Visual imagery typically enables us to see absent items in the mind’s eye. It plays a role in memory,
day-dreaming and creativity. Since coining the terms aphantasia and hyperphantasia to describe
the absence and abundance of visual imagery, we have been contacted by many thousands of
people with extreme imagery abilities. Questionnaire ...
Visual imagery typically enables us to see absent items in the mind’s eye. It plays a role in memory,
day-dreaming and creativity. Since coining the terms aphantasia and hyperphantasia to describe
the absence and abundance of visual imagery, we have been contacted by many thousands of
people with extreme imagery abilities. Questionnaire data from 2000 participants with aphantasia
and 200 with hyperphantasia indicate that aphantasia is associated with scientific and
mathematical occupations, whereas hyperphantasia is associated with ‘creative’ professions.
Participants with aphantasia report an elevated rate of difficulty with face recognition and
autobiographical memory, whereas participants with hyperphantasia report an elevated rate of
synaesthesia. Around half those with aphantasia describe an absence of wakeful imagery in all
sense modalities, while a majority dream visually. Aphantasia appears to run within families more
often than would be expected by chance. Aphantasia and hyperphantasia appear to be widespread
but neglected features of human experience with informative psychological associations.