What it's like to have aphantasia, the inability to create mental pictures

[PsiPhiGrrrl]

@GratuitousFish

Yet, it seems when I’m reading about it, I can better visualize what I’m reading. When I’m reading a book or a novel, I kind of drift away. I think the words are triggering some kind of visual cue in my head that takes me into the what I’m reading in a vague-ish way. I’m there for the scene, but I never stop seeing the words.

Here’s another interesting aspect of this - language. I’ve studied a few languages, and have recently been working on German. After reading Gabriel Wyner’s tips on improving memory, my approach now includes visualizing images of new words with a personal meaning*, and in colors that reflect gender. It never occurred to me that there was any difference reading in languages other than my mother tongue. I still see images, either way. This will encourage me to compare the experience, to see if they are less detailed or powerful.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001002771730330X
An opposing study appears here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027719303087?via%3Dihub
*Examples of this are for the word “cat,” imagine one with which you have an emotional attachment, in the gender color of your choice. The same goes for inanimate objects (use familiar ones, not generic ones).