I can picture things in my mind's eye, can remember what people look like, walk through the recent past, etc., but I don't see them painted as images on my closed eyelids as though I was seeing them with my actual eyes. When I remember I "see" them but not in a literal visual sense.
Like if you asked me, "When you came to my house yesterday, did you see a green apple on the table?" I would scan back through my memory "visually" and if I encountered a memory of a green apple I would say yes, but I would only see that apple in my "mind's eye". Does that qualify as an image? Because I wouldn't really call it that, it's just a flash of mental objects and sure some imagery.
What I've learned is that there are people heavily focused on their senses and then there are others who take in information in other ways (possibly intuition, etc) because they are always in their head.
I have an incredibly poor short term memory, my wife an amazing sensor. She notices everything.... object placement, where things were weeks ago. I didn't notice an elephant walking by me years ago in Thailand; nor last week in a western state town I didn't the open carry long gun that a guy had whom I spoke to for 5 seconds. [he was protesting through engagement]
These are running jokes. I also can't relate to a majority of the world (sensors) - however, I can solve complex multi-chain problems in my head that they drop out at step 1.
I can picture things in my mind's eye, can remember what people look like, walk through the recent past, etc., but I don't see them painted as images on my closed eyelids as though I was seeing them with my actual eyes. When I remember I "see" them but not in a literal visual sense.
Like if you asked me, "When you came to my house yesterday, did you see a green apple on the table?" I would scan back through my memory "visually" and if I encountered a memory of a green apple I would say yes, but I would only see that apple in my "mind's eye". Does that qualify as an image? Because I wouldn't really call it that, it's just a flash of mental objects and sure some imagery.
So am I aphantasic? I still have no idea.