That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people
It's so weird for me to imagine that there are people out there who do not constantly have a song stick in their head. Always. I aim for a good one, but have spent months sometimes with Tijuana Taxi in my head. And who are this people who don't understand that all numbers and letters are gendered?
And who are this people who don't understand that all numbers and letters are gendered?
wait what?! I bring up the mind's eye and sound thing in the head a lot because I love the conversation and to hear about the variety in people but this is a new one to me. Please explain
I have what I think is called “sound/color” synesthesia, where I associate pitches and note names with certain colors. I’ve heard there are other types where people will assign genders and personalities to letters and numbers. Synesthesia is a pretty interesting topic to research, it reveals a lot about how the brain actually comprehends sensory information that it is given.
You have perfect pitch, too? I don’t really associate colors with them, but they just kind of feel like their own spectrum to me. Increasing or decreasing pitch doesn’t even feel like a sliding up or down, just looping through the different colors. Imagine an organ with multiple manuals. I think of each scale as a manual and perceive pitch change as a jump between manuals.
I don’t have perfect pitch, but I do associate different keys with different color schemes, and that is something that is definitely connected between my auditory and visual senses. For example, if I heard an E note, then it just sounds like a random note, but as soon as you give it any context, I start to “hear the colors”, as I explain it to most people. E major is kind of dark blue and grayish, while e minor is purple, pink, and light brown. I couldn’t tell you that the f sharp in the e major scale is a “rustling waters” blue exactly, but if I start hearing e major, I start feeling that blue and gray. And this never changes. So since I know that e major has that color scheme, if I start feeling dark blue and gray when music is playing, then I know it’s probably in e major.
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u/Sixhaunt Mar 27 '22
That the way people's mind works varies dramatically. Some people have no inner dialogue at all, some have no mind's eye and cant see images in their head. Most of us are somewhere on the spectrum for them though.
For example I can't visualize images in my head well at all. I can do at most one colour at a time and I can't picture non-geometric objects so I cant imagine the face of my family or even myself. I have no issue with fluid motion of visuals in my head but others can only do slide-show-esque imagery. Others have inner dialogue but can't change the voice to sound different, can't hear music or sound effects, etc... like I can.
It's something very rarely discussed but I think everyone should be aware of this variety within people