top of page
Aphantasia Test
What did you see?
What is aphantasia?
Close your eyes and picture a red square.
Really close your eyes. Put a red square right there in your head.
What did you actually see?
Most people describe something. Maybe crisp, maybe fuzzy, maybe just a vague impression. But something showed up.
People with aphantasia will say nothing showed up. And then they'll rate themselves a 5 or 6 anyway.
Not because they're lying. Because they've spent their whole life hearing the word "imagine" and assuming it meant the same thing for everyone. They thought "picture a red square" meant think about a red square. Know it's red. Know it has four sides. Recognize one if you see it.
They didn't know other people were actually seeing something.
This is not about intelligence, memory, or creativity. It is about one specific thing: can you see an image in your head when you close your eyes?
For roughly 1 in 7 people, the answer is not really. And almost none of them know that the other 6 in 7 can visualize.
If you just figured out you might have aphantasia, or if you're thinking about someone this might explain, I wrote a bit more about it here. "When Imagine This Is Not Possible"
bottom of page