I have a visual imagination but it usually works on a higher level of abstraction than simply imagining a picture of something. Let's say that you see a mouse run by. You feel that you have seen a mouse - it was small and gray. My imagination seems to work on that level - it goes straight to the feeling of seeing something rather than generating pictures and then processing them to create that feeling.

This might not seem visual but I can rotate 3D objects in my mind to solve geometry problems, so I think that it is.

(A related question: can other people imagine smells and tastes? I cannot.)

How many Au/ADHD can do this vs non-neurospicy? Just curious of there’s a difference or likeliness one way or another.

I can see and manipulate objects in my head. I can make up voices or objects in my head and “hear” them. I can remember a smell, but I couldn't make one up - iow I could slice an imaginary apple and imagine the smell. I can feel an object’s texture without touching it.

I can’t imagine not having these things in my head.

Is this new, somehow? I've always recognized that the people around me think differently. I even recognized that there was a spectrum.

I'm definitely a #1, and always recognized that about myself. I'm like to write, and I think that activity demonstrates the spectrum well. Stephen King once said that he doesn't understand why people struggle with writing. He just pictures the story in his head, and writes what he sees. When I read that, I instantly recognized myself. That's how I write.

But I also know that some people write almost like they are putting together a puzzle. They choose certain words that go together well, and they are constructing their narrative brick by brick. I think poetry is often constructed like that, and I think those prose writers have a more poetic sensibility than others, and that sort of writing reflects it. That might explain why I really don't care for that style of writing much, because I am extremely bad at poetry. That construction style just doesn't work for me.

I thought it was either 1 or you have aphantasia. Didn't realize there was a range.

@/u/KoboldCoterie you can still be an artist. You'll just have to rely more on references but it's possible. There's one person that made a video about it that I saw some time ago. https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI

I find it gets better with practice to some degree, if I go for a long stretch reading more or less fiction I find it affects my imagination and ability to visualize with more or less detail and memorability. I don't think it'll bridge the gap to 5 necessarily, but it might bump a 4 to a 3 or a 2 to a 1.

This reminded me of a sort of similar topic, and curiously enough it's about reading, and might provide some insight into your question.

Some years ago, I happened on a thread in which the OP asked people whose voice they "heard" when they read.

I couldn't even make sense of that question. The only time I "hear" voices when I read is when a character speaks. The rest of the time, I not only don't "hear" the words - I'm not even really aware of them. My eyes follow the lines while my brain instantly translates the words I'm seeing into images and concepts and the like. And yes - it's like a movie playing out inside my brain, and yes, I'm a #1 on this chart.

But apparently there's a not insignificant number of people who "hear" a book inside their heads just as if someone else was reading it out loud. Instead of visualizing things, they remain focused only on the words - the representations - and somehow glean from them alone the necessary details.

I wouldn't be surprised if those people are also generally #5 or thereabouts on this chart, and again what it is is that their brains don't directly envision things but instead rely on descriptive representations.

I don't get how it works either, but self-evidently it does.

The current prevailing theory is that we (4 here) actually do create the images much the same as you 1s, we're just not consciously aware of it. Our brains are doing the same thing behind the scenes, and they just translate it differently. Some personal "evidence" of this that I have are that when I'm high, I have an easier time visualizing, and that I dream VERY vividly.

And how in the hell does one [...] enjoy a book, if they’re not a #1?!

I can only speak for myself (#5) here, but I can barely enjoy books. If they're any sort of fiction, where I have to imagine a world, characters, objects, ... it's very exhausting. I read fiction books in school, but haven't picked up a fiction book out of my own will in years. But I do enjoy non-fiction books, especially when they convey Ideas you don't need (or maybe can't) picture visually.

Side note: I found people who read a lot (of fiction) often being critical of movie adaptations. I never understood this, because even 'meh' movies offer a far superior experience than just reading the book to me. It took me a while to realize that movie adaptations are a kind of 'disability aid' to my aphantasia.

Solid 5 here. And I love to read. I love the smell of books, I love the feeling in my hands and I love the stories of course. I don't have an image of an character in my head, I don't have an image if the landscape, but I still enjoy it.

Most days I'm about a 3, sometimes it's more like 4. If I'm reading a book or doing something like that, where I'm really focusing on the visualization, I can get to 2. The only time I ever get to 1 is when I'm laying in bed at night about to fall asleep.

I have real trouble sleeping sometimes, and one of the things I do to help is put on instrumental music (lately, a lot of jazz sax), and then pick some random scenario, like:

"if I could be king of the world what policy changes would I make?"

Or "if I ever get to have kids, what kind of things would I most want to teach them?"

Or "Let's design the perfect floorplan for my dream home"

And as I begin to drift off, but while still consciously aware, I can see things in stunning detail, but it's always like they're semi transparent. That's not a great example, because there's no backdrop, but it's the best I've got.

I play DND with a "theatre of the mind" battle system (no map or miniatures, we just remember where we are) with a a dude who's a 5 and I have no idea how he does it.