Week 11.75 : Learn like "Aphantasia". (Patreon)

Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily create one or some mental images, sound, smell or  in one's mind.

People with aphantasia can't create mental image. They see only a blank black screen in their head or only a blur fog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91tvp0b1fY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWgXSxxEjgs

This is quite shocking information for me because I have a completely opposite experience. It's "Hyperphantasia" which is, I can create a completely moving movie scene as clear as watching cinema or youtube....but with 360p resolution. But I can't process a vivid, still image as clear as to when it moves.

My "Hyperphanasia" is super useful when memorizing things. I always link my information with "imaginary images" all my entire life. And I also think everyone can create the image in their mind. Not have to be as clear as mine, but at least see something.

I was wrong. I apologize if I said something about "try to imagine an image" or something like that. I've just realized that "verbal cue" might no need to see any image at all while recalling a memory.

After I discovered "Aphantasia", I was amazed by that because, How can they memorize things if they can't "recall" the image in their brain? How can they draw or create things? and more shockingly, some of them are well-known artists, writers, creators. WAIT! WHAT? CREATOR WHO CAN'T SEE ANY IMAGE IN THEIR HEAD? HOW?

The answer is, They transform the visual they see as text descriptions, not pictures. It's like writing lists of text in a notebook. And when they recall it, the memory of that list just came out of nowhere. I'm not sure but I think it's a verbal link. (Before today, I thought it's a picture of the text, but it's not).

When I look back at myself and check how I remember things...I've just realized that sometimes I use "verbal" only to recall a memory without remembering any picture too. Such as, I can remember 70 elements on the Periodic table by saying a nonsense code like speaking an orc language.

But I have Hyperphantasia, why this knowledge is important?

It's because Hyperphantasia has some downsides. I remember things too clear and able to "Alter" the visual memory and still feel it as a real thing. And for some subjects, such as Quantum Physics, which none of the real-world images make sense in that field. Or Human Anatomy which I can alter any bone and muscle I saw to anywhere I want. In the end, I can't remember anything at all. The memories are all mixed up.

But learning like Aphantasia might be very useful if you know which subject should be learned by "creating a list of description or entangled reasons" or you can "create a checklist" alongside the visual memory. It will make your memory much more accurate.

The point of this diary is the proof that each people can learn the same thing in different ways. Do not stick with only 1 method of learning. Find what method is the best for each subject and for yourself.

(Note* I'm still not sure about the ability to draw a simple shape like a box, ball, cone, straight line, use the same brain area as imagine the image or not. But people with Aphantasia able to use it as well as, or even better than a normal person. It might be a spatial memory, not a visual memory.)