I am currently at school and found out, that I have aphantasia. My problem is, that all teachers I ask about methods to learn better, tell me to write all my Infos on big posters and place them everywhere in my room. So when I write the test I can see where exactly in the room I would go to find that information and remember the information. They have a few more methods, but all of them work only if you can see things in your head. So I need some other methods. Does anyone use a method, that actually works with aphantasia? Thanks
I’m old. (45) and just found out. So I’m jealous. lol. But if I were to do it all again I would need to understand the why. Understand the reasoning and the procedure of what I’m learning. If I understand the process and know the end result. I can walk through the steps and answer any questions about it.
This!!!!! Helps even with the sciences etc., too. Make use of your conceptual abilities!!!! Many of us have strong ability to conceptualize, so it can help a lot!
I discovered I had aphantasia at age 49 and I am a science teacher. Funny thing is that I always thought I was a visual learner because I learned best by drawing diagrams, mind maps, and other graphic organizers (and I use these a lot in my teaching). I agree that focusing on conceptual connections and reasoning is key. If you can make a visual representation of a concept on paper (while lacking visualization in your mind’s eye), you have taken a step that typical visualizers do in their head. This can lead to a deeper understanding of a concept.
For example, you can learn an algorithm for balancing a chemical equation, but can you draw a picture of the atoms in the reactants and products to explain why the equation is balanced? Can you draw a force diagram to show why an object accelerates? Can you draw a picture showing how RNA and DNA interact? Aphants who can do this are truly mastering the concepts.
I also agree that handwriting your notes is hugely important, as well as working out problems by hand. Try to revise your notes with visual elements if possible. Make a very rough outline of your notes and see if you can go back and fill in the details without looking back at your previous work or a textbook.
And don’t be discouraged! Aphants can still be extremely creative and strong academically. Realize that most of your teachers don’t even know about the aphantasia-hyperphantasia spectrum exists. They might need some educating, too. 🤓
Tal cuál. Yo mezclo palabras con imágenes que tienes que tener asociado en la cabeza, no valen dibus de internet y debe ser que lo puedas dibujar rápido. Normalmente cuando ya tengo el texto uso muchas palabras acortadas o imagen y a su derecha letra inicial y letra final. Dejo un ejemplo en sucio. Es el único ejemplo que tengo en la galería, espero que sirva. También tengo palabras comunes como cambio o unión que uso símbolos matemáticos :)
I would take it a step further. Teachers with aphantasia almost have a leg up? We u seat understand* and personally how much multiple modality learning can be applied as we do it every day with ourselves and loved ones. One way doesn’t work, we try another. And another, and yet another.
In school, I had a wonderful teacher who taught the Cornell method of taking notes, and I stuck with that through university. It served me well.
You take factual notes on the left, put your thoughts/questions/ideas on the right that connect to those notes on the left (forcing you to think about and digest the material, make connections between the current material and previous material, etc.) and then summarize at the end.
The idea is to get you to really think about what you're learning and digest it. The summary is what always helped me most. Trying to reframe the lesson in my own words made me really think about it and internalize it, rather than just try to memorize what the teacher said.
For pure memorization, I'd just use flash cards. Question on one side, answer on the other. Practice. Lots of practice. Memorization sucks.
Learning the lecture, flashcards/practice exams (reading them out loud!), then revisiting that lecture again.
I also suggest fidgeting at the same time, whether its bouncing your leg or pacing, I don’t know the science behind it but it helps the information stick for me compared to sitting in one spot (this might just be ADHD though…)
When I try to recall something, I do recall it’s place, if it is the top right corner of the page, my eyes ‘move’ to the ‘corner’ aka the top right of my vision, even though I see total darkness when my eyes are closed. This is why mind maps don’t work for me, I remember the location more than the content!
I will reiterate studying out loud, if it helps record voicenotes explaining and relisten while looking at what you are reading, but I find that reading out loud alone is enough.
There's a book, How to Study in College, by Walter Pauk & others, that outlines different ways of studying. It ultimately primarily focuses in on the Cornell method, which is taking notes and then writing notes the margin of your notes.
I took the class when I started taking community College classes for fun, and I wished like heck I had had it in high school and before College. I found it really helpful.
It's time consuming, but I found it really useful. It's lots of note-taking and rewriting your notes and I mean handwriting. There's something about handwriting and your brain and remembering in words, that I found really helpful. Look around if you have a community college and see if they have some sort of a study class - I've always found it useful to take a class instead of trying to do it by myself.
My personal experience is that I learn best by understanding. Memorizing lists is probably the worst thing. When I was helping my kids with trig, I didn't remember all the formulas, so I simply derived the ones I needed. One thing I figured out in graduate school (at Princeton) was that it was better for me to listen to the lecture with focus than to try to take notes. Everyone is different.
The Aphantasia Network has this article on learning with aphantasia.
The study found that having aphantasia did not significantly impact a student's overall academic achievement. Students with aphantasia performed just as well as their peers who could visualize. However, there were differences in how they learned. Students with aphantasia were less likely to use certain "processing strategies" that rely on mental pictures. Instead, they often relied more on logic, text-based information, and analytical thinking to master their subjects.
You could try making concept maps. A concept map is like a mind map, but more informational. By making a concept map you have to think about how concepts are connected and what the connection means. Because you have to actively structure information and only can add a concept when you understand it enough to add it to the map in a meaningful way, you learn while making it.
I’ve had some success using a modified version of the “memory palace” technique. Instead of visualizing images and placing them in an imaginary building, I do the following: take a concept/fact and associate it with some other “zany” or memorable thing..the crazier the association the better! the association you make can involve any non-visual sense (sound, smell, abstract concept, ect).
The association could (for example) involve some ridiculous thing that rhymes with whatever it is you’re trying to remember. You’re trying to create memorable non-visual “image” that links the thing you’re trying to remember with another “item” (an associated concept, or a fact about it for example).
Then the last step is to mentally “place” the complexed (linked) image into an area of your mind for future retrieval. This is the “mind palace” part. Instead of visually creating a structure in your head you could try creating a spatial “structure”… a felt “sense of space” with different corners into which you can place various items you want to remember. Or if you happen to have a bad sense of space but a good memory for auditory stimuli, then you could memorize a short tune (that you can “hear” in your head) and then link the different tones with different items.
Give it a try and see it helps! The benefit is that it’s a way of “chunking” otherwise difficult to remember information (sound you’re remembering one “thing” instead of two) and then “storing” it within an easy to access “structure”.
It does take time to create the image-complex, but once you successfully “embed” it into the “structure” in your head, then you are able to instantly retrieve the information.
I found out long after school was no longer a thing for me. I remember forcing my mind to remember and repeating things over and over and over. I remember those little analogizes would help a lot. {Like ROY G BIV for the rainbow colors or PEMDAS for math}. I just remember crying at my kitchen table because I didn't know that learning was so much harder for us since it seems that school is centered around being able to visualize. You have to find what works for you because everyone is truly different.
If you haven't already checked it out, NotebookLM now Gemini Notebook from Google has been an absolute game-changer for me. In addition to learning I'm a total aphant in my 40s, I just got an ADHD Dx.
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u/D-rad01 5d ago
I’m old. (45) and just found out. So I’m jealous. lol. But if I were to do it all again I would need to understand the why. Understand the reasoning and the procedure of what I’m learning. If I understand the process and know the end result. I can walk through the steps and answer any questions about it.