Are People with Aphantasia Verbal Thinkers? Dr. Julia Simner

How do people with aphantasia think?

Dr. Julia Simner addresses a common misconception that people with aphantasia must be ‘verbal thinkers’ in this presentation from the 2021 Extreme Imagination Conference and Exhibition.

Studies from the lab showed that people with aphantasia actually report less verbal thinking styles but are not impaired in visual and verbal tasks. Their low visual and verbal thinking style might initially suggest that people with aphantasia have thinking deficits – however, multiple studies found this was not the case: people with aphantasia were not impaired by these differences and were just as accurate – or better -- than controls in several visual and verbal tasks (e.g., colour memory, spelling, factual recall).

Their thinking is iconic, simulating real-world objects, which means they possess knowledge of visual and auditory information but do not express it as imagery. These results offer an alternative perspective or explanation, people with aphantasia do not have a “blind mind’s eye” or even a “deaf mind’s ear.”

Instead, they have a "knowing mind’s eye/ear," says Simner.

[CarrascoWangler]

I am 44 years old, and I found out less than a year ago that some people think in images. I was absolutely fascinated. I always thought that when people said that they could “see” something in their head, that it was simply a figure of speech.

[Lmarquisart]

I have Aphantasia and only see black when my eyes are shut. However, I do have an active imagination conceptually. If I had taken that test for recalling event dates, I would have cried of embarrassment. I cannot seem to remember those things. I am an introvert. I have running internal dialogue but don’t actually hear sounds in my mind. I think in words and descriptions, but it is thinking of them being said rather than hearing them said. If I try to hear a bell, I just think, “tingalingaling.” I have a *terrible* sense of direction. I am very sensory, a highly sensitive person. I remember details about certain things, but there are whole years of my childhood that I cannot recall one memory from. It fascinates me how different people experience the world!

[v]

Its great to see research on aphantasia and visualisation starting to become much more common!

[shirleygreaves]

I’ve just found out I’ve got aphantasia, I am a very verbal thinker, my mind is full of words all of the time. I can’t hear in my minds hear but I do dream in pictures. I’m blown away to think people can see pictures in their head!

[kainejoyes]

I'm 50 so pleased to have found this..I have no imagery, no inner dialog, don't talk to myself at all, don't hear anything 'internally', hate reading fiction and novels as the descriptions bore me but will sit with the dictionary and read words for hours. Can't remember anything/anyone/times dates places of personal experience-until I've seen a picture of that event (eg..wedding day) then that image becomes my 'visual' memory. Had a very abusive childhood so just assumed it was another torn left over from that. Everyone I've ever met tells me they can 'see' and recall things from their past..didn't have a family of my own because I feared I was a psychopath/sociopath like my abusive father, this is honestly such a relief to have found this. Actually weeping. Thank you so much.❤

[gemmadoherty]

This was really interesting. I'm aphantasic and have no imagery and barely any sound but I talk to myself in my head all of the time, sometimes with 2 or 3 layers of my own voice over each other. I didn't realise a) that I almost never heard other sounds and b) that so few aphantasics seem to have an internal voice like this. Absolutely fascinating!

[LaLaLA-ueho]

I have aphantasia, and I have very clear dreams.
Aside from that, darkness.
There was one time before I went to bed when was out camping, I closed my eyes and I saw stars. It was so vivid, and the stars didn't flicker or warp, they just stayed. It was one of the most awesome moments of my life, and I had it at age 27.

[tikaanipippin]

As an aphantasic, I have non-visual spatial relatiionships in my mind. I can spell because the words look right or wrong. I can read upside down or in mirror image almost as easily as normal orientation. Given a musical note, it may arrive unbidden, I can recall a song with words too most of the time, and I can draw because the marks on the paper are in the correct proportion to the object i wish to reproduce. I need to write or talk to think, although I can think silently, but not for long. As a child I was bad at writing since the thoughts came too fast to keep up with writing them down, and I would often forget what I wanted to say. I did not realize the condition affected me until my late 60s.

[Nicoladen]

I just discovered I have aphantasia yesterday and it blew my mind.
But your question on how we think got me thinking, lol.
I find it hard to formulate my thoughts into words, and I'd hypothesize that that is because our thoughts are indeed more abstract. Yes, iconic also, but mostly abstract. Well, at least that's my observation of my own thoughts. I catch myself thinking verbally, in a kind of monologue sometimes, but mostly that results in the same phenomena I experience when reading books. I skip alot of stuff because alot of the verbal stuff is just unnecessary filler words. I can think faster than I can formulate words and as such it feels very abstract. It's more like a giant Mindmap of icons and symbols, but nothing is at all visual. It's a computer without a screen. Operated in the dark. When I never use a screen, I never learn to output the inner workings. As such I struggle with that alot sometimes. Articulating myself has always been a struggle. And when I speak I have alot of pauses and cut off sentences because I'm not used to formulating full sentences. It's very abstract.
Man I still can't get over the fact that people can visualize things in their mind. I'm completely blown away at what I'm missing out on haha.
I recently stumbled upon AI-based image generation software and was obsessed. Still am. Because for the first time in probably forever I can visualize my ideas. Albeit very slow and limited, because the software itself is very slow and limited. But it's like being able to see for the first time.

[fuzzybunny]

Most of the time I have nothing going on in my head 🤭 I can happily sit for ages just listening to nature without thinking of anything. I’m very “in the moment” since I don’t daydream. I believe this makes me an astute driver. My hubby who is not aphantasic, lives in a dream world and often stops or hesitates at green lights. I had a traumatic childhood and see aphantasia as a blessing since I would hate to visually recall past incidents.

[Extrusor_D]

I'm 63 and discovered I have Aphantasia only a year ago. I have zero mental images except for a few faint images representing some very strong memories. I do have sound, and I am very much a verbal thinker. I have a constant internal dialogue, and I think by applying verbal logic and reasoning in my head. I cannot describe a scene or person in any detail even if I just saw them minutes before UNLESS I made a conscious effort to verbally note their features. For example, I would not be able to tell you what colour the eyes of a person I just met unless I made a mental note of it.

I could not describe my wife's or my parent's faces to you. Again, I have a hard time associating names with faces unless I make a conscious effort to remember. The same goes for when we went to visit houses. At the end of the day, my wife would ask me about the house with the pink kitchen, for example, and I could not remember. My wife can also go to a store and buy something that perfectly matches the colour of our sofa or something. I couldn't do that to save my life, even though I am well-colour-coordinated.

I am highly analytical and logic-driven, and most people who know me describe me as highly intelligent. My first career was as an Air Force pilot, and my second as a successful Software Engineer. I do not feel mentally deficient in any way except, perhaps, for emotional intelligence. I always thought that people talking about mental images were exaggerating, so I was stunned when I first read about Aphantasia.

[julianfranco]

Love this video, just discovered I have Aphantasia yesterday and my mind is blown (in the good way). I want to point out something in the video, and it is that all "ways" of thinking were either visual, spatial, or verbal. Have there been studies of something like "kinetic" thinking? I say this because with the question "How many windows are in your house/apartment?" My process of thinking is something along the lines as if I'm a black fog of static moving through a black space with objects that are black on a black backdrop (I definitely can't see anything) where I know if the space has a window or not. I then roll/glide to a different room until I cover all the rooms (No teleportation from room to room).

I was a CrossFit trainer and when I think of movements like a clean or snatch I move in my mind and experience the weight and how my body feels going through the motion but I never see myself doing the movement.

I am a software architect now and I build very complex distributed systems that I can "map" in my mind, but when I imagine their interactions or what happens I feel myself again as a black fog of static moving through a series of pipes/circuits and the fog gets transformed and moved at different steps until it comes out the other side. When I can't figure an idea out, it feels as if there is another black fog of static blocking my path, when I solve it I feel like I can move unhindered through the pipe/circuit and it feels so satisfying.

I imagine processes not by visualizing flowcharts but I feel as if I'm a mutable entity moving through "something" that represents the process and how it changes me if that makes any sense.

PS I only create visual aids so others can understand a system architecture with better ease whereas my colleagues make visual aids for their own understanding and present them just as a byproduct. On the flip side, I do very heavy text/narration documentation of everything for myself but I never create a visual aid in this process.

[marcsh_dev]

I have 0 mental imagery. I liken the aphantasia as a computer without a monitor (like a server). It can be accessed, it has memory, it can even output graphics, but theres no display to see.

[bettydavies]

So does that mean that people who don’t have aphantasia can close their eyes and see a vivid picture as though their eyes are open? I find that impossible to believe. How did I get so old and not realise it?

[slyshand]

I found out I was aphantasic in the middle of DMing a session and someone found a book. I said "I don't know why people say they vividly halucinate while reading" and then my player said... "Wait, can you imagine an apple?" and I can imagine an apple, but not see it, and she went to describe how she could see the apple, rotate it, split it, and we had a 20 minute conversation about how I have aphantasia having never heard the word before! I'm a life long artist, animator, I'm a terrible reader but a few books still grab me, but I have a vivid voice in my head, and when I remember dreams they're so vivid I feel like I am living them. I was 37 when I found out how different my imagination was from other peoples : )

[soulspiritself]

I was in my mid 40s when I first saw an internal mental image. I was in group meditation and a tree popped into my mind. I cried out - I thought it was some kind of enlightenment superpower! I excitedly told the group I'd seen a picture in my head, they looked at me as if I was insane and didn't invite me back 😅. Aphantasia's effect on meditation and psychedelic experiences has become a fascination for me. Thanks for the video!

[rachaelcaruso]

Thanks for making this!

I have aphantasia.

I can recall visual images from memory in about a 3 on your scale, but cannot conjure them.

You’re totally right! I have no mind’s ear! I don’t have any inner voice, which is why I end up talking out loud to myself occasionally when I can’t afford to get distracted by my surroundings.

[StarNanny]

I have, as a 60+ adult, tested as autistic, and learned, just yesterday, that my black imagination is actually aphantasia. That said, as an autistic, I can remind you that many, myself included, find faces, and particularly eyes, uncomfortable to meet. My personal experience is a sort of electro-magnetic shock deep in my chest. The fact that we don’t have good facial recognition probably has a great deal to do with this syndrome. If you don’t look at a face, you’re not going to recognize it.
On the other hand, in high school (USA), I tested in the top 2 percentile in the nation in mechanical aptitude, and Aced biology, vocabulary/language/spelling, music and creative arts. Math was a completely foreign concept, unless it was counting/tracking real things/money; abstract equations = hard no.
I remember experiences. If asked to visualize something, an experienced memory will be recalled as a sort of peripheral thing…can’t see it directly, even as a shadow….but there’s a photo off to the side as seen out the corner of the eye while looking straight ahead and attention forward, too. I can’t really see it, but it keys the memory, with the description available. It’s really weird. The first time I tried your horse image test, the pic was off to the left. The second time I tried, the pic was high and to the right. Even weirder. Very spacial.
Unless I specifically make note of a color, I tend to remember a reverse color. (I got marked down in art class for getting the color wheel backwards. Tbh, I didn’t know, or see why, the direction mattered. 😂) Red becomes cyan, or blue or green. Yellow becomes purple. Etc. I see the burnout color last, I think, and that’s what is retained in my memory. My eyes are weird, though. I have astigmatism, seeing 5 overlapping images (bowling alley experience-1 pin with eye glasses removed=5 pin images). I have problems with heights/elevations, as my eyes constantly attempt to measure distance, like a camera autofocus malfunctioning because of mist, or something. This constant adjusting causes me vertigo. All that to say I used to think all my imagery problems were due to my eye issues.
I very seldom remember dreaming. If I do get any images, it’s usually triggered by a chemical intolerance. Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and prescription pain relievers, trigger a nightmare - singular - from which I can fight awake, but as soon as I go back to sleep, the nightmare starts right back up from where it left off. Every. Time. I prefer aspirin. Yeah. So, I can hallucinate when it’s chemically induced by specific chemicals relating to pain, or pain obstruction, but aspirin is okay. Liver? Does that mean anything? Also, my body works hard to remove/counteract these chemicals. Novocaine gets blocked, requiring triple application before “taking”, and any attempt to redirect my body’s attention to other pursuits, such as moving, results in “the shakes”, as if shivering in the cold. Again, pain/obstruction/liver(?) related. 🤷‍♀️
I can tell you about attending a ceremony wherein my two sons were given Good Citizenship Awards, but I can’t tell you what I wore. It wasn’t important, what I wore. What was important was my boys being recognized for doing a good thing. I don’t even remember what they wore! 😂

[sechale]

I'm 37 and just found out I am like this. I see extremely dim, squidgy, outlined images in general; I cannot recall faces, they are pixelated, but I can tell you the "metadata" of what a person looks like. I can though recall a face if I think of a photo of the face. My realtime senses are all quite good. My audio recall is, I think, good (I'm a lifelong musician and found learning by ear extremely easy). I don't have taste or smell recall, but I remember the data of what I like and enjoy doing those sense activities in a routine way, because it's the only way I can really recall the sense data. I have a LOT of touch input, like I have an inner sense of touch. Like there are hands on my heart. It's like I do not store sense data, just my emotional reaction and thoughts about that data. I have really good spatial memory and sense. I'm ENFP, always attributed my crappy relationship to my senses as being very, very high intuitive and low sensing. I'd describe it like my realtime vision is 20/20 but ambient. I'm not attaching as many meaning cues to sight memories. I have very, very, very acute and tight links between sound, touch and emotional memory. I have almost no emotional connection to visual memory. When my parents divorced and took down my childhood photos it was devastating, the worst part (and I have an ace score of 9/10) ... because it was like they were literally erasing my childhood, my life, my existence before age 8. I know I lived obviously but I can hardly recall any specifics or images. I found out they both saved all the photos in their respective basements and wept when i saw the photos again ... my whole life came back to me. I see my memories in 3rd person, behind my head like one of those birds-eye views in an arcade rally game. Learning is like building with lego in the dark. Strategy is like playing battleship, lights and touch connections.

[yael]

One is the test on autobiographical memory:
When people ask me, what happened in your 7th, 14th or 21st year of life, I can list individual events. But I often only know as much about it as I know about things in my first year of life: I was born in place X by woman Y; I was baptised in church Z, and so on.
So I know about the 7th year of my life when I started school and thanks to photos I know what my Schultüte (large cornet of cardboard filled with sweets and little presents given to children in Germany on their first day at school) looked like. But I have no actual memory of that day.
Sometimes I only know a few facts about events and often these are not original memories but generated with the help of photos.