You say “apple” to me and I’m #1, glossy skin, insides, all that
And how in the hell does one navigate life, or enjoy a book, if they’re not a #1?! Reading a book is like watching a movie. I subconsciously assign actor’s faces to characters and watch as the book rolls on.
Yet #5’s are not handicapped in the slightest. They’re so “normal” that mankind is just now figuring out we’re far apart on this thing. Fucking weird.
EDIT: Showed this to my wife and she was somewhat mystified as to what I was asking. Pretty sure she’s a 5. I get frustrated as hell when I ask her to describe a thing and she’s clueless. “Did the radiator hose pop off, or is it torn and cracked?” “I don’t know!”
EDIT2: The first Star Wars book after the movie came out was Splinter in the Mind’s Eye. I feel like I got that title. What’s it mean to you?
This reminded me of a sort of similar topic, and curiously enough it’s about reading, and might provide some insight into your question.
Some years ago, I happened on a thread in which the OP asked people whose voice they “heard” when they read.
I couldn’t even make sense of that question. The only time I “hear” voices when I read is when a character speaks. The rest of the time, I not only don’t “hear” the words - I’m not even really aware of them. My eyes follow the lines while my brain instantly translates the words I’m seeing into images and concepts and the like. And yes - it’s like a movie playing out inside my brain, and yes, I’m a #1 on this chart.
But apparently there’s a not insignificant number of people who “hear” a book inside their heads just as if someone else was reading it out loud. Instead of visualizing things, they remain focused only on the words - the representations - and somehow glean from them alone the necessary details.
I wouldn’t be surprised if those people are also generally #5 or thereabouts on this chart, and again what it is is that their brains don’t directly envision things but instead rely on descriptive representations.
I don’t get how it works either, but self-evidently it does.
Afaik the two are unrelated. I’d guess the ‘narration’ rather might be tied to the internal monologue. E.g. I’m around 2 or 3 on visualization, but have lots of monologuing going on constantly, and likewise ‘hear’ the text being read unless I specifically try to skim. It’s also worse in the second language, which is English for me, while I can read my native language faster — I’ve noticed before that the second language requires more brain processing and isn’t absorbed as directly.
Do you have the internal monologue, when not reading?
The ‘speed reading’ technique, of which you might’ve heard, is all about turning off the internal narration while reading and just absorbing the text directly. However, studies show that for most people, the narration helps comprehension and recall; and also that everyone or nearly everyone has subvocalization when reading, i.e. involuntary muscle movement of the throat, mirroring the words that they’re reading.
I hear a narrator if I decide to; otherwise the words just go directly into my brain like you described. I just had Morgan Freeman read your comment to me for funsies.
Wow! No, I’ve never “heard” a novel. Some writing is easy enough, like a meme where, “You just read this in Morgan Freeman’s voice.” OTOH, I didn’t “hear” it, but somehow I read it that way in my mind’s eye/ear.
I might be a 5 on the hearing scale! That’s really something to think on.