Lack of Imagination: No Mental Imagery

[Black Rose]

I don't think in pictures or in words, I don't hear or physical feel anything other than the five senses as they are not how they could be. I have dreams but they are after affects not real as in real life real. One in forty people have no imagination and it is varied on a sliding scale of vividness for those that do.

Why, there must be a neurological explanation?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctyibp/Lack of imagination.pdf

 

[Grayman]

I don't think in pictures or in words, I don't hear or physical feel anything other than the five senses as they are not how they could be. I have dreams but they are after affects not real as in real life real. One in forty people have no imagination and it is varied on a sliding scale of vividness for those that do.

Why, there must be a neurological explanation?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctyibp/Lack%20of%20imagination.pdf

A lot of times I don't actually see things in my head. It is more like knowing it is there and feeling it move and shifting. I can have a whole world but I don't see all the stuff in it but I know all of it. I see what I need to when I need it and it does not really have color texture and visual details unless I have need of a visual image.

Is thiw what you mean by thinking with your senses? Can you create things and manipulate objects in an environment even if you cannot see them?

 

[Black Rose]

A lot of times I don't actually see things in my head. It is more like knowing it is there and feeling it move and shifting. I can have a whole world but I don't see all the stuff in it but I know all of it. I see what I need to when I need it and it does not really have color texture and visual details unless I have need of a visual image.

Is thiw what you mean by thinking with your senses? Can you create things and manipulate objects in an environment even if you cannot see them?

I don't day dream and I don't manipulate mental images, only real objects I can experience as they are. I just know?

 

[Grayman]

I don't day dream and I don't manipulate mental images, only real objects I can experience as they are.

You mean you cannot think in your head? You always have to have the piece of paper out to do math...?

Can you imagine a ball falling from a roof and hitting someone on the head and the result of this. Does the person fling off to one side or plop straight down?

 

[Black Rose]

Its like sleep walking or being a philosophical zombie. I have the representational aspect only not conscious of how it happens it only means I can follow it. I know what green looks like without seeing it. I can follow the ball off the roof without seeing it.

my math is limited, I don't know how to represent it.
I can do arithmetic weakly vs calculus I don't know.

 

[Grayman]

Its like sleep walking or being a philosophical zombie. I have the representational aspect only not conscious of how it happens it only means I can follow it.

I am not certain I know what you mean... I have conclusions about things without understanding the path to get there so I have to define the path backwards and clear the fog to really understand what it is I am seeing.

Example: I could see a persons intentions or what they mean without knowing how I concluded to this. Going back to what was said I can see the data that lead me to this conclusion.

I know what green looks like without seeing it. I can follow the ball off the roof without seeing it.

I do this also. Now, after reading your statement and thinking of this,... just now the ball looks green. Either we thought the same color consciously or my mind just adopted the color you selected without me consciously imagining it as green. I don't think I originally had defined a color in my mind...

my math is limited, I don't know how to represent it.
I can do arithmetic weakly vs calculus I don't know.

I only meant to ask if you can do simple math in your head or if you need paper.

 

[Black Rose]

I am not certain I know what you mean... I have conclusions about things without understanding the path to get there so I have to define the path backwards and clear the fog to really understand what it is I am seeing.

Example: I could see a persons intentions or what they mean without knowing how I concluded to this. Going back to what was said I can see the data that lead me to this conclusion.

Sorry I meant it to go with the sentence under it not to conclusions of reasoning but imagination.

Does introverted thinking go with every step?

I do this also. Now, after reading your statement and thinking of this,... just now the ball looks green. Either we thought the same color consciously or my mind just adopted the color you selected without me consciously imagining it as green. I don't think I originally had defined a color in my mind...

This is how I do it also. I can also remember cartoons or life events without seeing it.

I only meant to ask if you can do simple math in your head or if you need paper.

I need paper to do it.

 

[Grayman]

Does introverted thinking go with every step?

I would think so. I think the example I gave was an Ne conclusion based on relations or maybe an Ni... Regardless, validating and finding out how I got the conclusion requires Ti.

 

[Lot]

This whole time I just assumed people could see mental images. I feel like an ass.

I have an extremely vivid imagination. There are times when I day dream, and it's as if what's in my consciousness is all that exists. As if I have no body at all. When I speak i my mind, there is an audible voice. It changes and has personality.

Some times I'll get so engrossed in reading, that I can actually see the seen playing out. If I close my eyes I can see it clear. If my eyes are open, it's almost like I have double sight. Hell, just closing my eyes I'll start seeing things. My mind can't just stare into blackness. It must create in the blackness.

The more I describe this, the more I realize how strange it would sound to someone that doesn't experience it. It sounds kind of strange to me

 

[Variform]

I don't think in pictures or in words, I don't hear or physical feel anything other than the five senses as they are not how they could be. I have dreams but they are after affects not real as in real life real. One in forty people have no imagination and it is varied on a sliding scale of vividness for those that do.

Why, there must be a neurological explanation?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctyibp/Lack of imagination.pdf

The writer brings up the difficulty of anecdotal accounts.

"Since subjective reports speak only to imagery in the second, experiential sense, this distinction partly resolves our dilemma. Faced with two subjects who perform equally on imagery tasks, yet differ dramatically in their reported imagery, we can credit both with similar representational imagery (avoiding epiphenomenalism) but allow for marked differences in their experiential imagery corresponding to their differing reports (avoiding inscrutability).


I wonder if this issue can also true for the topic of 'thinking in words'. Some people have described they do not, others said they did, some are in-between.

I asked there how do you know if you think in words. I remain uncertain about that. We are so isolated from each other that science seems to have a problem to investigate it.

In principle I think in words...but I can also imagine scenes. But when I consciously phrase an argument, like I do, leaning back in my chair, is this thinking in words? Or am I talking to myself?

There should be a difference. Thinking should come in categories:

- unconscious thought
- conscious thought
- talking to oneself

Likewise, the mental imagery issue should have the same classification.