But I’m betting you just have the impression that you see the whole thing in that kind of detail, and if you pay close attention you’ll “see” that you don’t. And if you want to “see” fine details you have to think of that one specific area alone. (Which is similar to the way vision actually works.)
Yeah, that sounds about right.
That may explain why quality is 3 or 4 but the display screen is like 2.
If my eyes are open, I agree I’m seeing what’s right in front of me. But, if my eyes are closed, I’m not seeing the eigengrau for very long. But I’m also not literally seeing what I’m imagining. Closing my eyes just means I can not focus on the real visual signal at all.
It would seem to me that, if people did literally see what they imagine, the concept of a hallucination wouldn’t exist. And having a dream or using VR wouldn’t be anything special.
It’s more like what happens when you have a song stuck in your head. You “hear” it, but not literally.
That said, my imaginary vision is not that great. But I trouble comparing it to the images given, since it doesn’t look dark and faded. I would consider the lack of detail to be more like a blurriness. Imagining bright colors is just as easy for me as imagining darker, more muted ones.
Oh, and if I’m imagining a horse, I’m going to just see a cutout horse, not the background.
Exactly. That’s almost how I described it in one of my posts but got sidetracked.
One other thing that I’ll make a separate post for: I have two different ways of imagining things. There’s the kind that’s off on a separate screen out there, like watching a movie. And there’s the kind that is harder where I’m imagining it like a first person camera. But even though it’s on the screen, I still can imagine the feelings, smells, etc.
And yet I would not describe either one of these as actual vision. The latter is more “real” in a sense, but still not actually seen.
To you have trouble remembering faces? I’m wondering if this is bit of aphantasia or trouble remembering faces.
Where by I have trouble remembering faces and people I know well should remember not some very old low quality VHS tape.
I’m wondering whether the OP is asking about memory or about imagination? And for many of the respondents, which are you referring to? Some folks seem to use those terms almost interchangeably.
To me at least, there’s a big difference between “mentally picture a generic apple.” and “Recall a specific time you ate an apple in all the detail you can.”
To me the former is very pictorial with many details and the latter is more like the vague impressions I mentioned upthread.
Prosopagnosia (face blindness)
I have a form of this.
In my case, it’s both. I don’t in either case actually see anything; and in either case the sense in my memory or imagination carries a sense of what the thing looks like, but not any actual picture or vision. Hard to describe what the sense is – it’s more a matter of knowing that I’d recognize it if I were looking at one. There’s some kinetic sense of the shape.
Both are the same in my case. I don’t “picture” anything. I tend to go through an internal monologue/verbal description of anything when it comes to visual memory or imagination. When picturing my wife I, very poorly, run through a verbal description of her features (rounder face, green eyes, hair this long, dirty blonde, etc). When asked to imagine being on a beach I actually verbally describe the situation and don’t picture anything. It is only really visual stimuli that this is accurate for. I have a vivid feeling of how my muscles move during a golf swing or can almost feel the wind and smell the sea from the last time I went kayaking.