Can you see letters?

[Goughy]

Close your eyes and try and visualise your name in your mind. Can you see the letters? Can you form the word in your head?

I have just found out that virtually everyone can do this ie see words in letter form in their head. I can't. I dont know what it means but I am ****ing amazed that (mostly) everyone else can do this ****ing simple thing.

Anyway, I can't believe not seeing words in your mind is as rare as I have been told.

[benchmark00]

Lay off the pain killers, boi.

[smalishah84]

Close your eyes and try and visualise your name in your mind. Can you see the letters? Can you form the word in your head?

I have just found out that virtually everyone can do this ie see words in letter form in their head. I can't. I dont know what it means but I am ****ing amazed that (mostly) everyone else can do this ****ing simple thing.

Anyway, I can't believe not seeing words in your mind is as rare as I have been told.

You know what this means right? You're a tool

[NZTailender]

I can't. And when I dream it's not in images. I just assumed it was like that for everyone...

[HeathDavisSpeed]

When I argue I see shapes.

[Flem274*]

[HeathDavisSpeed]

"Flavour you can see"

Says it all, really.

[Howe_zat]

Sounds very odd, but a quick google around and it looks like a lot of people have been asking about it. Found this post from a bloke called Tim Sanderson:

Yes it’s possible that someone can’t visualize. I never realized anyone COULD do that (form a clear mental image) until I was in my late 20′s. Once you realize that pretty much everyone takes for granted something you can’t do, you tend to obsess, and I did. As a result of subsequent conversations, I’ve concluded that the total inability is very rare and most people don’t believe that anyone can’t do this. As a consequence, I’ve never had much success at finding current research into it.

Here are the conclusions I’ve drawn from my subjective, non-scientific inquiries of 100+ people. While anecdotal, it’s as much as I’ve discovered.

* < 15% of people can visualize full motion, change colors, substitute objects and rotate individual elements within their mental image.
-For these people, the image appears head's up (hanging in space right in front of them)

* Most people can visualize in color, < 20% are BW only.

* This visualization occurs (relative to a 'point in the center of your brain') in the following locations and typically, the order presented represents the ability to form these images:
- Heads up (in line of vision), eyes open, true vision unobstructed. [Greatest ability]
- High right/left – eyes averted, no need to turn head.
- High right/left – head 'cocked up' to side, eyes often closed.
- Head down, eyes closed – heavy concentration [Least ability]

* Less than 2% – total inability.

* A surprising number of artists fall into the lower end of the scale of ability to form mental images.

*Graphic visualization doesn't necessarily correlate with spatial visualization (the ability to know which way a complex object needs to be oriented to fit through an opening, for example)

There you have it. Pretty much non-scientific and unproven (except to my own satisfaction). I'd love to see any real data or information on this. It has a huge effect on how one processes data, remembers things and generally lives day to day life.

Found another person who's blogged about it, and that sounds very similar to Goughy's description. (Not anything particularly unique to be read there, ftr)

I also found a forum thread called "unable to visualize", with the OP:

A lot of magic spells dictate the user to visualize as part of the working. I've been trying for months now and I've come to the conclusion that "seeing" things isn't possible for me.
What can I do to over come this or what can I substitute visualization with?

That's when I noticed this was on a forum called "Occult Corpus", and I decided to leave it there.

[GingerFurball]

* < 15% of people can visualize full motion, change colors, substitute objects and rotate individual elements within their mental image.

You mean most people can't do this?

[Howe_zat]

I actually tried that and it's quite difficult for me to do all of that. Particularly the bit about "rotating individual elements" and "substitute objects" - I'd have to come up with a new mental image rather than do that.

I already know that people have a wide range on how complex a thing they can visualise from my course (Maths). It involves a lot of geometric diagrams and graphs to understand concepts. Some people can just picture these things in their mind fine, and since most of these things involve how said diagrams change with variables, can see how they're altered with differing parameters. I tend to struggle with this, so my notes are full of little drawings in the margins where I've drawn a few things rather than just relied on mental pictures.

[Prince EWS]

This thread has made me doubt myself slightly. Can people actually force themselves to see things in front of their eyes, as if they were there, with their eyes closed?

I can picture whatever I like in my head, but I don't actually *see* anything in front of my eyes.

[GingerFurball]

This thread has made me doubt myself slightly. Can people actually force themselves to see things in front of their eyes, as if they were there, with their eyes closed?

I can picture whatever I like in my head, but I don't actually *see* anything in front of my eyes.

Well when I picture things in my imagination, I definitely "see" what it is that I'm imagining.

[Prince EWS]

Well when I picture things in my imagination, I definitely "see" what it is that I'm imagining.

I can see it in my head. I can't see it as if I'm actually seeing it in front of my eyes though.

[GingerFurball]

I can see it in my head. I can't see it as if I'm actually seeing it in front of my eyes though.

I think my head's going to explode if I think about this any further. I'm far too tired to think about this coherently.

edit: if someone were to ask me where I'd left something I can definitely transport myself back into the room and see where I've left it mentally.

[sledger]

I can generally imagine whatever I want, and often do, because reality is usually drastically less exciting.