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Aphantasia Test

Close your eyes and picture an apple. Do you see it, or just know it? A 2-minute self-check of how vivid your mind's eye is. Free, no sign-up. We save answers, with your IP address and country, to build comparisons.

By the Helibrain teamReviewed by Robert, biophysics PhD candidatePublished Last reviewed

How vivid is your mind's eye?

You will be asked to imagine a few everyday things. For each one, choose how clear it was in your mind. There are no right or wrong answers.

10 things to picture, then 4 sounds, smells, tastes or touches. About 2 minutes.

Tap an answer, or press 1 to 5. You can go back to change an answer.

What is aphantasia?

Aphantasia means having no pictures in the mind's eye. People with aphantasia can think about an apple and know what it looks like, but don't see it when they imagine it. The term was coined in 2015 [1]. In a survey of about 1,000 adults, about 1 in 25 reported very weak or no visual imagery [2]. It isn't an illness.

Quick facts

  • What this check measures: how vivid you say your imagined pictures are, from 1 (no picture) to 5 (as clear as seeing), plus one sound, smell, taste and touch.
  • Not the VVIQ: the research questionnaire most studies use is the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) [3]. This check uses our own items, so its numbers can't be compared one to one with VVIQ scores.
  • How common: about 3.9% of adults reported very weak or absent imagery, and about 0.8% reported none at all, on the VVIQ [2].
  • The other end: about 6% describe extremely vivid imagery, sometimes called hyperphantasia; about 90% fall in between [8].
  • Not a diagnosis: aphantasia is a way of experiencing, not a disease, and no short questionnaire can confirm it.

How the check works

  1. Imagine. You get 10 everyday things to picture, one at a time, and then 4 items for the other senses.
  2. Rate. For each one, choose how clear it was, from "Nothing" to "As clear as the real thing". Close your eyes if it helps.
  3. See your score. Your mind's-eye score is the average of the picture items, from 1 to 5. The other senses are shown on their own.

There are no right answers and nothing is timed. Your answers are scored on our server and saved to build comparisons; our privacy policy says what is kept.

How to read your result

  • No pictures at all: you chose "Nothing" for every picture item. That is how people with aphantasia usually describe themselves [1].
  • Faint pictures (an average of 2 or less): most pictures were vague or missing. Studies with the VVIQ often group answers like these with aphantasia [2].
  • Somewhere in the middle: moderately clear to clear pictures. About 9 in 10 people answer like this on the VVIQ [8].
  • Very vivid pictures (an average of 4.7 or more): almost everything was as clear as seeing it. Studies call this hyperphantasia [4] [8].

These bands follow the way researchers group VVIQ answers, but our items are different, so treat the band as a description of your answers, not a measurement.

What research has found

  • It was noticed long ago. In 1880, Francis Galton asked people to picture their breakfast table, and some said they saw nothing at all [5].
  • The label is new. In 2015 a team in Exeter described 21 people who had little or no visual imagery and called it aphantasia [1]. Since then, about 2,000 people who recognised themselves have answered the team's questionnaires [4].
  • It can be measured without words. In a binocular rivalry experiment, imagining a picture first changes what people then see for most people, but not for people with aphantasia [6].
  • Other senses often go with it. About half of the people with aphantasia in one large study said they had no imagery in any sense; the others could imagine some sounds, smells, tastes or touch [4] [7].
  • Memory works differently. People with aphantasia more often report a weaker memory for their own past and for faces, and most still dream in pictures [4] [7].

What this check can and can't tell you

This is a short self-report: it shows how you describe your own imagination today, in your own words. People mean different things by "clear", so two people with the same inner experience can score differently. It doesn't diagnose anything, and neither a low nor a high score is a problem. If you're curious, research groups sometimes run studies on imagery that you can join.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if I have aphantasia?

Try to picture something familiar, like a friend's face or your front door. If you know what it looks like but see nothing at all, you may have aphantasia. Researchers usually check this with the VVIQ questionnaire [3], and some also use experiments that don't rely on words [6]. This check gives a quick first idea, not a diagnosis.

How common is aphantasia?

In a survey of about 1,000 adults, about 3.9% reported very weak or no visual imagery, and about 0.8% reported none at all [2]. Other studies find similar small shares, depending on where they draw the line.

Is aphantasia a disorder?

No. Aphantasia is a difference in how people experience imagination, not an illness. Most people with lifelong aphantasia live ordinary lives, and many only find out as adults that other people really see pictures [1] [4]. Rarely, imagery is lost after a brain injury or illness; if your imagery has changed suddenly, talk to a doctor.

Can you have aphantasia for other senses?

Yes. About half of the people with aphantasia in one large study said they couldn't imagine sounds, smells, tastes or touch either, while the others could [4]. That's why this check asks about the other senses too.

Is this the VVIQ?

No. The VVIQ is the questionnaire most research uses [3]. This check is our own shorter set of items, written for this page, so its score is on its own scale.

Is the aphantasia test free?

Yes. The check and your full result are free: no sign-up, no email, no payment. We save results to build comparisons, as our privacy policy explains.

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Sources

  1. Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S (2015). Lives without imagery: congenital aphantasia. Cortex 73:378–380. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019
  2. Dance CJ, Ipser A, Simner J (2022). The prevalence of aphantasia (imagery weakness) in the general population. Consciousness and Cognition 97:103243. doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103243
  3. Marks DF (1973). Visual imagery differences in the recall of pictures. British Journal of Psychology 64(1):17–24. doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1973.tb01322.x
  4. Zeman A, Milton F, Della Sala S, et al. (2020). Phantasia: the psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes. Cortex 130:426–440. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.003
  5. Galton F (1880). Statistics of mental imagery. Mind 5(19):301–318. doi.org/10.1093/mind/os-V.19.301
  6. Keogh R, Pearson J (2018). The blind mind: no sensory visual imagery in aphantasia. Cortex 105:53–60. doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012
  7. Dawes AJ, Keogh R, Andrillon T, Pearson J (2020). A cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery, memory and dreaming in aphantasia. Scientific Reports 10:10022. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65705-7
  8. Wright DJ, Scott MW, Kraeutner SN, et al. (2024). An international estimate of the prevalence of differing visual imagery abilities. Frontiers in Psychology 15:1454107. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1454107

How we made this page: written by the Helibrain team from the studies listed above, and reviewed by Robert (biophysics PhD candidate) on 4 November 2026. We update it when the sources change.