For those unable to scroll up: What do you see in your head when you read?
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re: aphantasia, challenging, 'what seen when ‘‘reading’’
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I recommend youtube etc. search on subject; like color blindness, etc., should be checked in kindergarten, but topic is only 10 years old, though suggested in 1880.
We can read and see l&d, joseki … books etc. In live game, we see board, lines, ‘the situation’, look for strengths, weaknesses. Joseki, as example, is not to be memorised but understood. Probably more a benefit for pro level.
Also, aphan. can have poor episodic memory, ie., quckly forget personal history, places, faces, life in general. Positive attributes are forgetting trauma, from war, etc.
Before books, film, recording media, memory skills more of a benefit.
Like today, phone apps: we used to remember phone numbers, now no one bothers, except for our own, usually.
There are Go boards for the blind, particularly in Japan. Inverse; lines high, squares low. B/W stones textured or smooth.
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what seen when reading.
just see board, if eyes closed just black. There is depth and geometry in space; ex: walking around house, up/down stairs at night. One knows the geometry, know there are cabinets, hallways, ‘turn right for laundry room’ or such. Good to practice for when power outage. Be aware of cat.
Aphans can dream, but source from anterior, back of brain, no volition. Visualizers utilize frontal cortex; aphans have weak connection front to back.
Australian neuro-doc can cure with inter cranial electrical stimulation, maybe more docs later. aphan would need training period to accommodate.
Not as much as congenital blind from birth would need, tho’.
Not considered a disability, but it can be for certain fields. Good to be able to do complex math on internal whiteboard. Heritable. Recessive probably, due 1%. Aristotle considered phantasia a ‘6th sense’.
20% of scientists are aphans. IQ increase of 3% avg: so an average aphan is as smart as average female, which are on average 3% smarter than average male.
phans remember more, but often add spurious or wrong elements to remembered image, for ex. Aphans remember less but little to know mistakes.
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Do people with aphantasia have better auditory “phantasy”, like for music? Or is the aphantasia for all sensory stimuli?