From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 23:58:39 MDT
While I don't have much personally in the way to report---except to
echo Damien that dreaming imagery is beyond any doubt more powerful
and detailed than imagery produced while awake, I should perhaps
relate the stories of some people I've known.
First, I hope that this isn't old saw for everyone, but Sir Francis
Galton was the first I know of to get interested in this, and wrote
to all his scientific colleagues asking for them to visualize their
morning breakfast table and report what had been on it. They complied,
but a few reminded him that "visualizing" was *only* a weak metaphor,
and that it really wasn't anything at all like *seeing*. This
astounded Galton (a strong visualizer), and on further investigation
he determined that about three-quarters of his scientific colleagues
either didn't visualize or did so only to a small degree.
My first personal encounter with this phenomenon came from
discussions with David Strauss, a one-time California State Chess
Champion. (Ever since he won that, he has regularly been regarded
as the best non-professional in the U.S., with an Elo over 2550.)
I have never known anyone who worked so hard to improve his game
as did David, and one of his goals at the time (early seventies)
was to keep up with our most impressive prodigy, Larry Christiansen.
Finally David concluded that it was his inability to visualize that
was the decisive factor holding him back.
Here are the astonishing facts concerning David Strauss's lack of
ability to visualize. First, and most shocking, is that he was
an outstanding blindfold player. So I would ask, "David, if you
can't visualize, then how is it possible for you to play blindfold?"
(Myself and a few others I knew who were able to play blindfold did
so by creating detailed mental images---that looked as near as we
could make them to the actual appearance of the board, including
the color of squares.) He explained that he simply knew from long
experience, for example, that a bishop on g5 attacks e7, and if
Black hasn't moved his pawn from e7, then it's under attack
unless something is on f6. Evidently he had just accumulated
a tremendous amount of information like that.
Secondly, his inability to visualize was complete. He told me that
under no circumstances could he even picture his mother's face.
Once a friend of mine gave David instructions on how to get to
an important tournament. Said Tom: "when you get to San Bernardino,
continue until Base Line Avenue. Be sure to turn right with respect
to the freeway [Tom gesturing appropriately]." It happens that the
exit for Base Line turns one around 180 degrees, and so David
really had to physically turn left. Tom's description didn't do
anything but get him lost on the day of the tournament.
Thirdly, his lack of visual ability was apparently genetic. He
described the case of his father, a very intelligent man who drove
taxi's in London for a living. This was an awful choice of
occupation for someone unable to visualize. To make his way in
the city to where a fare wished to go, Mr. Strauss had verbally
memorized all the necessary sequences of streets in London. As
he got too old, David recounts, he lost his ability to remember
them all, and was unable to continue work.
Lee Corbin
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