Aphantasia ???? never knew I had it

38 for me. Faces aren't quite so clear. Interestingly, I like to dabble in watercolours, and can't paint faces for toffee.

Voices and sounds too. When I think of my friend who died over 40 years ago I can still 'visualise' her voice as well if not better than her face.

It's interesting about dreams too. Mine are vivid adventures, most of them enjoyable and in them I can hear perfectly - no tinnitus!

I have moderate face blindness. (got emailed by some testers after taking one of those online tests) the nature stuff was a lot easier.

Quote from a programme about graffiti that I watched the other night 'Sometimes we have to use our eyes in order to hear what people are trying to say'; I rather liked that#notsurewhatitmeansthoughbutitsoundsgood

34. However, I found it difficult to visualise with my eyes shut, better to gaze 'blankly' and visualise rather than seeing what is in front of me.

I always had a tendency to daydream when I was a child - is that connected?

Slightly off topic I know but I can 'hear' peoples voices that I have spoken to a lot on the phone; doesn't work with people that I 'see' to speak to. I know this sounds bonkers but there was one friend that I spoke to a lot on the phone but only saw once or twice a year [we used to go racing together]. He sadly died many years ago but I sometimes feel as if the phone might ring and I'll hear his voice on the other end.

I too struggle with the eye test bit "better with or without" end up all confudled!

With regard to recognising faces, I do have a bit of a problem when people are wearing sun glasses.

36, but like you, Nandalot, I did better on the natural wonders section!

Horrible test to take! It reminded me of the optician when he or she asks is it better with this lens or that. I can never decide.

I think I am a bit like Tegan's artist friend, face blind. It is such a drawback. in the test I did much better on the sun section.

I am better at recognising voices but it is a great sadness to me that I cannot remember my mother's voice.

For the record, my score was 8 (apparently your score at least 1 in each test.)

MiniMouse - I can hear and recognise voices much better than I can see faces. I frequently recognise the voice of someone who has only phoned me once before, yet would be unlikely to recognise a face until I have met someone many times, and even then it's in the lap of the gods
As for all the other sounds you mention, yes I can hear them, though I can 'see' an image too, as they aren't faces!

Discussing this with Mrs P who can visualise, I find it weird that she can see things clearly in her mind whilst I see nothing. Surely seeing things that aren't really there is more disturbing than not seeing them ?

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Both memory and imagination are different from visualisation which is what aphantasia references. I can remember what an object, person scene etc looks like, I can also imagine objects, scenes as I put together memories to create the object or scene in my mind, but I cannot summon up any vision of that memory. Faces are different, I cannot imagine a face.

When I paint an imaginary scene, I mentally draw the scene in mid air, placing sky, mid ground and foreground etc as individual elements, but I cannot visualise the scene I imagine until I re-construct it on paper.

I have never found the inability to visualise a problem, if you have never had it, you don't miss it.

32 - yet I am absolutely useless at recognising faces (and therefore visualising them in any way) unless I know someone really well. As for being able to describe a face, even one that I recognise well, forget it.

Even now, after living where I do for about 17 years, there are very few of the neighbours who I would recognise unless they were standing outside their houses. If I were to meet them in the supermarket, I wouldn't know them from Adam.

Visualising a rainbow or a sunrise isn't a problem, so there are two very different things going on (or not!) in my brain. Actually, like Crun, I do sometimes wonder about Aspergers!

This should probably be on a separate thread, but it's got me wondering if people can hear things in their mind, too? I've just been trying and I can - family/friends' voices, vehicles, drills, hammers, flowing water, thunder, all sorts of sounds.

37. I had a bit of a problem with the clouds and thunderstorm!
People were very vivid.

I think this thread and the article it references are mistaking what memory and imagination are. It assumes that memory is like a video recorder, but as Steven Pinker points out the brain retains what is salient and discards the rest.

This came to mind a while ago when a comment from someone set me thinking about whether I dream in black and white or colour. I realised that it's neither, dreams, memories and imagination are a sequence of salient points. If I recall a view in the Lake District the colour of the sky might be relevant, but if I recall crashing the car the sky colour may be irrelevant.

I find it much easier to imagine physical and technical systems than I do people and social ones. Other people appear to be the opposite, which is one reason why I think I have Aspergers.

I think I found it difficult to say I could see things 'vividly' even though I probably can. I can't really compare what I see and how I see it with other people .

9!!!

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26. I did know someone who was 'face blind' and once read of an artist who said that he could draw peoples faces from memory but not his wifes. A friend who worked in marketing told me that there are people who say 'I see what you mean' and others who say 'I hear what you're saying' [I guess they would be the low scorers].My ex husband can remember everything quite clearly, even down to sitting in his pram one day. I often wonder if I do actually remember things or whether I can because I have photos of places, people events etc.With my children they do change hairstyles/hair colour etc so I do struggle with having a vivid image of them.

When my OH & I viewed our current home, which was a neglected wreck, he refused point blank to even consider it as an option. I could visualise exactly what potential it had and how it could look. I won Even now, he comments on the fact that he never would have believed the transformation. He just couldn't visualise in the way that I could. I never realised that some people can' visualise at all. I scored 40 on the test.

I wonder if this is a trait that inspires artists? They can visualise fantasy etc.

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I knew I would be bad. I could do the friend/relative bit relatively well, but the sun and the rest? No.