People Who Can't Visualize Anything Are Challenging a 300-Year-Old Theory of Thought
gizmodo.com
People with aphantasia — a complete inability to visualize — think just as complexly, quietly dismantling a 300-year-old assumption that thought requires mental images.
Dual Coding TheoryEmbodied CognitionLocke's Theory of IdeasCognitive Diversity
Theory Briefing
- Aphantasia, the total absence of mental imagery, has existed unnoticed for centuries — only recently named and studied as a distinct cognitive condition.
- John Locke's 300-year-old theory assumed mental images are the building blocks of human thought, but aphantasic thinkers challenge that foundation directly.
- People with aphantasia report normal — sometimes exceptional — abstract reasoning, suggesting the mind can construct complex thought without any visual scaffold.
- The finding forces a split between two long-conflated things: the ability to think and the ability to picture what you're thinking about.