zlacker

Pretty sure I have aphantasia. So, I don't visualize anything. But, I do often imagine data structures and algorithms as ambiguous "things" at places and in motion. Can't see them. But, I can move them around and remember where they are. Like, imagining Bubble Sort as a shell game with your eyes closed.

>>corysa+(OP)
I'm in the same boat. No visual imagery but I do "see" abstract relationships and how they interact. I'm reminded of a case where a man had head trauma-induced blindness. He couldn't see colors, shapes, etc. But it turned out he could still see motion. He described it as black moving on top of black. It's sort of like that, somehow I experience the contours of the abstract relationships, but they feel very insubstantial.

>>corysa+(OP)
I'd guess few people have much image-like things in their head for data structures or control flows or such. Such can be conjured if one tries to explain something visually by e.g. drawing. But 2D/3D structure is very limited for thinking about abstract stuff like programming.

I don't really have a recollection of or introspective access to what I experience when I focus on something like programming. And I guess many who claim they do are confabulating.

>>hackin+Q2
You can experience this easily yourself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_aftereffect

Motion is separated from shapes and structure and objects changing place very early in visual processing, and it's kind of a sense of its own.

>>jampek+Y2
Id argue temporal/spacial reasoning encompasses ALL the reasoning we can do. After all, space time is the fabric of reality and encompasses all possible events

>>andoan+X3
Only cause of the higgs field/higgs mechanism!