[axby]

Interesting. I find that I can relatively easily picture an imaginary beach, and recall mental images from my past of being on a beach. I tried imagining a few different fruits like another commenter mentioned, and I don't have any trouble with it. I can imagine a detailed banana with some brown specs, not just a cartoon yellow shape.

But what you said about meeting a person you haven't seen often resonates with me. For people I know well, I can conjure up a number of detailed images of them from my past and I feel like it refreshes my memory. But I feel like every now and then, for someone I haven't seen much (or recently), I'll just "forget" what someone looks like completely and only have vague ideas like hair colour, age, height. Once I see them though, I usually have a "speak of recognition" as you mentioned.

I am especially curious about how anyone is able to give a decent description of a criminal or something like that (since it seems like people often do). I feel like I might struggle to recognize someone after they interviewed me for an hour, at least days later.

[godshatter]

> I am especially curious about how anyone is able to give a decent description of a criminal or something like that (since it seems like people often do). I feel like I might struggle to recognize someone after they interviewed me for an hour, at least days later.

I've never been called upon to remember a criminal for the police or in a court room, but I do occasionally describe someone to myself mentally if I see something suspicious. Something along the lines of "tall, long coat, black hair, square face, just standing there watching things". It helps me to remember in case it's important later.

And to throw another wrench in things, I don't have much of an inner monologue either. I can't hear myself speak in my mind, but if I'm working out how to phrase something I'll feel my vocal chords make small movements as I think of the phrasing. It's another one of those things that is hard to describe. I think of the word as if I'm saying it internally, but I don't actually hear it. I've heard my name called on the edge of sleep before, so I know what that is like. I don't have that kind of experience otherwise.

My mind is a dark, quiet place :)

[axby]

Splitting out my other thoughts into a new comment:

I also have an awful short term memory, but can usually remember concepts from many years ago in great detail. Also text based content is way easier for me to remember than hearing it-- if someone tells me their name multiple times then I'll have trouble remembering it. But if I see someone's picture and their name written down, usually it sticks with me. Words are even worse, especially if I don't know what they mean. (I hate acronyms if I don't know what they stand for) If someone tries to give me a list of numbers or dates out loud, it barely makes any sense to me, I simply can't keep that all in my head at once, I need to process one at a time. But if I can see them written down, usually having to make a diagram of some sort, it's easy and I'll remember it for a while.

Overall I wonder if I would have led a very different life if I lived in an age before common literacy, or perhaps even without ubiquitous computers. I've been successful in my career with software, but if my job required me to keep track of a bunch of things without having the chance to write them down, I think I'd be screwed. Hell, I have to really focus when counting scoops of coffee or something simple like that. Going through a large list of data is difficult unless I can annotate it. I could see myself making stupid mistakes a lot if I had to do a job with real time consequences. But luckily for software (and school assignments, way back) I've been successful when I've had time to write stuff down and think it through, and edit my work/answer.

Sorry this kind of got off topic, but I can definitely relate to getting stressed about meeting someone in a restaurant. And as far as I know, I don't have aphantasia at all, at least based on everyone's descriptions of it.