Comment by joedevon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by joedevon | Hacker News Reader

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I've been scared to take the VVIQ test because I guess, in the back of my mind, I feared, or kinda knew...that I have aphantasia. Even spoke about aphantasia at an accessibility talk a couple days ago.

I finally pushed myself and took the test tonight. Of the 5 choices:

1. No image at all, I only “know” I am thinking of the object 2. Dim and vague image 3. Moderately realistic and vivid 4. Realistic and reasonably vivid 5. Perfectly realistic, as vivid as real seeing

I am either a 1 or 2 across the board. I can't decide which. But absolutely never a 3. And this is making me a bit wistful. Particularly because I can't remember my Dad's face. His scent. My Mom. Mom's been gone 3 years. Dad left us in 2013. I'm so jealous of people who have vivid memories of loved ones who are gone.

Been looking at subreddit /aphantasia a bit too tonight, and blown away that people actually see sheep when counting sheep. Or that reading a book means literally seeing the action. WTH? I still don't get it. That can't be real.

Whew what a night.

> and blown away that people actually see sheep when counting sheep

hahahaha... yeah, I 100% relate to the feeling. When I learned about aphantasia as an adult, so much of what I've heard people say throughout my life suddenly made so much more sense from the perspective of, "oh, wow, people really mean something so different than what I experience when they say that."

> Or that reading a book means literally seeing the action.

Yeah. People say things like "I don't like the movie because it's not what I pictured in my mind" or "the character doesn't look like what I pictured while reading the book." I always assumed they just meant what I would mean if I said something like that... based on the literal description on the page, the character in the movie doesn't match the described hair color, height, etc. But no... I have more recently realized they mean they literally have an almost photographic picture in their mind of the character as they imagine it when they are reading the book. So wild.

As for the VVIQ test, there was never any doubt in my mind -- I'm 1's across all questions without hesitation.

But yeah, that first night I really started looking into it a few years ago... wild. But so much all of a sudden made sense.

> Yeah. People say things like "I don't like the movie because it's not what I pictured in my mind" or "the character doesn't look like what I pictured while reading the book." I always assumed they just meant what I would mean if I said something like that... based on the literal description on the page, the character in the movie doesn't match the described hair color, height, etc. But no... I have more recently realized they mean they literally have an almost photographic picture in their mind of the character as they imagine it when they are reading the book. So wild.

Yeah it's a weird experience recontextualising something that's such a qualitative difference from the norm and that crops up so frequently yet so subtly throughout your life. I read books voraciously and incredibly quickly and I'm pretty sure not having to engage in visualisation helps with that speed. And also why I found Tolkien and his endless descriptions of the scenery incredibly tedious :)

> I finally pushed myself and took the test tonight.

What test is this? An online one?

> Or that reading a book means literally seeing the action. WTH? I still don't get it. That can't be real.

I assure you it is real, and why I prefer reading fiction to watching the same story as a movie.

I find that with scifi especially, the book tends to be much more visually satisfying than the movie.

> What test is this? An online one?

https://aphantasia.com/vviq/

Personally, I don't find the test particularly enlightening... it's a test to assess how vivid your mental visualizations are, but it does so by just asking how vivid your mental visualizations are. I can't tell how it's any different from an IQ test that just asks you "what do you think your IQ is?"

But I also believe I have aphantasia, so it's blindingly (hah...pun not intended) obvious to me that I don't visualize anything mentally. Any result of the test was a forgone conclusion for me. Maybe if you do visualize things to some degree it's helpful to tease out various aspects of the vividness of your visualizations. I don't know, it's not something I can relate to.

I used to have the ability to visualize. Not sure when I lost it. Kinda a weird feeling remembering what it’s like to be able to visualize anything but being unable to do so now

> I'm so jealous of people who have vivid memories of loved ones who are gone.

The same way a song can get stick in your head an image can get stuck in your head. I'd rather be able to visualize than not but it comes with negatives.

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