People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high degree of control over it. An imaginary horse pops into your visual field while you're making a tricky maneuver on the highway...
Also, presumably ADHD is widespread. But people who don't have aphantasia (most people) can reliably persist accurate imaginary objects in the visual field? Your attention is fragmented and jumping from thing to thing but the horse in your visual field persists there for you to visit and revisit? Highly doubtful.
The actual experience is that people don't see stuff pop up in their visual field; the imaginary objects are seen in a separate field, and yes they are "seen" in a visual way, but not in the visual field; the imaginary objects are fleeting and morphing. The degree to which you can persist an imaginary object is highly dependent on the ability to focus attention.
It's more like having a separate eye you can direct your attention too. Perhaps like a spider might, with its extra sets of eyes? :D
Edit: And yes, better not do that too much while driving. Although I do use this faculty when parallel parking, I imagine the car and surroundings looking down from the top and simulate the optimal parking approach.
I have a strong visuospatial sketchpad (e.g. I sometimes imagine building things from lego in my head). When Im driving at night on a highway I have to be careful because I can start to have complex and involved visual imaginations that take more attention than the road in front of me. I have ADHD as well.
There is something called "Hyperphantasia" and yes, it is what it sounds like. But, there are much less scientific studies for this, as opposed to aphantasia.
>People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high degree of control over it. An imaginary horse pops into your visual field while you're making a tricky maneuver on the highway...
Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't.
It's the same for mental imagery. It's a third "image buffer", alongside the two from the eyes. It coexists in the same coordinate system as the other two, but it doesn't occlude them.
Can you imagine a song in your head? If so, does it drown out the sound of the real world? Again, no.
I fully agree, and that is my experience. I am just grappling with what looks like quite a bit of misunderstanding around aphantasia. Some people make it sound like it involves imaginary objects in the visual field, causing other people (who probably don't have aphantasia) to start suspecting that they too have aphantasia, because when they close their eyes they can't see vivid images on the backs of their eyelids.
My wife really sees 'extra' images when imagining with eyes open and closed.
I can imagine very well but don't see anything, so no visualisation.
With eyes open I see what is in front in me, and imagine (ltterlaly) what I am thinking about. This can be in high visual detail, but with no picture. With eyes closed it is strange enough harder te imagine, because the black is all consuming.
Long story short:
I think you might have aphantasia but don't know or acknowledge it yet...
> Does the image from your left eye occlude the image from your right eye? No, it doesn't.
I know it's kind of a tangent, but I have double vision; the images from my two eyes do not converge, they're not looking at the same thing. As such, the images from my eyes overlap and I see both of them at the same time. I need to wear a fresnel lens on one of the lenses of my eye glasses to prevent this. If I'm not wearing them, it makes it complicated to interact with the world. It's mentally exhausting. Plus I sometimes walk into things because I avoided / went around the "wrong one".
> People who don't have aphantasia see objects in their visual field, occluding reality? That sounds like hallucination, and very unsafe unless you have a high degree of control over it...
> The actual experience is that people don't see stuff pop up in their visual field; the imaginary objects are seen in a separate field, and yes they are "seen" in a visual way, but not in the visual field; the imaginary objects are fleeting and morphing. The degree to which you can persist an imaginary object is highly dependent on the ability to focus attention
I have on a few occasions woken from a dream, opened my eyes and seen the image from that dream persist for a second in my visual field. It's a pretty freaky experience - probably very much like a hallucination.
I've also been walking, deep in thought and then looked up and not known where I was because I had a different picture of a different place in mind.
How do those with aphantasia dream? Do they not see any visuals? (the article says that some do)
I have complete aphantasia. I do dream, but rarely remember them. The dreams I do remember have the same quality as my imagination when reading a book. Meaning, I don't see anything when I dream. I know the story, I can feel the place setting, and recognize the actors involved (even to the point of knowing their internal motivation like my own), but there is no visual component whatsoever.
All right, how about when you’re tired or drifting off to sleep? I can certainly see things vividly in my mind I during those times. It seems to me that being awake suppresses such visualizations, and that this is adaptive.
I have complete aphantasia when awake, but I do have visuals when dreaming. I can tell when I cross some threshold of awake-ness because the visuals of the dream I am having disappear (the dream usually continues, without visuals for a bit longer until I am more awake). It is a weird experience.
Also, presumably ADHD is widespread. But people who don't have aphantasia (most people) can reliably persist accurate imaginary objects in the visual field? Your attention is fragmented and jumping from thing to thing but the horse in your visual field persists there for you to visit and revisit? Highly doubtful.
The actual experience is that people don't see stuff pop up in their visual field; the imaginary objects are seen in a separate field, and yes they are "seen" in a visual way, but not in the visual field; the imaginary objects are fleeting and morphing. The degree to which you can persist an imaginary object is highly dependent on the ability to focus attention.