Aphantasia: A life without mental images - Reading Test Answers

Answer location: Paragraph A life without mental images, line 4

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims “but this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.” Here, the author suggests that some persons with aphantasia are “unable to visualise mental pictures.” Thus, it implies that they are unable to see mental pictures. However, the question just said that such individuals had difficulty doing so, implying that they may still visualise mental pictures.

Answer location: Paragraph A life without mental images, line 6

Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph indicates “My stepfather, when I couldn’t sleep, told me to count sheep, and he explained what he meant, I tried to do it and I couldn’t,” he says. “I couldn’t see any sheep jumping over fences, there was nothing to count.” Niel Kenmuir says that he couldn’t see any sheep jumping over fences and there was nothing to count. He was unable to see any sheep since he had a blind mind’s eye.

Answer location: N/A

Answer explanation: None of the passages confirms or denies that people with Aphantasia struggle to remember the personal traits and clothes of different people.

Answer location: Paragraph Mind’s eye blind, line 5

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can point out that “when I think about my fiancée there is no image, but I am definitely thinking about her, I know today she has her hair up at the back, she’s brunette. But I’m not describing an image I am looking at, I’m remembering features about her, that’s the strangest thing and maybe that is a source of some regret.” Here, “cannot portray an image” is paraphrased to “not describing an image”. Thus, we can infer that Niel can not visualise the image of his fiancee and he feels regretful about this.

Answer explanation: Paragraph Mind’s eye blind, line 8

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, there’s a line that claims, “but while Niel is very relaxed about his inability to picture things, it is often a cause of distress for others.” Here, from Niel’s example, we can infer that Neil did not take it seriously because he was relaxed about this inability, but most people remain in distress because of this inability.

Answer location: N/A

Answer explanation: None of the passages confirms or denies that all people with Aphantasia start to feel ‘isolated’ or ‘alone’ at some point in their lives.

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 2

Answer explanation: The answer is clearly mentioned in the said paragraph and line. In the passage, it is said that “her career relies on the vivid images that leap into her mind’s eye when she reads text from her author.” Here, vivid images that leap into her mind have been paraphrased to her imagination. Hence, we can deduce that Lauren’s career depended on her imagination.

Answer explanation: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 3

Answer explanation: The author in the said paragraph states that “when I met her in her box-room studio in Manchester, she was working on a dramatic scene in the next book.” Hence, the author confirms that he met Lauren when she was in her box-room studio in Manchester when she was working on a dramatic scene and not on a comedy scene.

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 8

Answer explanation: In the reference paragraph, the author mentions that “not many people have mental imagery as vibrant as Lauren or as blank as Niel.” Here, not many people have been paraphrased to only a small fraction of people. Hence, not many people have imaginations as vibrant as Lauren’s.

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 9

Answer explanation: Few lines in the said paragraph discuss that “Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioural neurology, wants to compare the lives and experiences of people with aphantasia and its polar-opposite hyperphantasia.” Thus, Adam Zeman, a professor proves that aphantasia is polar-opposite to hyperphantasia.

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 12

Answer explanation: In the said paragraph, you can find out that “how we imagine is clearly very subjective – one person’s vivid scene could be another’s grainy picture.” According to the passage, one person’s vivid scene could be another’s grainy picture.

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, line 14

Answer explanation: If you read thoroughly, a line in the said paragraph discusses that “he is adamant that aphantasia is “not a disorder” and says it may affect up to one in 50 people.” Thus, we can infer that author is suggesting Prof Zeman is adamant that Aphantasia is not an illness (not a disorder).

Answer location: Paragraph The super-visualiser, last line

Answer explanation: A line in the said paragraph states that “but he adds: “I think it makes quite an important difference to their experience of life because many of us spend our lives with imagery hovering somewhere in the mind’s eye which we inspect from time to time, it’s a variability of human experience.”Top of Form” This information confirms that many of us (most people) spend our lives with imagery hovering somewhere in the mind’s eye.