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.

Considering your specific example with an apple, what about other senses, what happens if you try and recall texture, smell and taste?

I am probably 1/2, but creating images in my mind is not something I do on a daily basis, which is probably why I lack creativity in certain areas. Also I had hard time remembering faces for most of my life, and only recently it get slightly better.

Also I've noticed that the more I think about how something looks like the less I am able to picture it in my head, sometimes even not being able to remember my crush's face which is probably strange as fuck.

am I the only one like this?

Too fun and interesting to be a shitpost. Half my family are 1 the other half are 5. Woo!

I'm somewhere between 5 and 4 if I'm really trying. Never felt like a handicap or anything before

One time I had a dream about the ascii game I played. I dreamed it both IN TEXT, and my brain produced images of the people, places, and things at the same time as I usually imagined them.

There are times I can be "sucked into" a book. I'm in there, seeing the story like its real. I forget about everything else momentarily. Very jarring when my concentration is broken, and suddenly I remember who/where I am.

Also once had the classic "dreaming in code" when stuck on a programming project in school. Words can't properly describe the experience, besides I was dreaming in code. I shot out of bed and immediately typed up the working solution to the problem I was stuck on.

Oh wait can people really imagine something with that amount of detail in their heads??(#1) I (#3) always thought the idea of sonething is enough

I'm a 5.

Probably why I prefer graphic novels and was not really into textual books that much. I wish I could play a whole movie in my head while reading a book. I'm so jealous.

My dreams are super vivid though, and lucid dream often. And I remember my dreams in heavy detail. My dreams are like a 1 or 2.

I am not on this scale.

How to draw an apple in the mind?

• Start with the seed. It's full of some stuff and feels solid.
• Cover the seed with a rigid, plasticky smooth membrane. It has not particular taste.
• Stick a lot of mushy watery stuff to the membrane and go outwards.
• At some point, there's a twig starting to form and goes outward
• Shape the mush
• Cover it with another membrane that's now, a little less rigid and feels different.

Colour? What colour?
That's extra charge.