Have You Ever Wondered What “Picture This” Really Means?

Have you ever tried to “picture” something in your mind and found nothing there?

For years, you may have assumed that phrases like “picture this,” “visualize your future,” or “imagine yourself on a beach” were simply figures of speech — metaphors for thinking about something in a particular way.

Then one day, you discovered that other people actually see something. They see images. They see colors, faces, places — all inside their minds.

For many people, this is a moment of profound realization. It reframes their entire understanding of how they think — and how others think.

If you have ever wondered whether you experience mental imagery the same way as others, this article is for you. It will help you explore your own inner experience, recognize the signs of aphantasia, and discover where you fall on the spectrum of imagery vividness.

Signs That You Might Have Aphantasia

People with aphantasia often report a consistent pattern of experiences. Here are some common signs:

• You have difficulty conjuring mental images of familiar people, places, or objects.

• You thought phrases like “picture this,” “visualize your happy place,” or “imagine yourself on a beach” were metaphors.

• You remember facts and details well but struggle to “re-experience” past events with sensory richness.

• You dream, but your dreams are less vivid or less visual than others describe.

• You were genuinely surprised to learn that others actually “see” images in their minds.

• You rely more on words, concepts, bodily sensations, or spatial awareness than mental pictures.

• When asked to “count sheep,” you get bored — not because it does not work, but because you cannot actually picture them.

• You have always felt that “imagination” meant something different to you than it seemed to mean to others.

Important: Having some of these signs does not “diagnose” aphantasia. It simply suggests that your experience of mental imagery may be different from the norm.

Self-Assessment Exercises

The following exercises are designed to help you explore your own inner experience. There are no right or wrong answers — the goal is simply to notice what is happening in your mind.

Exercise 1: The Red Apple Test

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Now try to picture a red apple as clearly as possible.

Notice what happens:

• Do you see anything? A vivid image? A vague shape?

• Do you see bright colors? Or just darkness?

• Do you have a sense of “knowing” what an apple looks like without actually seeing it?

• Or is there simply nothing at all?

Now rate the vividness on a scale from 1 to 10:

• 1 — No image at all, just darkness or blankness

• 3 — Vague sense of shape without detail

• 5 — An image that is somewhat clear but lacks detail

• 7 — A reasonably clear image with some detail

• 10 — A perfectly vivid image, as clear as actual seeing

What your rating means:

• 1–3: You may have aphantasia or very low imagery vividness

• 4–6: You fall in the middle of the imagery spectrum — some visualization, but not vivid

• 7–10: You have typical or vivid imagery abilities

Exercise 2: The Morning Routine Test

Close your eyes and try to picture your morning routine in as much detail as possible. Start from the moment you wake up and walk through your entire routine.

Notice what you see:

• Can you “see” your bedroom? Your bathroom? Your kitchen?

• Can you “see” the shower? Your breakfast? The route to work?

• Do images arise, or do you simply “know” what happens without seeing it?

• Do you hear words? Sensations? Emotions?

Take your time with this exercise. Notice what is present — and what is absent.

Exercise 3: The Familiar Face Test

Close your eyes and try to picture the face of someone you know well — a parent, a partner, a close friend, or a child.

Notice what happens:

• Can you see their face clearly? Their eyes? Their expression?

• Can you see details like the shape of their nose or the color of their hair?

• Do you see their face in motion — smiling, laughing, speaking?

• Or do you simply know what they look like without actually seeing them?

For many people with aphantasia, this is the exercise that reveals the most. They know what the person looks like — they can describe them — but they cannot “see” the face in their mind.

Exercise 4: The Beach Test

Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself on a beach.

• Can you hear the sound of waves?

• Can you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin?

• Can you smell the salt air?

• Can you see the water, the sand, the horizon?

Notice which senses are present and which are absent.

Exercise 5: The Memory Test

Think about a specific memory from your past — a birthday celebration, a holiday, a meaningful conversation.

Close your eyes and try to relive it.

• Can you “see” the scene?

• Can you hear the sounds?

• Can you feel the emotions?

• Can you sense the body sensations that accompanied the moment?

• Or do you simply remember the facts — what happened, when, where?

Notice the difference between remembering facts and “re-experiencing” the moment with sensory richness.

The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)

The VVIQ is the most widely used self-assessment tool for imagery vividness. It was developed by psychologist David Marks in 1973 and has been used in countless studies since (Marks, 1973) .

The VVIQ asks participants to imagine specific scenes and rate the vividness of the imagery that comes to mind.

How to take the VVIQ:

Imagine each of the following four scenes. Then rate the vividness on a scale from 1 to 5:

• 1 — No image at all (you only “know” it is there)

• 2 — Vague and dim image

• 3 — Moderately clear image

• 4 — Clear and reasonably vivid image

• 5 — Perfectly clear and as vivid as normal vision

Scene A: A Friend or Family Member

• The face of a friend or family member

• The way they move when walking

• The way they look when speaking

• The way they look when laughing

Scene B: A Familiar Shop or Street

• The layout of a shop you visit regularly

• The arrangement of items on the shelves

• The appearance of the street outside the shop

Scene C: A Natural Scene

• A sunrise over the ocean

• The colors of the sky

• The texture of the sand

• The movement of the waves

Scene D: A Memory or Personal Experience

• A meaningful memory from your childhood

• The details of the place where it happened

• The expression on people’s faces

Scoring:

Add up your scores for all items. The maximum score is 80 (extremely vivid imagery). The minimum is 16 (no imagery at all).

• 16–32: Very low imagery vividness — likely aphantasia

• 33–48: Below average imagery vividness

• 49–64: Average imagery vividness

• 65–80: Above average to extremely vivid imagery — possibly hyperphantasia

Most people score between 50 and 80 (Marks, 1973). A score of 60 or below may indicate aphantasia (Zeman et al., 2020) .

Other Assessment Tools

While the VVIQ is the most widely used, other tools exist for exploring different aspects of imagery:

• The Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire (Psi-Q): Assesses imagery across all five senses — visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory (Dawes et al., 2020) . Useful for understanding whether your aphantasia is limited to vision or affects other senses.

• The Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (SUIS): Assesses how often people spontaneously use imagery in everyday life (Reisberg et al., 2003) . This helps distinguish between people who can visualize but rarely do, and people who cannot visualize at all.

• The Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ): Distinguishes between object imagery (picturing objects and their details) and spatial imagery (picturing spatial relationships and locations) (Blajenkova et al., 2006) . Some people with aphantasia can visualize spatial relationships even when they cannot visualize objects.

Clinical vs. Self-Identification

Aphantasia is typically identified through self-report, not clinical diagnosis (Zeman et al., 2020) .

• Self-identification is valid for most purposes. If you do not experience visual mental imagery, you likely have aphantasia.

• Formal neuroimaging is not necessary for self-knowledge. You know your own mind better than any brain scan could tell you.

When to seek professional assessment:

If you experience a change in your ability to visualize — especially after head injury, stroke, or neurological illness — seek medical assessment (Zeman et al., 2015). Congenital aphantasia (present from birth) is generally benign and does not require intervention. However, if you are concerned about memory loss or other cognitive changes, a neuropsychological evaluation may be helpful.

What If I Have Aphantasia?

If you have discovered that you have aphantasia, here are some important things to know:

It is not a disorder. Aphantasia is a natural variation in human experience — not a disability or a deficit (Zeman et al., 2020).

You are not alone. Approximately 3.9% of the population — roughly 1 in 25 people — has aphantasia (Dance et al., 2022).

Many successful people have aphantasia. People with aphantasia are often highly analytical, conceptual, and detail-oriented. Many are writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and engineers (Zeman et al., 2020).

You can still benefit from imagination-based practices. You may just need to access them through other channels — sensation, words, concepts, or emotions.

Alternative Channels for Imagination

If you have aphantasia, you can still work with imagination — through channels other than visual imagery:

Somatic imagination: Attending to bodily sensations, felt sense, and interoception. Your body is still available for inner work, even if images are not (Craig, 2009).

Conceptual imagination: Working with ideas, meanings, and verbal reasoning. You may have a rich inner world that operates through concepts rather than pictures.

Spatial imagination: Engaging with sense of direction, layout, and spatial relationships. Many people with aphantasia have strong spatial abilities.

Emotional imagination: Working with moods, feelings, and emotional states. Emotions are a form of inner experience that do not require visual imagery.

Narrative imagination: Engaging with story, metaphor, and inner dialogue. Your inner voice and sense of narrative are still forms of imagination.

Conclusion: Understanding Your Own Experience

Discovering aphantasia — or simply realizing that you experience imagery differently from others — can be a significant moment of self-understanding. It reframes your relationship to your own mind and how you process experience.

There is no “normal” way to imagine. Variation is natural and expected. The goal is not to change how you imagine but to understand how you already do.

Key insight: You are not broken. You are not wrong. You simply experience the world through a different channel. And that is not a limitation — it is simply who you are.

Key Takeaways

• Definition: Aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily generate visual mental imagery — a “blind mind’s eye” (Zeman et al., 2015).

• Prevalence: Approximately 3.9% of the population — about 1 in 25 people — has aphantasia (Dance et al., 2022).

• Self-Assessment: Self-assessment exercises and questionnaires like the VVIQ can help you understand your own imagery abilities (Marks, 1973).

• Not a disorder: Aphantasia is a natural variation in human experience, not a cognitive deficit (Zeman et al., 2020).

• Alternative channels: People with aphantasia can still work with imagination through somatic, conceptual, spatial, emotional, and narrative channels.

• Self-discovery: Knowing your own experience empowers you to work with your mind more effectively.

References

• Blajenkova, O., Kozhevnikov, M., & Motes, M. A. (2006). Object-spatial imagery: A new self-report imagery questionnaire. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(2), 239–263.

• Craig, A. D. (2009). How do you feel — now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(1), 59–70.

• Dance, C. J., et al. (2022). What is the prevalence of aphantasia? Cortex, 152, 15–25.

• Dawes, A. J., et al. (2020). A cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery, memory and dreaming in aphantasia. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 10022.

• Marks, D. F. (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology, 64(1), 17–24.

• Reisberg, D., et al. (2003). The Spontaneous Use of Imagery Scale (SUIS). Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 23(2), 179–188.

• Zeman, A., et al. (2015). Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia. Cortex, 73, 378–380.

• Zeman, A., et al. (2020). Phantasia – The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes. Cortex, 130, 426–440.