Liên Vũ Kim

"As a fellow aphant from Japan, I resonated with your experience so much! I’ve always felt that for us, learning Kanji isn't about memorizing a "picture," but rather understanding a logical recipe of radicals. Since our brains prefer structural data over visual imagery, the systematic nature of Hanzi/Kanji actually becomes an advantage. This is exactly why I find that I can read Classical Chinese and even get the "gist" of modern Chinese texts just by following the semantic traces of the characters. Interestingly, though, I struggle with Hangul. Even though it’s part of the same cultural sphere, Hangul is phonetic—it's a "sound script." For my aphant brain, it’s much easier to decode logograms (which are like high-density data packets of meaning) than it is to process pure phonetic symbols that don't have those built-in semantic hooks. It’s fascinating to realize that what many see as a "visual" language is actually a "logical" one for people like us!"

"No. I can't conjure photos either. When my eyes are closed, I see black, no matter what I imagine. Looking at photos usually doesn't spark any specific memories of the event (just general info about the people and places)."

"I have only studied a few Chinese symbols, of which I can only recognize 3 at this point. I've never tried to write Chinese."

"Hey Martha, you're right that many aphantasia studies involve small sample sizes, especially those conducted in lab environments. However, several larger studies are now converging around a 1-5% population estimate, with sample sizes ranging from 500 to over 5,000 participants. The variation in findings primarily depends on whether researchers use a strict definition of aphantasia (total absence of imagery) or a broader definition (including dim or vague imagery). The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) is the most widely accepted tool for measuring these rates. Here are a few key population studies, including one with a multicultural sample: https://aphantasia.com/research/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103243 https://aphantasia.com/research/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1703706/v1 https://aphantasia.com/research/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1454107 You can always explore more in our research library at aphantasia.com/research."

"i thought i had prosopagnosia for some years... have no visual memory of faces. then i realized that didn't explain my condition because i also couldn't visually remember cars or dogs or directions or... anything, which led me to aphantasia. what was puzzling to me is that i do very well in the facial identification tests for propopagnosia but when looking at an actual person i have no idea who they are unless i've met them many many times in a fairly short period of time. finally, read (or maybe it was on a podcast) that people with aphantasia have no problem remembering something when they see it, but can't describe it or recall what it was visually. this would explain (if accurate) a difference between the 2... people with propopagnosia will not recognise someone in a photo... people with aphantasia can but, if we close our eyes, can't describe or recall what they were just looking at. this has been my experience and is why i now think i do not have propopagnosia but do have aphantasia."

"I have aphantasia and am "partially face blind". I think you are too. With repeated and recent exposure, I can recognize some faces. Since I haven't seen my sister recently, I'd probably walk right past her, if we were both in a public space and I wasn't expecting to see her. I can recognize the faces of many actors and public figures, like politicians. Repeated exposure is key."

"Yes. Having read lots of these discussions yesterday I shudder to think how anyone could create a questionnaire that covers all the bases. Maybe a flow chart kind of approach would be more effective."

"From my perspective, religion is a basis for belief based on faith, and based on the definition of faith (which i hear that many people use an alternate definition). Faith - strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof. So from my view, religion is based on the foundation of belief without proof. If you remove the faith element, it cease to be a religion and become something else. Given these statements, from a rational stance, faith seems like insanity however i understand that faith is a common component of many human mental states but i do wonder if neurotypicals are more swayed by faith than atypicals. I'm not saying that one does and the other doesn't; i'm just wondering where the majority of each group lies."

"Mental rotation is trivial for me. I just "know" it, even though I can't see anything but black in my mind's eye. For example, on the IQ tests which ask you to determine which rotated figure matches the example, I don't even have to look at all the possible solutions. I just know which one is correct, in a fraction of a second. It's not just guessing, because my scores were very high. Also, with jigsaw puzzle pieces, I often just know where a piece goes; not only that, but my fingers can rotate the piece to fit the hole without any conscience thought. I just pick up the piece, and it just fits into place. I'm also good at "cube net" problems and can easily lay out a flat arrangement of polygons which will fold up into the desired shape. I'm not particularly good at estimating distances, but I can accurately find the center point of distances from inches up to 10 feet or so. I'm fairly good at estimating angles. For a recent programing project, I had to create line segments to form characters (letters, numbers, and symbols). I had to trace out the first few on paper, but I was able to do the rest without any sketches. Also, due to my desire to minimize the numeric notation, I directly entered the coordinate values in base-36 arithmetic. Here's an example: case 'A': pts = "0A,6S,CA;3H,9H"; break; case 'B': pts = "0A,0S,8S,CP,CM,8J,CG,CD,9A,0A;0J,9J"; break; case 'C': pts = "CD,9A,3A,0D,0P,3S,9S,CP"; break; How can I do that so easily? I have no idea."

"Good question. I would think that having SDAM would make it easier "to leave it all behind". I came to this website to learn more about my aphantasia, but I'm learning so much more about how peoples' daily experiences vary widely. This is the first time I've heard of SDAM. While I have some memory difficulties, it apparently doesn't reach the level of SDAM."