knowing what I’m (not) seeing. This includes my dreams, and maybe even waking experience (how would I tell?), and I believe this is unnatural. This only seems to have a negative effect on the “internal blackboard”, but not on any of the other mechanisms I mentioned.