Hacker News Reader

Comment by nothrows | Hacker News Reader

I recently discovered I score very low on VVIQ. Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire. I don't have full on Aphantasia. But listening to how for other people reading a book is like watching a movie in their heads blows my mind. Being able to imagine with any level of depth sounds pretty amazing. As a kid I never really played pretend or was into fiction. But I'm curious that possibly long form reading is on the decline is associated with lower abilities to imagine in the general public?

View on HN

FWIW, I love reading and fiction, but am also quite low on vividness. Imagination never really equally visual images to me, I can still imagine scenes without seeing them, if that makes sense.

Poetry, on the other hand....there are some types I like, but there are certain poems that seem to be made only to make imagery. Can't get into much of it.

I'm similar. I spent my childhood cycling through endless numbers of used fiction paperbacks, but my visual imagination caps out at, roughly, "somebody making a watercolor painting without any small brushes". I can manage more than that, but only with extensive repetition and basically memorizing a particular image by rote.

Oh wow, I didn't know that was a thing but that describes me perfectly. I can sort of picture faces to some extent, but trying to visualize a house or a scene is almost impossible to me. I find it frustrating when trying to think of a "memory palace" because I can't even think about what the front door of the palace would look like, let along intricate places for things within it.

Your "memory palace" could simply be a row of doors where different sounds come from each one.

Or a jungle where you have to crawl and climb over obstacles to move around.

Imagination isn't just visual. Just because you can't "picture" something in your head doesn't mean you have no imagination.

That's really interesting! I'm probably just using my lack of visual imagination as a cop out. Do you have any examples of resources for constructing such a "memory palace"?

A trick with the memory palace is to use place you know well such as your bedroom. Then, with practice, you will learn how to build image that are vivid to your mind and easier to remember (it is perfectly normal if at first you build images that are not easily retained, you will learn from the image you do retain).

I mean, the level of CGI and game engine textures we have is almost indistinguishable from real life. Perhaps because we have access to the super high-fidelity, interactive simulations, we've lost the practice of imagining so vividly?

This is the fear as I watch my 6-yr old son enjoy oodles of video time. But what to do? Create an equally damaging anxiety of self-denial? What an age, for better or for worse.

I grew up with unlimited screen time starting at age 2 and used the majority of it to play 3d video games. I score very high on the VVIQ.

My story is antidotal, but your hypothesis is also not backed by data. I'd like to purpose a counter hypothesis: spending time in interactive 3d worlds requires building internal maps of the environment. Exercising these portions of the brain improves Visual Imagery Vividness.

There are lots of unforeseen consequences of screen time. I suspect this isn't one of them.

I'll second this hypothesis. Also unlimited 3d world time: I have _vivid_ recollections of very large maps, spaces, etc.

I can remember every WoW raid environment, every detail of every CS map I played, etc.

As someone who's always had limited visualization ability, I feel kind of offended that you're labeling this like a personal failing. I have to imagine someone with full-blown aphantasia would be even more upset.

Sorry you got that impression, I mean modern humans, not any particular group with a diagnosed condition.

Didn’t mean to single out people with aphasia or any other similar disorder at all.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com