Aphantasia is a condition in which one is unable to form mental images on demand. Persons with this condition, when asked to close their eyes and picture an apple, have the experience of number 5 in the above picture. I recently discovered that I have aphantasia. It was, to put it mildly, shocking.
Although first recognized in 1880 by Francis Galton, it was largely ignored. In 2015 a research team led by Professor Adam Zeman published Lives Without Imagery--Congenital Aphantasia, coining the term for the phenomenon. It is now estimated that about 3.5% of people have the condition.
People with aphantasia do not seem to suffer any adverse effects, although one study does put it on the autism scale with aphantasics showing somewhat diminished imagination and social skills. While I have a strong sympathy for the view that "I love humanity, it's people I can't stand," I've never considered myself autistic. But it might explain some charactertistics of my personality.
For instance, I am much more conceptual than visual. I enjoy art, but I don't enjoy looking at a single painting for any longer than it takes me to process all of the visual information. Imagery doesn't enthrall me or inspire me in any particular way. I appreciate a beautiful sunset, but I'm bored after a few seconds. Watching movies is more about the writing than about the cinematography; for me, nothing can save a bad script. Although there is one visual aspect of movies I particularly enjoy--the long tracking shot. No doubt because it is constantly changing and I'm not bored staring at a single image, no matter how beautiful.
Being very conceptual, I am driven by the discovery of new ideas rather than new experiences. I enjoy travel, but not so much for seeing things as for finding things out. When going someplace I've never been, I like a tour guide who can tell me things and not just show me things. Even local tours I find interesting if I'm learning something new and not just seeing something new. But I'm not totally unresponsive to the visual. I'll never forget the experience of first entering St. Peter's Basillica in Vatican City. Even though I'm not religious, it is awe inspiring. And even though my memory of the event is not visual, I can, with open eyes, recall conceptually what it looked like. But my primary memory is of the physical experience of being there and what it felt like.
On the other hand, I find it striking that so many people who are not aphantasic seem to have no regard whatsoever for how they dress. Perhaps this has more to do with factors such as comfort or conformity with social norms than it does with visual appeal.
My strongest form of memory is not visual; it is taste. I have very strong memories associated with specific instances of the taste of something I ate from a very early age. Thinking about these sorts of memories brings on a nearly physical recollection of flavor in my mouth. When I was about ten years old I had boiled shrimp for the first time. I can still recall the specific flavor in great detail, although I can't put it into words. I've never reexperienced that precise flavor since.
Rather surprisingly, I am a good speller even though I don't visualize words. But I do still get tripped up on certain words, like "recommend." Unlike quite a few people, I have a diminished sense of what a properly spelled word just looks like. A misspelled word quite often doesn't look mispelled. I rely instead on a memory of how the word is actually spelled, combined with some general rules about words are normally spelled. So, when pronouncing the word "recommend," the way it is said would seem to indicate there should be two c's since that is where the syllable breaks, and not two m's--like "occasion," which also trips me up, or "occurred," which is just a mess.
Although I can't mentally visualize on command, I do have very vivid dreams. Numerous times I have awakened from such a dream and been unable to immediately determine whether I have merely dreamed something happened, or it actually did happen. This is not uncommon for aphantasics in general. But I am unable to use visual methods of getting to sleep. I always thought the expression "counting sheep" was just a metaphor. It never occurred to me that people could actually do this!
If you are aphantasic or interested in learning more about it, the Aphantasia Network is a good source of information.