This is fascinating to me; as is the Galton reference ~gwillen points out, which suggests about 3% of people don't form mental images at all. I haven't previously met anyone who disclaims all such mental visualization, so may I ask a few questions?
Can you draw pictures of things without consulting a present example? (If only slightly or very abstractly, have you ever tried improving this skill?)
If I were to ask you what's the color of Santa Claus's outfit, I suspect you could answer. Is that simply because you remember written or verbal communication naming that color? Do any other aspects of Santa's usual depiction come to mind at the same time, simply as a side effect of being asked about the outfit color?
> Can you draw pictures of things without consulting a present example?
On a scale of 1-10, my drawing ability is, generously, a 1.
> If only slightly or very abstractly, have you ever tried improving this skill?
"Improve drawing ability" is sort of on my back burner of things I should do - think, "I should buy a boat" cat meme. Even if I were consulting a present example, though, my ability to draw something would be very poor, so maybe it's just lack of training?
> If I were to ask you what's the color of Santa Claus's outfit, I suspect you could answer. Is that simply because you remember written or verbal communication naming that color?
I know it's red, but it's a purely verbal phenomenon. Thinking about it now it does sound strange - I know red when I see it, but I honestly cannot conjure up an image of "red", or any other color besides black, if I close my eyes.
> Do any other aspects of Santa's usual depiction come to mind at the same time, simply as a side effect of being asked about the outfit color?
Not unbidden, but if I think about it - grandfatherly, big white beard, ruddy cheeks, white-fur fringed red suit, black boots, portly. It's not necessarily from remembering written or spoken descriptions, though - it's more like my visual memories get encoded verbally.
FWIW I've always done exceptionally well on tests of verbal ability (perfect score on SAT and GRE verbal sections, for example) so maybe the part of my brain that should be doing visualizations is doing word stuff instead? Or, maybe since I lack that component I've had to make up for it by becoming better at language? I'm not sure.
Thanks! Definitely agree what may seem a 'gap' from one perspective may fuel advantages in other dimensions. By analogy to software data, it's almost as if you're 'serializing' memories differently.
One last thing I wonder may be correlated: do you have a good sense of direction/navigation?
I'm about average in that regard, I think. I have friends who are definitely worse, and friends who are definitely better.
If someone gives me spoken directions, or I read them ahead of time and then don't reference them, I generally do fine. But if I walk around in an unfamiliar area I tend to get turned around.
Can you draw pictures of things without consulting a present example? (If only slightly or very abstractly, have you ever tried improving this skill?)
If I were to ask you what's the color of Santa Claus's outfit, I suspect you could answer. Is that simply because you remember written or verbal communication naming that color? Do any other aspects of Santa's usual depiction come to mind at the same time, simply as a side effect of being asked about the outfit color?