Yesterday I discovered I had been a victim of the Typical Mind Fallacy thanks to accidentally finding out that someone very close to me doesn’t have an internal monologue, doesn’t think in words and has a visual photographic memory. Despite knowing that such people existed I thought I would know if someone close to me was one. As a result I thought it would be an interesting and fun exercise to gauge the conscious perceptions of the community.
The below questions are judged on a 0-99 scale (they are not binary or predictions, the embedded Elicit formatting was just too great to not use), they attempt to find where the reader sits on a series of common mental metrics.
How vivid is your visual imagination?
How vivid is your sound imagination?
How vivid is your taste imagination?
How vivid is your smell imagination?
How vivid is your touch imagination?
Do you have an internal monologue?
How frequently do you think in words?
How good is your memory?
How much control do you have over your mind? (For example, the ability to stop all thoughts on command)
Do you have a type of Synaesthesia? (0 = none, 100 = very intense and encompassing)
If anybody has an unusual mental experience (or normal one!) please share it with us in the comments. If you do, don’t leave out the obvious, try to avoid the illusion of transparency.
There was a weird moment once when I was reading to myself in my mind while copying a text and yet somehow misheard a letter (I think it was B instead of D). It felt as if I weren't aware of the original text in the first place and were simply writing down what someone else dictated.
Another thing is that I often remember words graphically, especially when trying to spell them correctly (e.g. in "successful" I imagine two blocks of "cc" and "ss" in my head as if I were looking at it on paper). In maths I can move symbols back and forth pretty easily in a formula and combine them with relatively simple constructions when necessary. Regarding sounds, I can reproduce short pieces in my head accurately enough to be able to transcribe them eventually, or at least to get the emotional feeling of a song, so to say.
Also one of my friends struggles with verbal thinking and thinks mostly implicitly, using concepts, if I understood that correctly, and they have a strong preference for non-verbal signs of affection (physical contact, actions, quality time etc.).
Also one of my friends struggles with verbal thinking and thinks mostly implicitly, using concepts, if I understood that correctly, and they have a strong preference for non-verbal signs of affection (physical contact, actions, quality time etc.).
Same here. Not thinking in words at all, very strong preference for touch or very simple expressions. Over the years with my SO, we basically formed a language of taps, hugs, noises, licks, sniffs, ... (E. g. shlip tongue noise - Greetings! / I like you. / ... (there are even tonal variations - rising / higher ... (read more)
Yesterday I discovered I had been a victim of the Typical Mind Fallacy thanks to accidentally finding out that someone very close to me doesn’t have an internal monologue, doesn’t think in words and has a visual photographic memory. Despite knowing that such people existed I thought I would know if someone close to me was one. As a result I thought it would be an interesting and fun exercise to gauge the conscious perceptions of the community.
The below questions are judged on a 0-99 scale (they are not binary or predictions, the embedded Elicit formatting was just too great to not use), they attempt to find where the reader sits on a series of common mental metrics.
How vivid is your visual imagination?
How vivid is your sound imagination?
How vivid is your taste imagination?
How vivid is your smell imagination?
How vivid is your touch imagination?
Do you have an internal monologue?
How frequently do you think in words?
How good is your memory?
How much control do you have over your mind? (For example, the ability to stop all thoughts on command)
Do you have a type of Synaesthesia? (0 = none, 100 = very intense and encompassing)
If anybody has an unusual mental experience (or normal one!) please share it with us in the comments. If you do, don’t leave out the obvious, try to avoid the illusion of transparency.