This is a great observation about the fundamental challenge with self-report questionnaires - ensuring everyone is calibrating to the same reference point. The issue you’re identifying is real. Someone experiencing only vague dark shapes might rate them as “vivid” because they have nothing else to compare it to, while someone with rich visual detail might rate theirs lower if they’re comparing to seeing with their eyes. We actually created a visualizer tool that lets people generate and compare physical representations of their mental imagery experiences. You can find it here: aphantasia.com/visualize We are working on analyzing the results to compare VVIQ scores with physical representations to get a better picture of what a reported vividness of 3 or 4 looks like for example.

The first time i heard of Aphantasia, i didn't immediately point the finger at myself and say, "thats me." No, instead i said, "Is this real?" I could find NO SITES, nothing to reassure me that it was actually legit and to describe a typical experience. The only think i could find, were sites expressing their surprise that some ppl couldn't visualize. I later found this website, but i "can't imagine" there are many others.