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This is a thought experiment "Ball on a Table" for detecting whether someone has Aphantasia. What do you see when you perform this experiment? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by zlatiah@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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This is more of me trying to understand how people imagine things, as I almost certainly have Aphantasia and didn't realize until recently... If this is against community rules, please do let me know.

The original thought experiment was from the Aphantasia subreddit. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/comments/g1e6bl/ball_on_a_table_visualization_experiment_2/

Thought experiment begins below.

Try this: Visualise (picture, imagine, whatever you want to call it) a ball on a table. Now imagine someone walks up to the table, and gives the ball a push. What happens to the ball?

Once you're done with the above, click to review the test questions:

What color was the ball?
What gender was the person that pushed the ball?
What did they look like?
What size is the ball? Like a marble, or a baseball, or a basketball, or something else?
What about the table, what shape was it? What is it made of?

And now the important question: Did you already know, or did you have to choose a color/gender/size, etc. after being asked these questions?

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[-] AsudoxDev@programming.dev 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I only knew the gender of the person and what kind of ball it was. I didn't imagine the other things at my first try.

[-] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

I imagined all the details for the items, but didn't pay attention to the person. I don't like looking at people's faces.

[-] moakley@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

My person was like a disembodied arm. Like if pushing the ball off the table were a game on the Wii, which I guess would mean it was in first person.

[-] AsudoxDev@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

Same. Is there anyone that likes looking at people's faces?

[-] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

My adhd ass missed the “someone” so it was a first person perspective. Lmao

this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024

259 points (98.5% liked)

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