Hyperphantasia
Hyperphantasia is characterized by an abundance of mental imagery. Or in other words, a very vivid imagination. People with hyperphantasia can create clear and detailed images in their minds, often to the point where these mental images have a 'lifelike' quality. It is the opposite of aphantasia, where mental imagery is absent. This phenomenon doesn't just impact visual imagination. It can extend to other senses, such as auditory (sound), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (bodily sensation), and motor (movement) imagination. In addition to vividness and clarity, mental imagery could also vary in mode. Projectors perceive their mental image as superimposed onto their visual experience, whereas, associators do not “see” mental images but can nevertheless have a clear visual representation in their mind. Discover and learn more about hyperphantasia.
A decade of aphantasia research – and still going!
Aphantasia varies across multiple dimensions including voluntary versus involuntary imagery and associated cognitive differences. Research confirms introspection reliably distinguishes imagery extremes, supporting its validity in psychology.
Zeman, A. (2025). A decade of aphantasia research – and still going!. Neuropsychologia, 219, 109278. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109278
Aphantasia, hyperphantasia and sensory imagery in a multi-cultural sample
This study examined sensory imagery across 636 participants from diverse cultures using the VVIQ and Psi-Q measures. The most striking finding was that Middle Eastern and North African participants reported significantly lower visual imagery scores than Western and Southeast Asian participants.
Bruder, J., & Zehra, M. (2025). Aphantasia, hyperphantasia and sensory imagery in a multi-cultural sample. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 9(3), 465–481. doi:10.1007/s41809-025-00184-8
Definition: Aphantasia
Zeman, A., Monzel, M., Pearson, J., Scholz, C. O., & Simner, J. (2025). Definition: aphantasia. Cortex, 182, 212–213. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2024.07.019
Ekphrasis: The Ancient Art of Evoking Vivid Mental Images
Did the ancient Greeks know some people can’t create mental images? The forgotten history of ekphrasis challenges our assumptions about imagination and offers surprising insights into our image-saturated world.
Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia: What We Know After a Decade of Research
Since 2015, "aphantasia" has reshaped our understanding of imagination, revealing that not everyone visualizes mentally. This discovery, along with "hyperphantasia," highlights the diverse nature of human imagination.
Rethinking Hyperphantasia: Why "Extreme" Mental Imagery Might Be Two Different Phenomena
A neuroscientist's research reveals that people with hyperphantasia may actually experience fundamentally different types of "extreme" mental imagery - challenging our understanding of vivid visualization.
The Power of Abstract Thinking in Aphantasia
The concept of 'tokens' and 'types' helped me understand how we think differently: visualizers use specific imagery, while aphantasics excel in abstract thinking.
Do Opposites Attract? Exploring Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia in Marriage
When I learned that I had aphantasia and that my husband of 40 years has hyperphantasia, it gave the idea “opposites attract” a whole new meaning.
Can't Visualize An Apple? Try This Apple Illusion to Experience What Others See
This apple illusion allows people who can't visualize to temporarily 'see' an image that isn't there—using visual perception to demonstrate what others experience through their imagination.
Are You a Visualizer or Conceptualizer? The Ball on a Table Test
The Ball on a Table experiment is a simple visualization test that reveals whether you think in pictures (visualizer) or concepts (conceptualizer). This revealing experiment, originally credited to u/Caaaarrrl, takes less than a minute but provides profound insights into how your mind processes information.
The Visualizer’s Fallacy
Understanding the hidden assumptions that lead to biases against aphantasics’ cognitive abilities.
The Language Game of Visualization: Why Aphantasics Don't Need Mental Images to Imagine
How a philosopher's investigation into a simple paradox—people who can't visualize yet excel at "visual" tasks—led him to challenge centuries of assumptions about imagination, mental images, and the nature of thought itself.
How do hyperphantasics experience their internal imagery? Second screen? Flipping context? Inquiring aphantasics want to know.
How do hyperphantasics perceive their vivid imagery—simultaneously with reality or on a separate mental screen? Let's explore!
Proposal for a consistent definition of aphantasia and hyperphantasia: A response to Lambert and Sibley (2022) and Simner and Dance (2022)
Researchers defend unified terminology (aphantasia/hyperphantasia) for mental imagery extremes across all sensory modalities. They argue this avoids confusing proliferation of terms while accommodating dissociations between individual senses.
Monzel, M., Mitchell, D., Macpherson, F., Pearson, J., & Zeman, A. (2022). Proposal for a consistent definition of aphantasia and hyperphantasia: a response to lambert and sibley (2022) and simner and dance (2022). Cortex, 152, 74–76. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.003
Visualizing the Invisible
What do typical visualizers experience? How does my imaginative experience compare? Designer Melanie Scheer introduces a new way to visualize the visual imagination spectrum.
The Spectrum of Visual Imagination and its Relevance to Design
What do typical visualizers experience? How do hyperphantasics experience visual imagery? Melanie Scheer presents a new way to depict the visual imagination spectrum.
Blind Mind's Eye - The Science of Visual Imagery Extremes
Adam Zeman shares the rediscovery of aphantasia, a blind mind's eye, in this presentation from the 2021 Extreme Imagination Conference and Exhibition.
How did you discover you were hyperphantasic?
Realizing your imagination is more vivid than others can be eye-opening. When did you first sense your unique imaginative experiences?
3 Things I Learned From Having Multisensory Aphantasia That Changed My Understanding Of The World
My journey understanding the cognitive profiles of aphantasia and hyperphantasia started when I learned at age 30 that most of you have a superpower I don’t.
Extreme Imagination Update
Does aphantasia imply an absence of imagination? Dr. Adam Zeman answers three common questions in discussions of extreme imagination.