>>If somebody told me "image you are walking a winding path. To your right there is a wood, to your left there is a mountain".
>>The image I see in my mind...
I see no image. No empty paper with an arrow, nothing. Same with sounds.
I don't have a problem identifying faces. I'm not great at putting names with faces, but that may be separate.
I think entirely in words, no images. No sounds. Just concepts that are mapped to words. It blows my mind some people actually see images when they think
I don’t have aphantasia, but I do think in an audible stream of words.
This has led to an odd quirk in my experience as a software developer: I hate keywords or variable names that don’t have an obvious pronunciation, like “fn”. They interrupt the stream and make me stumble in a way that doesn’t seem to afflict people who appear to experience written words as grouped glyphs without hearing them.
(I’ve chosen to read “fn” as “effin” as a puerile expression of resentment.)
"think of" is far too ambiguous here to really meaningfully drill into the differences of _how_ people think about things. I know that a stop sign is a red octagon (with a white boundary) with the word "STOP" in the center. I could draw you a plausible picture of one without issue. Thinking about it just involves no imagery.
Information you might rely on visualization for, I don't (because I can't). I couldn't tell you with any confidence what my family that just visited this afternoon was wearing (something I assume is easier for people who would remember it visually), but I can recall what happened - in what order, where, who said what, etc. - throughout their visit.
I have a vivid imagination. My stop sign visualized as looking up to your right at a stop sign a few feet above your head, so a proportionally distorted octagon. The coating is metallic red and near-white and has a mild flaky look to it as some colored metal has, with a hint of rainbow from the sun that lights it from my back. There is a standard metal post with holes in it. There is a mostly blue sky as background framed with small leaved, large trees. I know that if I paned down, I'd see grass with small, yellow flowers.
When I lose my wife at the store, I often realize I would be useless in describing what she was wearing if I had to. If friends were over, I wont recall their attire unless it specifically came up, then I might remember it for years.
I know what they look like. Could describe them to you. Draw them on a piece of paper. Can't visualise one in my head.
Heck, I can't even visualise what my wife and kids look like, something that my wife finds astonishing (and sad).
I'm useless at art, for the most part, with no visual imagination to work with.
Yesterday we were at a clothes store, and I could tell my youngest that I didn't think a particular set of clothes she was trying suited her, and was able to make specific suggestions. I can look at clothes and decide if they'd suit. Not because I could see them together in my head, or picture her wearing them, but because I've learned the rules, for want of a better way to put it.
I don't have a problem identifying faces. I'm not great at putting names with faces, but that may be separate.