How do you think?

[cheesejunkie]

M4cruiser said:

Interesting post OP. It's only in recent years that I've realised that I "think" far too much, and a lot more than other people.

(One example of an effect is that I never need the car radio on. I can drive hundreds of miles with no background noise. I sometimes have the news headlines, but can't stand constant music.)

The result is that I'm never lonely when I'm alone, yet I'm very lonely when I'm with other people.
I'm disappointed that my parents didn't help with this when I was younger.
The link between all of this and autism is quite strong.

You're disappointed at your parents for not pampering you and blame them? for what?

[asfault]

If Aliens turned up and said to me you are spy on this planet for us you are different i would totally believe it. I can barely connect with people or understand nuances. However I can understand tone and meaning very well when other people talk to other people and think i know what your thinking is not what you are saying.
Ie a convo between my sister and her mother in law was pleasant on the outside but i could sense the tension and neither wanting to back down from a trivial point they were talking about. the rest of the room seemed oblivious to it. In my head it looked like ww3 breaking out...
Oh and internal monologue yeah all the time including actually catching myself talking to myself inside my head but sometimes i realise i have talked out loud a part of the "fantasy situation" i was having in my head...

probably going mad tbh.

[Skeptisk]

Timely this article appeared in the Guardian today about Hyperphantasia

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/20/li...

[Pit Pony]

Skeptisk said:

Timely this article appeared in the Guardian today about Hyperphantasia

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/20/li...

Unfortunately, the Guardian has decided I've had too much left wing Liberal indoctrination for free this month and wants me to pay.
Could you summarise ?

[cheesejunkie]

Pit Pony said:

Skeptisk said:

Timely this article appeared in the Guardian today about Hyperphantasia

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/20/li...

Unfortunately, the Guardian has decided I've had too much left wing Liberal indoctrination for free this month and wants me to pay.
Could you summarise ?

I didn't realise the Guardian was paywalled, I'm sure with a bit of creativity you can bypass it. I pay the mobile app subscription but don't think I've ever logged into the website.

Hyperphantasia is something I keep hearing more and more about. Probably due to my weird choices of podcast listening. I don't have it nor aphantasia. I'm boringly normal.

Rough summary of the article is some people have extremely vivid mental imagery and it can be helpful to them and us to understand they're different. Some unproven guff about how their ability gives them advantages based on a limited population sample and the author's opinion. But not everyone experiences the world in the same way is a useful thing to know on all sides and can be beneficial in some career choices (dubious).

God I'm cynical, I was good in school but reading comprehension wasn't my strong point due to boredom with the articles they tested us on. So maybe don't take my word for it .

[Skeptisk]

Pit Pony said:

Skeptisk said:

Timely this article appeared in the Guardian today about Hyperphantasia

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/20/li...

Unfortunately, the Guardian has decided I've had too much left wing Liberal indoctrination for free this month and wants me to pay.
Could you summarise ?

Are you sure there is a paywall? From time to time I get asked to register but you can normally click the choice “do it later” and then you get full access again

[M4cruiser]

cheesejunkie said:

You're disappointed at your parents for not pampering you and blame them? for what?

Pampering isn't a good word in this context.
It's the duty of parents to pick up on any physical or mental or learning difficulties their children have, and to decide how best to deal with it.

[W124]

This thread is interesting. I think in images and words. And numbers.

But the images don’t move. They are static. Movement is like shuffling a deck of cards. It’s just loads of static images, very quickly.

Also, I’m a musician. I can imagine a song, all the parts, the mix, the mastering - in my head. I can do this, and nod my head to it, whilst working on a totally different song. Even right at the start. I sort of save it up. I’m always one song ahead. The mind is crazy.

Edited to say - I can also listen to music, to sound in general, in my head. Whole songs - like having headphones on.

But I cannot read people. Groups of people, yes, but individuals? No idea.

Edited by W124 on Sunday 21st April 11:51

Edited by W124 on Sunday 21st April 11:53

[cheesejunkie]

M4cruiser said:

Pampering isn't a good word in this context.
It's the duty of parents to pick up on any physical or mental or learning difficulties their children have, and to decide how best to deal with it.

Duty? fk off.

You stated you're disappointed in your parents.

I'm biting my tongue. We'll leave it at I disagree with your definition of duty.

[Abbott]

Very interesting post. I am having some tricky conversations with Mrs A about central heating. When I think about the way the house is heated I can see the heat moving around from floor to ceiling and room to room. She has no idea what I am going on about.
Also my french is not great so I think in english and then translate it only on rare occasions with really simple subjects do I find myself thinking in french.

[bigpriest]

Reading a Richard Herring book, he mentions this - he can't visualise an apple if asked to think of an apple (or afterwards he can't describe what he visualised, just blackness). I find this impossible to comprehend. Not saying he's making it up as it's a known condition but life seems difficult if you can't see things in your head?

[cheesejunkie]

Abbott said:

Very interesting post. I am having some tricky conversations with Mrs A about central heating. When I think about the way the house is heated I can see the heat moving around from floor to ceiling and room to room. She has no idea what I am going on about.
Also my french is not great so I think in english and then translate it only on rare occasions with really simple subjects do I find myself thinking in french.

Languages is an interesting one.

I have rudimentary french, Spanish, and Japanese. I think I get better at them by rehearsing conversations in my head before they happen face to face.

When I'm doing it I'm not picturing another person, I'm picturing myself having the conversation. I don't think that's arrogant, it's just the way the mind works.

[thegreenhell]

cheesejunkie said:

Languages is an interesting one.

I have rudimentary french, Spanish, and Japanese. I think I get better at them by rehearsing conversations in my head before they happen face to face.

When I'm doing it I'm not picturing another person, I'm picturing myself having the conversation. I don't think that's arrogant, it's just the way the mind works.

Similar for me too.

I've often wondered how animals can think if they don't have language. I have an almost constant internal monologue, and can also visualise in high detail. I thought this was just normal, but it seems not.

[Skeptisk]

bigpriest said:

Reading a Richard Herring book, he mentions this - he can't visualise an apple if asked to think of an apple (or afterwards he can't describe what he visualised, just blackness). I find this impossible to comprehend. Not saying he's making it up as it's a known condition but life seems difficult if you can't see things in your head?

Given that there are a lot of people like me with aphantasia who didn’t even know we were missing out on what other people experience, and more importantly, nobody had realised from our behaviour that we were missing it, I suggest we get along just fine.

[Skeptisk]

cheesejunkie said:

Languages is an interesting one.

I have rudimentary french, Spanish, and Japanese. I think I get better at them by rehearsing conversations in my head before they happen face to face.

When I'm doing it I'm not picturing another person, I'm picturing myself having the conversation. I don't think that's arrogant, it's just the way the mind works.

I taught myself to read Japanese a few years back. At the time I could read over 2000 kanji. However I was having to revise 500 a day to try to not forget them (and since stopping I’ve forgotten loads).

What was odd though was that I couldn’t write them. So I could read words and sentences but if you then asked me to write with pen and paper (rather than using my phone) I would have been stumped. I did wonder whether my aphantasia was a hinderance in being able to recall them when writing.

[jules_s]

Words first -mainly

Then pictures/plans - then models then dissect the models and put them back together in sequence.

I think most engineers/designers must be similar

[bigpriest]

Skeptisk said:

bigpriest said:

Reading a Richard Herring book, he mentions this - he can't visualise an apple if asked to think of an apple (or afterwards he can't describe what he visualised, just blackness). I find this impossible to comprehend. Not saying he's making it up as it's a known condition but life seems difficult if you can't see things in your head?

Given that there are a lot of people like me with aphantasia who didn’t even know we were missing out on what other people experience, and more importantly, nobody had realised from our behaviour that we were missing it, I suggest we get along just fine.

Wasn't a criticism, just fascinated If you plan a route on a map how do you visualise it in your head as you're going along? I see what looks like a virtual map with roads, rivers, railways and a moving blob that is me. In the morning there is less detail so looks like this:

[Skeptisk]

bigpriest said:

Wasn't a criticism, just fascinated If you plan a route on a map how do you visualise it in your head as you're going along? I see what looks like a virtual map with roads, rivers, railways and a moving blob that is me. In the morning there is less detail so looks like this:

Now I use a satnav so don’t have to plan!

When I’ve done journeys on my motorbike (without satnav) I’ve looked at the map and planned it by roads/intermediate destinations eg take junction heading towards X. I’ve not had a satnav playing in my head when I’ve been going along though! That would be useful.

[SpudLink]

Skeptisk said:

bigpriest said:

Wasn't a criticism, just fascinated If you plan a route on a map how do you visualise it in your head as you're going along? I see what looks like a virtual map with roads, rivers, railways and a moving blob that is me. In the morning there is less detail so looks like this:

Now I use a satnav so don’t have to plan!

When I’ve done journeys on my motorbike (without satnav) I’ve looked at the map and planned it by roads/intermediate destinations eg take junction heading towards X. I’ve not had a satnav playing in my head when I’ve been going along though! That would be useful.

Before satnav I would plan the route as a rough ‘diagram’, combined with specific junctions and a few road names. If I missed a turning the diagram was good enough to get me back on track. I couldn’t do that now.
I never had a ‘moving image’ like satnav.

[nuyorican]