Post by @tksst@fediscience.org

2026-07-07 18:30 UTC

💁🏻‍♀️ TIL: 🧠👁️ Around 10% of #students experience #aphantasia, a lack of mental imagery that can make #science harder to learn. A study across seven #Sydney private schools found load reduction instruction boosted test scores by about 20% for these students. The #research recommends physical models and concrete language over “imagine this” prompts. 👉 https://phys.org/news/2026-07-assume-students-pictures-minds.html #education #learning #teaching #neurodiversity #classroom #psychology

Replies (2)

@macronencer@mastodon.scot 2026-07-07 18:37

@tksst@fediscience.org I have aphantasia, and I've written a story in which the percentage of people with aphantasia is mentioned. Every time a study gives a new figure I have to go and update it, haha! 10% - really? Much higher than usually cited. Oddly enough, I was very good at maths and physics at school, despite a blind mind's eye. I always say I can imagine shapes — but I don't see them. I sort of "feel" them. So hard to describe :(

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@jpaulgibson@mastodon.ie 2026-07-07 18:40

@tksst@fediscience.org thanks for sharing this article on #aphantasia. i’ve aphantasia but only learned about it 10 years ago. i had already been teaching in higher education for 25+ years. the most important lesson i took from this is that we all think differently. make no assumptions about how others think. as a teacher, my teaching improved when i realised that not all (most) of my students think differently from me. every human is incredible (but different) embrace the difference.

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