One other problem I have had for some years now is that I can’t visualise. By this I mean I can’t see or picture things in my “mind’s eye”. Whenever I talk of this, the other person finds it hard to understand (or believe). If I say that it also affects my memory, things get more interesting. Because I have very poor episodic memory – memory of life events. This is most true for visual memory. I’ve been asked questions like “how do you get around your home?” As if somehow I may be blind! More reasonably, I’ve been asked how I remember where something is in my home. To be honest, I’m not sure – but I usually do! I think I compensate with a kind of physical memory – a memory of how to move around to find something.
One thing I dread is if someone in a car asks me for directions. Because I can’t visualise the route, I’m worried about missing out a turn or landmark. In fact, I’m sure I have. Again, I have to try to feel my way around the directions.
As with persistent migraine aura (PMA) and visual snow (VS), medical science seems to poorly understand all this. I’ve only found one study on the variation in visualisation. I’ve found nothing at all on what I call persistent episodic visual amnesia (PEVA). Now, I’m not suggesting PEVA relates to PMA or VS. I’ve no evidence for this (or against). But I do know one other person personally who says they have the same disability in visualisation and episodic memory. But I’ve only read one post on the Internet from a stranger who clearly has the same problem.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vividness_of_Visual_Imagery_Questionnaire_(VVIQ)
http://www.hnl.bcm.tmc.edu/articles/ScienceDirect2007.pdf
April 2, 2009 at 11:58 am
Try this to learn to visualize:
http://www.winwenger.com/imstream.htm
This is the only visualization exercise who is available for non-visualizers. See the “What If You Didn’t Get Pictures?” subtitle from that page.
Good luck and tell your results on the blog or on the mail
April 3, 2009 at 9:25 am
Thank you for your suggestion.
There might be a useful test in here for those of us who have poor or no visualisation, if it is modified from the description in the link. Here’s what I suggest:-
1. Get a friend to take in an item with some complexity to it. A picture, for example. Take ten minutes to look at it and then get your friend to take it away. Do not look at it again. An hour or so later, switch on the dictaphone/digital voice recorder and take ten minutes to try to describe what was in the picture. Then, with your friend as an independent witness if you want, look at the picture and see how much you remembered. This would seem a good test of short term memory. Because you’re not trying to imagine something, but remember something which the visualisation exercise can be tested against, it is more objective. But it is important to be honest with yourself in the recording exercise!
2. Now repeat this with another object or picture. But this time take a day or two before describing it into the dictaphone/voice recorder. This could be a test of long term memory(?)
For researchers: It seems to me that this basic idea could form the basis for an objective test between “sufferers” of the inability to visualise (and those who lack episodic memory) and “normal” people. Take one group of sufferers and a control group of normals who report no problem. Then do these two tests and analyse the results.
Take care.
July 5, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I tried sending a message earlier, but apparently it did not get through. I have an inability to clearly recall people’s faces, buildings, memories, etc. I cannot close my eyes and see my husband’s face. I can sketch an oval and color in a beard and mustache. That’s it. I don’t remember my children’s first steps, first tooth, etc. I can watch a television program that I’ve been into for five years and ten minutes after the program ends I can’t tell you the character’s names. I can’t recall names of ‘things’ or people. I appear ignorant or ditzy to friends. I really dispair of this. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember – which apparently doesn’t say much for me. If a name or event is really, really, really important to me I can recall is easily. Otherwise it’s gone. My doctor says I’m just stressed. Barb
July 8, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hi, Barb,
Thank you for your comments. I was equally surprised to find that I was not the only one with this problem with visualisation. From contact here and from talking to people “in the real world”, I suspect this is more common than we realise. There is some uncertainty as to whether the “amnesia” part is a genuine medical problem, or whether it is an extension of normal variation in people’s ability to visualise. My partner has the same inability to visualise that I do, and she feels her experience does not hamper her. I feel it does hamper me. It is this perception that may prove the difference – my personal feeling and that of most people who have commented seems to agree there is a separate problem of memory/recall.
So, although an inability to visualise may be normal but possibly quite rare, I do believe there is a core of us out there that can’t visualise and have problems beyond what is normal. I’m not convinced it’s a normal inability to visualise, nor do I believe it is just stress. But that’s the debate: whether it is, and if it is, what the defining symptoms of the condition are.
Meanwhile, we feel frustrated.
Take care.