The Main Attributes of Visual Thought
- Alec Figueroa
- Jan 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 8
Heads up:
This post is adapted from a recent YouTube video. The written version is useful, but the full experience happens when you hear the exercise spoken out loud. You can watch the video here:
When I coach students in my program, I almost never ask binary questions like:
“Was it visual?”
“Did you visualize?”
Those questions usually get a fast, confident answer: “No.”
And most of the time, that answer shuts the door far too early.
If you experience aphantasia, or you think you do, your inner world is probably described as words, lists, or descriptors. That description is accurate, but it is also incomplete.
The real question is not whether something was visual.
The real question is:
What was going on in my mind that wasn’t just words?
That single shift changes everything.
Why Binary Questions Fail
When you ask yourself “Did I visualize?”, you are asking your mind to collapse a complex, multi-layered internal process into a yes or no.
Human cognition does not work that way.
Most people are not either fully visual or fully non-visual. Mental imagery exists on a spectrum. And more importantly, visual thought is made up of attributes, not pictures.
So instead of asking whether something was visual, we look for visual attributes.
This is exactly how I work with students one-on-one.
The Core Visual Attributes I Always Look For
There are many possible sub-attributes of visual thought, but there are four that I check for almost every single time.
These can appear together, or they can appear one at a time.
You do not need all of them for a thought to be visual.
1. Gestalt
Gestalt is the overall sense of a scene.
Not details.
Not clarity.
Just the whole of it.
I usually save this one for later sessions because it can be subtle, but think of it as broad vividness or the feeling of a scene existing as a unit.
2. Shape
This one is easier to spot.
There is a big difference between:
Thinking the word round
Having a sense of roundness
If I ask you to think of a beach ball, are you repeating the word “round” to yourself?
Or is there a knowing of roundness?
That knowing is not language.
That is a shape-based thought.
3. Color
Color is one of my favorites because it exposes the difference between language and experience very clearly.
There are only a few ways color can exist in the mind:
The name of a color
An emotional or cultural association
The color itself
If you think “sky blue,” that is language.
If you sense a particular shade of blue, even faintly, that is not language.
It is also completely subjective. My blue might not be your blue. We have no way to compare that directly.
But if the shade exists without needing to be named, that is a visual attribute.
4. Perspective (Orientation)
Perspective is the sense of angle or orientation.
This one often gets mixed up with spatial awareness, but there is a visual quality to it.
It answers questions like:
From what angle am I approaching this?
Is this above me, below me, or in front of me?
Even a faint sense of viewpoint counts.
A Simple Exercise to Spot Visual Thought
Let’s make this practical.
Think of a simple scenario.
Imagine it’s a nice day. Maybe around 70 degrees. You’re at a park. There’s a bit of a breeze.
You’re walking toward a park bench that sits between pavement and grass.
Now stop.
Pick one moment from that scene.
If you had to choose a moment that stood out, which one would it be?
Do not let yourself off the hook.
If you had to pick one.
Now ask yourself something much more important:
How did that moment occur in my mind?
Not what happened.
How it happened.
If it wasn’t just words, what was it?
Anything goes here. It does not even need to be visual yet.
You might notice:
A sense of movement
A feeling of approaching
A vague orientation
A hint of light or brightness
A sense of texture
The how matters far more than the what.
Sub-Attributes That Often Show Up
Beyond the main four, there are several secondary attributes that frequently appear:
Motion
Light and contrast
Texture
For example:
Did you sense movement toward the bench?
Did the scene feel bright because it was daytime?
Was there any knowing of the bench being wooden?
You do not need to force these. Just notice whether they were there.
Why This Exercise Works So Well
Here’s the key.
I am the one describing the scene.
You are only listening.
If something other than words appeared in your mind while listening, that means your brain is already processing information in non-linguistic ways.
That matters.
It means there is something to work with.
What This Means If You Think You Have Aphantasia
If you are wondering whether you have aphantasia, here is a far better starting point than asking “Can I visualize?”
Ask:
What did I process that wasn’t just narration or words?
If the answer is nothing, that tells us something.
If the answer is something, even very subtle, that tells us something else.
Mental imagery is not on or off.
It is a spectrum.
Someone may experience almost nothing.
Someone else may experience vivid imagery.
And many people sit somewhere in between.
Even a barely visual thought is still information.
And information can be built on.
For Those Training Visualization
If you are actively training your mind’s eye, this distinction is critical.
The better you can:
Identify different types of thought
Notice which ones are not language-based
Recognize visual attributes when they appear
The easier it becomes to build structure.
Visualization is not about forcing pictures.
It is about scaffolding.
You start with what is already happening.
You name it.
You work with it.
That is how scenes become more stable over time.
One Final Question
If you took one insight from this process, what was it?
That question alone can reveal a lot.
This work is not about labels.
It is about understanding how your mind actually functions.
Once you can do that, everything else gets much easier.
I’ll see you next time.
-Alec
Comments