A friend of mine has not-quite-complete-aphantasia, meaning he cannot “see” visual images in his “mind’s eye”, except for some rare occasions. When he remembers things he saw, or imagines what hypothetical things might look like, he almost never has mental imagery. But he can still recall information about what he saw, including stuff like “how many items were there”, even though he did not consciously count the items when he was looking at them, and is only counting them by examining the memory when asked. I asked him how he was doing it, and he said it was like examining concepts about what he saw, and somehow using those concepts to figure out how many he remembers seeing.
For me to do the same thing, I would have to bring a mental image from my memory into my “mind’s eye”, and count how many items I “see”.
But maybe this mental imagery of mine is just something I’m convinced I experience, rather than something I actually experience? Maybe having aphantasia is nothing more than lacking a certain delusion when it comes to remembered or imagined sights? After all, I haven’t found anything that my mental images can figure out, which his concepts cannot. Or vice versa.
In any case, aphantasia only applies to mental images. When my friend is actually looking at something with his eyes (not remembering or imagining), then just like me, he’s convinced that what he’s experiencing is something more than just concepts.
A friend of mine has not-quite-complete-aphantasia, meaning he cannot “see” visual images in his “mind’s eye”, except for some rare occasions. When he remembers things he saw, or imagines what hypothetical things might look like, he almost never has mental imagery. But he can still recall information about what he saw, including stuff like “how many items were there”, even though he did not consciously count the items when he was looking at them, and is only counting them by examining the memory when asked. I asked him how he was doing it, and he said it was like examining concepts about what he saw, and somehow using those concepts to figure out how many he remembers seeing.
For me to do the same thing, I would have to bring a mental image from my memory into my “mind’s eye”, and count how many items I “see”.
But maybe this mental imagery of mine is just something I’m convinced I experience, rather than something I actually experience? Maybe having aphantasia is nothing more than lacking a certain delusion when it comes to remembered or imagined sights? After all, I haven’t found anything that my mental images can figure out, which his concepts cannot. Or vice versa.
In any case, aphantasia only applies to mental images. When my friend is actually looking at something with his eyes (not remembering or imagining), then just like me, he’s convinced that what he’s experiencing is something more than just concepts.