- Staying Human
- Posts
- the lost art of visualization
the lost art of visualization
the impact and cognitive architecture underlying one of our mind's most underrated powers
Ben Lazaroff
September 12, 2024
In partnership with
introduction | edition #004
fully understanding a phenomenon is often incomplete without concrete visualization—and yet the act of visualizing is rarely discussed at all.
this is, in part, because we seem to engage in visualization so effortlessly. in everyday culture, the evolution of cinema has given us incredibly high definition, but it’s also implicitly inverted the structure of learning of books; being given an image to view is a fundamentally different activity than generating an image through reading, searching for a memory, or rendering the physical world in your mind.
and so when we think about the kind of effort visualization requires, we can’t simply handwave the active imaginative faculty that’s required. translating written language into a set of mental images or ‘reels’ is something people do with varying degrees of skill.
and it’s noticeable when someone’s mastered the skill of imagination. it might be a top-flight neurosurgeon with a crystal-clear mental topography of the human brain—or an unassuming bus driver who just so happens to follow city streets with the instinctual precision of a jungle predator.
but this skill is not something that builds itself. it requires regular cardio, continued challenge—and novelty. this might at first sound fatiguing, but the benefits of imaginative training are manifold. production of mental imagery offers new pathways to identifying and treating major cognitive disorders—tracing distinct neural signatures for those with cognitive conditions like PTSD, bipolar disorder and depression—each with recognizable neural correlates of varying strength and size.
the ability to visualize offers practical elevations in job-facing skillsets, allows for the execution of more complex mental tasks rooted in more sophisticated mental abilities and memory recall, and offers the mind a greater degree of flexibility in preparing for later-life and warding off the many cognitive degenerations that accompany longevity.
it’s an unsuspecting subject for the general populace, but a burgeoning field with vast connections across neuroscience, medicine and psychology. staying human entails a deeper understanding of how our mind works—and a continued evaluation of whether certain mental abilities are worth offshoring to new suites of technology that make it all too easy to forget we had these abilities at all.
edition zipcode | 33331
3 | questions to consider
when was the last time you really made sure you visualized every detail from an author's depiction of something?
can you create clear images in your mind intentionally—with a meaningful degree of control in your mental design?
have you ever practiced the skill of visualization? in what contexts? what might you do or understand through visualization that you couldn’t otherwise?
join our community on reddit
a space where you can discuss each piece, offer thoughts and additional research, and join a group interested in talking through a range of topics on how to stay good, rational people in an era that’s anything but:
one click to join the conversation —> r/stayinghuman
3 | research findings
on the role of mental imagery formation in treating clinical disorders:
“…mental imagery has also been found to play a pivotal role in many mental and neurological disorders and their treatments. For example, intrusive, emotional mental imagery causes distress across a range of psychiatric disorders, from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia [64]. However, those psychological therapies primarily based on verbal exchanges have historically neglected imagery, primarily focusing on the patient's verbal thoughts.”
on the powerful benefits of imaginative training:
“There is empirical evidence about the long-term positive effects of imaginative training in facilitating associative learning in ID (Zupnick & Meyer, 1975), improving performance both in response times (Suburg, 1991) and in motor performance (Surburg, Porretta, & Sutlive, 1995). Imaginative training, in conjunction with physical practice, improves the accuracy of performance and reduces its variability (Porretta & Surburg, 1995); its usefulness has been demonstrated in increasing cognitive abilities in atypical development (Czerwinsky Domenis, 1995; Joffe, Cain, & Marić, 2007).”
one of those beautiful, open questions—on how we still don’t fully understand the neural foundations of imagination:
“Developing a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which our brains generate visual experience calls for the elucidation of dynamic top-down and bottom-up connectivity within and between the neural structures involved. Whereas during perception, activation of visual representations is ultimately caused by bottom-up influences from the retina, these exogenous influences are absent during visual imagery. How visual areas are activated in the absence of stimulus bound, bottom-up input, remains an open question.
3 | visuals
visualization underpins the architecture of varying cognitive conditions, and plays a critical role in whether — and how intensely — they manifest:
Imagery Is a Key Part of Symptoms in Mental Disorders – From the Intrusive Memories of Trauma in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to the Lack of Positive Future Imagery in Depression. It presents a cognitive mechanism driving psychopathology, and thus imagery can also be targeted as a process – and harnessed as a tool – in psychological treatment. (Pearson et. al. “Mental Imagery: Functional Mechanisms and Clinical Applications”. Trends Cogn Sci. 2015)
the ability to add visual cues to your memory drastically improves memory recall. if you hear a piece of information, most people will remember about 10% of it accurately; add a visual cue, you’ll remember ~65%. imagine if you could add those visual cues at will. here’s a simple model of the average human brain’s memory recall based on the type and combination of stimuli presented:
Dr. John Medina (developmental molecular biologist), Brain Rules
imagery vividness (represented by y-axis VVIQ scores) drops signifciantly with age. According to Gulyás et. al., “[a] power trendline almost perfectly fits the declining imagery vividness scores (R2 = .9948) indicating that the developmental changes are greater at higher VVIQ scores (lower ages) and become gradually smaller.”
Gulyás et. al. “Visual imagery vividness declines across the lifespan.” (2022). Figure 1A
(cont.) the aptly-named “hyperphantastic” population (i.e. those with outstanding visualization skills) shrinks drastically with age, as the aphantastic (i.e. those who struggle with, or who or are partially impaired in, visualization) grows over time. so even if you’re naturally gifted at the art of visualization, your visual IQ will likely decline substantially over time without deliberate training:
Gulyás et. al. “Visual imagery vividness declines across the lifespan.” (2022). Figure 1B’
3| quotes
“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination.
I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same.
In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain.
Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be mathematically treated and the effects calculated or the results determined beforehand from the available theoretical and practical data.
The carrying out into practise of a crude idea as is being generally done is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money and time.”
“You can’t depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.”
“In my mind’s eye, I visualize how a particular…sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.”
“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
“Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.”
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
1 | final thought
visualization is a solvent that reveals the invisible ink of the ideas you've always wanted to come up with. the capacity to visualize at will is the expertise of a draftsman of mental blueprints.
Ben L. | Staying Human
(1) Earn Amazon gift cards through referrals, (2) give feedback on the newsletter, and (3) comment on each edition
If 10 (real) people sign up, we’ll send you a $25 Amazon Gift Card
If 25 (real) people sign up, we’ll send you another $50 Amazon Gift Card
If 100 (real) people sign up, we’ll send you a final $100 Amazon Gift Card
Use your custom referral link below to make that happen.
In weeks and months to come, we’ll be sharing out a referral leaderboard to give everyone the props they’ve earned.
What did you think of this week's edition?your feedback shapes future editions - what did you think? |
Receive Honest News Today
Join over 4 million Americans who start their day with 1440 – your daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. From politics to sports, we cover it all by analyzing over 100 sources. Our concise, 5-minute read lands in your inbox each morning at no cost. Experience news without the noise; let 1440 help you make up your own mind. Sign up now and invite your friends and family to be part of the informed.
Reply