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submitted 3 days ago by Apeman42@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I'm curious how that kind of visual/spatial memory interacts with the inability to visualize your imagination.

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[-] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 days ago

Yes, but not visually. Which is to say, if I'm sitting in a room, looking at a wall, and then close my eyes, I still have a sense of where that wall is in relation to me, despite no longer being able to see it. I can navigate through a mental space "spatially" in the same way, with a sense of my own imaginary presence and its spatial relation to the memory of the place I'm moving through.

Interestingly, I can also do it with objects and animals. So despite not being able to visualise a horse, I can conjure up a mental spatial map with me and the horse in it that lets me "know" our relative sizes and locations. I can move it all around as well, and still feel "where" everything is, without seeing any of it

this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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