Aphantasia test

Close yer een and picture an apple. Dae ye see it, or juist ken whit it leukes like? A 2-minute self-check o hou vivid yer mind’s ee is. Free, nae sign-up.

Bi the Helibrain teamChecked bi Robert(Inglis), PhD candidate in biophysicsPit oot Last checked

Whit is aphantasia?

Aphantasia means haein nae pictures in the mind’s ee. Fowk wi aphantasia can think aboot an apple and ken whit it leukes like, but dinnae see it whan they imagine it. The wird wis coined in 2015 [1]. In a survey o aboot 1,000 grown-ups, aboot 1 in 25 said they had gey wee or nae visual imagery [2]. It’s nae an illness.

Quick facts

  • Whit this check measures: hou vivid ye say yer imagined pictures are, frae 1 (nae picture) tae 5 (as clear as seein), plus ae soond, smel, taste and touch.
  • No the VVIQ: the research questionnaire maist studies uise is the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) [3]. This check uises oor ain questions, sae its nummers cannae be compared ane tae ane wi VVIQ scores.
  • Hou common: aboot 3.9% o grown-ups said they had gey wee or absent imagery, and aboot 0.8% said they had nane at aa, on the VVIQ [2].
  • The ither end: aboot 6% describe gey vivid imagery, whiles cried hyperphantasia; aboot 90% are atween [8].
  • No a diagnosis: aphantasia is a gate o experiencin, no a disease, and nae short questionnaire can confirm it.

Hou the check works

  1. Imagine. Ye get 10 ilka-day things tae picture, yin at a time, and than 4 things for the ither senses.
  2. Rate. For ilk ane, chuse hou clear it wis, frae "Nae thing" tae "As clear as the real thing". Close yer een gin it helps.
  3. See yer score. Yer mind’s-ee score is the average o the picture questions, frae 1 tae 5. The ither senses are shawn on their ain.

There are nae richt answers and naethin’s timed.

Hou tae read yer result

  • Nae pictures ava: ye chuised "Nae thing" for ilka picture question. That’s hou fowk wi aphantasia uisually describe theirsels [1].
  • Faint pictures (an average o 2 or less): maist pictures wur vague or missin. Studies wi the VVIQ aften group answers like thir wi aphantasia [2].
  • Somewhaur in the middle: fairly clear tae clear pictures. Aboot 9 in 10 fowk answer like this on the VVIQ [8].
  • Gey vivid pictures (an average o 4.7 or mair): amaist ilka thing wis as clear as seein it. Studies cry this hyperphantasia [4] [8].

Thir bands follae the gate researchers group VVIQ answers, but oor questions are different, sae tak the band as a description o yer answers, no a measurement.

Whit research has fund

  • Fowk noticed it lang syne. In 1880, Francis Galton spiered fowk tae picture their breakfast table, and some said they saw naethin ava [5].
  • The label is new. In 2015 a team in Exeter described 21 fowk that had wee or nae visual imagery and cried it aphantasia [1]. Syne then, aboot 2,000 fowk that recognised theirsels hae answered the team’s questionnaires [4].
  • It can be measured athoot wirds. In a binocular rivalry experiment, imagin a picture first changes whit fowk then see, for maist fowk, but no for fowk wi aphantasia [6].
  • Ither senses aften gang wi it. Aboot hauf the fowk wi aphantasia in yin muckle study said they had nae imagery in ony sense; the lave could imagine some soonds, smells, tastes or touch [4] [7].
  • Memory works different. Fowk wi aphantasia mair aften report a weaker memory o their ain past and o faces, and maist still dream in pictures [4] [7].

Whit this check can and cannae tell ye

This is a short self-report: it shows hou ye describe yer ain imagination the day, in yer ain wirds. Fowk mean different things by "clear", sae twa fowk wi the same inner experience can get different scores. It disnae diagnose onything, and naither a low nor a high score is a problem. Gin ye’re curious, research groups whiles run studies on imagery that ye can join.

Aften speired questions

Hou dae I ken gin I hae aphantasia?

Try tae picture something familiar, like a freend’s face or yer front door. Gin ye ken whit it leukes like but see naethin ava, ye micht hae aphantasia. Researchers uisually check this wi the VVIQ questionnaire [3], and some uise experiments that dinnae rely on wirds [6]. This check gies a quick first thocht, no a diagnosis.

Hou common is aphantasia?

In a survey o aboot 1,000 grown-ups, aboot 3.9% said they had gey wee or nae visual imagery, and aboot 0.8% said they had nane at aa [2]. Ither studies find similar wee shares, dependin on whaur they draw the line.

Is aphantasia a disorder?

Naw. Aphantasia is a difference in hou fowk experience imagination, no an illness. Maist fowk wi lifelong aphantasia lead ordinary lives, and mony only find oot as grown-ups that ither fowk really see pictures [1] [4]. Rarely, imagery is lost efter a brain injury or illness; gin yer imagery has changed sudden, speak tae a doctor.

Can ye hae aphantasia for ither senses?

Aye. Aboot hauf the fowk wi aphantasia in yin muckle study said they couldnae imagine soonds, smells, tastes or touch either, while the lave could [4]. That’s why this check speirs aboot the ither senses an aa.

Is this the VVIQ?

Naw. The VVIQ is the questionnaire maist research uises [3]. This check is oor ain shorter set o questions, written for this page, sae its score is on its ain scale.

Is the aphantasia test free?

Aye. The check and yer hale result are free: nae sign-up, nae email, nae payment.

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Cite this page: Aphantasia test. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/sco/aphantasia-test. CC BY 4.0.

Common questions

How this test works

This check asks how vivid your mind's eye is. You picture 10 everyday scenes, such as a friend's face or a sunset, and rate each one from 1 (nothing) to 5 (as clear as the real thing). Then you rate one sound, one smell, one taste and one touch. Your score is the average of the 10 picture ratings. There are no right answers and no clock. Psychologists have asked people to rate their mental pictures since Francis Galton did so in 1880.

Version 1 · Cite this test:

Helibrain (2026). Aphantasia test, v1. https://helibrain.com/aphantasia-test/methods

Full method →

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: scrieved bi the Helibrain team fae the studies listed abuin, an checked bi Robert(Inglis) (PhD candidate in biophysics) on 11/4/2026. We update it when the soorces chynges.