Can You Picture it? People Vary in Their Ability to Create Mental Pictures

Mental imagery, or the ability to picture something in your mind, is one of the many ways in which people can be different from each other. While most people can create mental images, a small percentage of people find that they cannot. In fact, individuals like this often find it hard to imagine that others can do this at all! The lack of ability to create mental images is called aphantasia. Scientists sometimes study the effects of aphantasia using visual search and memory tasks. People with aphantasia have a harder time finding objects in a picture, remembering visual details, and imagining the future, but they can use other kinds of memory to help them, such as memory for the locations or names of objects. Aphantasia research is important because it helps us understand how our brains work and how we can support those who see things differently in their minds.