In Remembering Rose, Book 1 of my Mapleby Memories Trilogy, visions of the past keep messing with Rachel's head. In different ways, the same happens to Millie in Book 2 Loving Ellen, and to Ellie in Book 3, Many a Moon. I loved re-imagining the past and developing characters who saw, heard or experienced things differently from other people. It was all fiction of course. I could play around with the characters thoughts. I could direct their actions and reactions, my only responsibility to ensure that the historical parts were as accurate as possible. If I thought about them at all after they were published, it was to hope that anyone who read them would enjoy them, maybe even enough to leave a review. What I didn't think about was the brain of those readers and how they might 'see or hear' my book.
I have known for a while that my son has Aphantasia. This is an inability to create mental images, meaning he doesn't have what is commonly called a mind's eye. He cannot conjure up an image of an apple, the sea, a dog, even the faces of his loved ones. This doesn't prevent him for recognising these things. Instead he relies on his conceptual knowledge and factual recall to such an extent that he only discovered his neurological variation a couple of years ago. This was during a conversation with a friend when he couldn't understand the concept of a 'mind's eye.' Between 1-4% of people are affected worldwide and it is thought to involve different brain connectivity. It certainly hasn't held him back. He's a Doctor of Behavioural Science, an academic who trains people and businesses, and he's also someone who seems to hold a vast amount of knowledge in his head.
So far so good! 1-4% people right. So what are the chances of meeting another one? Well I've just met another two, which makes me wonder just how accurate that low percentage is. After all my son lived and thrived for many years without being aware that he functioned differently. And he can't be the only one.
So how did I meet two more? Well my daughter is an educationalist specialising in the management of autism from birth through to adulthood. Consequently she is very interested in different styles of thinking and behaviour, as am I, so it is something we frequently discuss, and recently we came across some research about the 'inner voice'. Now as someone with an inner voice, I thought this was universal. Wrong! Between 30-50% of people have Anendophasia i.e. no inner voice.
Intrigued by this we carried out some distinctly unscientific research amongst friends and family and the differences were amazing. Some people could create highly coloured and intricate images in their mind's eye, while others could just project a 3D image onto a black or a white background. Others, like my son, could see nothing at all or, in one case, just a grainy grey image like a TV that has lost its signal.
Most had an inner voice although it varied in strength, with several people complaining that turning it off was the problem, while others seemed to be able to more easily control and/or direct it. In one case the inner voice was always music and song. While none of this interfered with their lives in an immediately discernible way, several said it affected how they read things. Some 'heard' their inner voice reading a book to them. Others disliked reading because it was just words as they were unable to visualise the story, with one admitting she only liked to read if there were explanatory pictures, something that doesn't happen much in today's adult fiction.
These were all highly intelligent people, most of them young post graduates although some oldies were included too, and more disliked reading fiction than liked it, with one saying the visual images slowed her down.
It is an absolutely fascinating study which I know my daughter will take further in due course. In the meantime, I have discovered that I am a chatterbox in my head the same as I am in life! My inner voice rarely switches off and I control it by listening to a lot of podcasts, audio books and the radio while going about my daily business. Reading changes it into an inner dialogue. I have also discovered I have a very active mind's eye. One that conjures up whole scenes. If I am asked to visualise an apple I see every apple I've ever known, including apple trees and those in bowls and in superstore packaging! This might sound exhausting but it's not. I didn't realise I was like that until I answered the questions I've posed for you below. I think, in fact, it's what makes me a writer. Maybe most of the writers in Books We Love are the same. It would be interesting to know.
So here are the five questions. When you answer them they will give you a real insight into how you think and how you see the world, and why you act as you do. It also is a great topic for a dinner party or a get together with friends and family. Try it and see.
1. Do you have a visual thinking style e.g. a mind's eye? If someone talks about an apple do you 'see' an apple in your head, or just conceptualise it as round, red, green, crunchy, stalk etc.
2 Do you have an inner voice? Can you hear it all the time? Sometimes? Can you control it? Does it differ depending on other factors?
3. When you read, how does your visual imagery and/or your inner voice impact? Does it change depending on what you are reading i.e. for pleasure (fiction) or learning, news etc. (factual)
4. What is your autobiographical memory like? How do you think about childhood memories? Do you visualise certain things and scenes, or do you recall them differently, via conceptualising for example.
5. Depending on your personal style, how did/does this impact learning/memory/recall in education.
