Just wondering about this.
I have a friend who sometimes just specifically craves a certain dish from a certain food chain. (Like wicked wings from KFC or something)
Or they suddenly feel like watching a specific show (Like Boston Legal)
How does that work?
I never seem to experience something similar to that.
Is it common to feel like that?
Wow interesting. I also have difficulty in general keeping things in my mind. If somebody tells me 3 things to do, I might forget the next two things when working on the first.
Maybe it’s related?
How would you attempt to store these three things in your memory?
If someone said:
I’d remember “Half orange juice, then gallon oil, then laundry”
I can infer where to get the stuff for example, but aslong as I remember certain details I could remember what I needed to do.
As long as I can repeat “Half orange juice, then gallon oil, then laundry” in my inner voice I won’t forget what I need to do.
There will be times where I will forget and then have to think. There was something I needed at the auto store…oh oil. Because I don’t break everything down into a perfect list like “Half orange juice, then gallon oil, then laundry”.
I feel like it’s easier for me to remember if the tasks are related or if the things are in one task. But that is probably for everyone
I wouldn’t attempt, I will write it down as soon as I have more than 1 thing to do.
Laundry specifically can be a bit tricky, because I might remember to do it and put the clothes in the machine and run it. Then forget that I was running a wash and accidentally stumble upon it a few hours later, clothes wet in the machine.
If I remember to take them out and hang them. I will often forget to take them back inside when they are dry. (it’s different depending on the sun, so not really something I can set a timer for)
Often I won’t notice until the next day, and then I might have to wait a bit longer to make sure they dry again if they got damp overnight.
“Out of sight, out of mind” really does ring true for people with aphantasia in my experience.
But from what I have heard and seen people with aphantasia are very good at memorizing lists.
It’s not really a how good of your memory it is but how you choose to store it. Are you going to pull up an image to remember, or are you just going to “know” it. Some things easier with images, some with just facts.
Like how many arches are on the Eiffel tower. Someone with really good image memory might pull up the image in their mind and count. Someone like me would have to know it as a fact and since “How many arches are on the Eiffel tower” isn’t common knowledge or I haven’t heard/memorized it then knowing it as a fact isn’t possible.
But images also tend to be wrong so you can’t always trust them.
In an experiment where people had to memorize a table set up. People with aphantasia got a total of less items on the table but placement and everything was more true. Someone with a true “photographic” memory could get everything right.
Makes me wonder how many people with Aphantasia have actually had a traumatic childhood.
Because for me it also seems almost like I don’t want to remember things or maybe my mind is unconsciously trying to process something or suppress something and that actually influences my capacity to remember and imagine things.
It’s an interesting thing to think about.
My mother and brother both have aphantasia and I never remember seeing any images in my head ever. Counting sheep never made sense to me. So I think mine is more hereditary.
That makes me wonder again.
How do they separate the effects of genetics from behavior you have learned from your parents?
Especially considering it is often said that most of your behavior is learned from the first few years of your life.
Apparently conditions like Autism and Complex PTSD also have a lot of overlapping symptoms and it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other. (And often they are also co-occuring)
My father is an imager. My mother raised me but I did more things growing up with my father.
My mother wouldn’t have done any mind image imagine stuff with me. I wouldn’t have gotten any practice. So that could definitely contribute.
Like apparently an imaginary friend is an imager thing?
I played a ton with Lego stuff growing up. I can imagine building Lego sets in my mind, not with images but with What,Where,Why,How,Etc… I enjoyed the instruction manual because in a way it tells a story. But once I built one I could replay building it in my own way with more details.
Then video games probably fried my brain
I was never put in a situation to really need vivid images growing up. I always had movies and video games. I’ve never liked reading, I’m not getting the head movie, it’s just facts I have to remember. A good story is a good story though and there are some I have enjoyed. Flowers for Alegernon is a great read, it’s in an epistolary style.
I never needed an imaginary friend. But maybe if I did I would have developed the skill?