this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
259 points (98.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26682 readers
3202 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world
candyman337@lemmy.world
TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee
TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com
candyman337@sh.itjust.works
Asudox@lemmy.world
can@lemmy.ca
lemmy_bot@lemmy.world
beefbaby182@lemmy.world
AsudoxDev@programming.dev
259
This is a thought experiment "Ball on a Table" for detecting whether someone has Aphantasia. What do you see when you perform this experiment? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by zlatiah@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
238 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This is more of me trying to understand how people imagine things, as I almost certainly have Aphantasia and didn't realize until recently... If this is against community rules, please do let me know.

The original thought experiment was from the Aphantasia subreddit. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/comments/g1e6bl/ball_on_a_table_visualization_experiment_2/

Thought experiment begins below.

Try this: Visualise (picture, imagine, whatever you want to call it) a ball on a table. Now imagine someone walks up to the table, and gives the ball a push. What happens to the ball?

Once you're done with the above, click to review the test questions:

  • What color was the ball?
  • What gender was the person that pushed the ball?
  • What did they look like?
  • What size is the ball? Like a marble, or a baseball, or a basketball, or something else?
  • What about the table, what shape was it? What is it made of?

And now the important question: Did you already know, or did you have to choose a color/gender/size, etc. after being asked these questions?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Wait a second.

  • The ball had no color at all
  • The person who pushed the ball didn't even exist. It just got pushed by some invisible force. Naturally, they didn't have an appearance.
  • The ball was like... Small I guess?
  • The table had no properties at all.

Do people really usually have a more vivid picture in their heads? It's always just concepts with me. I'm confused.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I also had the "I spent 23 minutes designing this scene in blender" impression of the ball, table, and disembodied hand. The table was made of light grey, the ball was made of light grey, and the hand was made of light grey

[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago
  • What happens to the ball?

It slowly rolled toward the edge but stopped before falling to the ground. The path was somewhat eccentric because of the texture of the ball.

  • What color was the ball?

Yellow

  • What gender was the person that pushed the ball?

Male

  • What did they look like?

Green and white track suit (why? IDK), mid 60's Italian, chubby

  • What size is the ball? Like a marble, or a baseball, or a basketball, or something else?

It was one of those foam Nerf bullets, so about the size of a shooter marble

  • What about the table, what shape was it? What is it made of?

It was that black IKEA table where the four metal legs screw into the corners. About 6ft by 3ft.

  • And now the important question: Did you already know, or did you have to choose a color/gender/size, etc. after being asked these questions?

The entire scene sprung into my head at once after reading that someone interacted with the ball

[–] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, same with me. But I knew the ball was pushed and rolled to the edge of the table and then fell, so I feel like I got the most relevant bit.

Tbh I've never been good at visualising faces, recognising people I know, retracing a route I've taken etc. This just feels like one of those things I've never really been great at.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Do people really usually have a more vivid picture in their heads?

I can't speak for others, but I do if they're concepts I've encountered before. I have "default" visualizations of things that are changed if the description warrants it.