Julia Shaw

All of these mnemonic devices that have been studied over the last hundreds of years mostly rely on creating elaborate pictures in your mind.

So like memory champions, people who do competitive remembering, will tell you that they create these really elaborate images in their heads.

I recently discovered that I have aphantasia.

Aphantasia is the inability to create mental imagery.

And so when I was trying these techniques, I was going, none of these are working for me.

And it turns out it's because I don't see anything, whereas other people actually see pictures in their mind.

And so I think there's some individual differences stuff going on there that we haven't quite understood.

No.

So the memory palace idea is absurd to me.

So the test for aphantasia is really easy, which is close your eyes and picture a red apple.

And I just see black.

Yeah.

And there's a scale.

So some people are hyperphantasic, where they can have a really elaborate version of the apple.

And other people have like a gray sort of outline, and I have nothing.

Or am I just... Oh, that's the question.

Or is it just a concept?

Because I do.

And I think that's why I'm so interested in concepts and ideas.

And we know that people with aphantasia are less likely to care about their childhood memories because they can't visualize them.