Discussing this article* with Julie I discovered that when people talk about seeing things in their minds eye they are not speaking metaphorically
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The visualisation thing is interesting, particularly as one of the tests is to visualise gears and the way they interact, something at which men are supposed to be better than women.
Incidentally, I'm one of the people who visualise, if I want to...
I don't think that the visualisation thing is gender-dependent.
And I can still work out how gears interact, and I can rotate three-D shapes and work out what way up they will look (and I do very well at that kind of thing). But I can't _see_ them while they do it. I just know which side will have dots and which will have a star on it afterwards.
This always throws me, because I have no idea if I do or I don't. Is "seeing" something in your mind's eye different from remembering what it looks like? I can think about something - say, what my favorite mug looks like - and I know what it looks like. But am I "seeing" it in my mind's eye, or just remembering what it looks like?
I have no idea what "seeing" something is supposed to be like, so I don't know if I do or I don't.
Like, I can "picture" my kitchen. But it isn't like I'm actually seeing it? I don't think? Maybe I do? This is actually really weird to me. But it does't feel like "seeing" it, even if I can picture it. It's a memory. Just like when I remember a conversation I've had.
I'm still not even sure if I'm doing what people are describing or not. It's WEIRD.
Gosh, that's quite surprising to me. I guess I'd assumed everyone had that ability to some extent, but some were better than others. TIL! What's your subjective experience of doing abstract mathematics? Many mathematicians - including myself - have more-or-less strong visual images in mind even when thinking about highly abstract things, and this is often held to be one of the distinguishing features of human mathematics
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Like drainboy says just below - I get a sense of objects, but nothing visual. But this "bunch of concepts/ideas" works just fine for coding - I can imagine large interlocking systems working off of each other without an issue. I just don't _see_ them.
And yeah, 23andme. It was $99 to get each of us scanned. Fascinating stuff too. I recommend it, if you find such things interesting.
I definitely see things in my mind's eye to some extent, but not to the extent of it being the same as seeing it with my eyes. What I'm imagining from your description of Julie's experience is like augmented reality, with an overlay of the object on top of the real world. Is that right?
I get a sense of the object, like a ghostly approximation of it, which I can mentally manipulate, but nothing that appears in my visual field either with my eyes open or closed.
Hang on, wait. We both claim to agree with drainboy's description, but not with each other! This possibly explains how you went so long without realising that "in my mind's eye" is not a metaphor :-)
I am right now thinking of a coffee mug I used to own. There is an actual image in my head. I don't just think "it was hand-painted yellow with a picture of a blue candle", I can see the brushstrokes. I don't have a vague sense of yellow, I can see the shade. It's fuzzy, or rather there's an effect like the fog-of-war common in RTS games, and it's no doubt an imaginative reconstruction rather than a perfect photographic copy. But I don't see it in front of me - there's no mug on the table I'm sitting at. It's somewhere in my mind. I think that's what drainboy was getting at...
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Incidentally, I'm one of the people who visualise, if I want to...
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And I can still work out how gears interact, and I can rotate three-D shapes and work out what way up they will look (and I do very well at that kind of thing). But I can't _see_ them while they do it. I just know which side will have dots and which will have a star on it afterwards.
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I wonder how this relates to how visually vivid ones dreams are, and the people who don't dream in colour despite not being colour blind.
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I have no idea what "seeing" something is supposed to be like, so I don't know if I do or I don't.
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Which is what threw me, because when I remember something I'm the same as you, I know what it looks like, but I darn well amn't seeing it!
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This is actually really weird to me. But it does't feel like "seeing" it, even if I can picture it. It's a memory. Just like when I remember a conversation I've had.
I'm still not even sure if I'm doing what people are describing or not. It's WEIRD.
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And yeah, 23andme. It was $99 to get each of us scanned. Fascinating stuff too. I recommend it, if you find such things interesting.
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I get a sense of the object, like a ghostly approximation of it, which I can mentally manipulate, but nothing that appears in my visual field either with my eyes open or closed.
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I am right now thinking of a coffee mug I used to own. There is an actual image in my head. I don't just think "it was hand-painted yellow with a picture of a blue candle", I can see the brushstrokes. I don't have a vague sense of yellow, I can see the shade. It's fuzzy, or rather there's an effect like the fog-of-war common in RTS games, and it's no doubt an imaginative reconstruction rather than a perfect photographic copy. But I don't see it in front of me - there's no mug on the table I'm sitting at. It's somewhere in my mind. I think that's what drainboy was getting at...
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Well, maybe not clear as day. For me at least, the images tend to be kinda fuzzy round the edges.
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