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Aphantasia: How does it affect memory?
My background is in neuroscience, so imagine my surprise to discover 98% of people form vivid visual "lictures" and accurate colors "in their mind's eye"! I never have. I was aware that i had something akin to propoagnosia, but i do recognize familiar faces. Now I'm wondering if this form of thought blindness interferes with memory. I test quite high in IQ tests, except lately on memory, since several TIAs. Intrigued by what else is involved, where they are studying it, etc.
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The TIAs are a separate issue. Not lifelong.
As far as propoagnosia, I'll leave that to you.
@jlam50
You are not going to believe this.
I just returned from a visit with a Neuropsychologist who gave me their infamous 4 hour test.
My diagnosis is VISUAL MEMORY disorder.
How weird is that!
I've been through several batteries, and never once was I tested for visual imagery! Do you have your results to say what tests they used?
@jlam1950
It was part of the Neuropsychiatric test. Not a separate test.
If that's all you know. A neuropsychology exam is a battery of tests, not just one. But perhaps they don't explain that in a patient's results.
In the previous posts it looks like visual imagery has been confused with visual memory. While both involve "vision" the actual structure of imagery vs. memory is different. Visual memory is often tested in psychological and neuropsychological evaluations but visual imagery is not included (that I know of, at least not in the standardized tests that are used in these evaluations).
Visual Imagery: American Psychological Association Dictionary
-- https://dictionary.apa.org/visual-imagery
Visual Memory: American Psychological Association Dictionary
-- https://dictionary.apa.org/visual-memory
I hope this helps.
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1 ReactionBack when I was working I often thought I should write a translation book from one discipline to another since they do not seem to use the same terms for the same concept. Education, linguistics, psychology, medicine, use different terms and this complicates communication. From what you just posted it would seem that the psychologists differentiate between visual memory and visual imagery. It sounds like in order to have a visual memory you have to be capable of visual imagery. And aphantasia would then be an absence of visual imagery.