Visual Imagery and Improv – Memory and Recall - Ep #14

:: 00:17

Welcome to the Neurodiversity and Improv Podcasts from FlatImprov.

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I'm Jen deHaan, and I do improv.

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And I think a lot about improv things.

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But first of all, before we get started, these podcasts, as I say every week, they're not for telling anyone what to do.

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I'm not telling you how to do improv, and I'm certainly not doing this to help you diagnose yourself or diagnose anyone else.

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Make sure that you talk to a professional who knows a lot more about all of this than I do if you want to do any of those things.

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I'm just doing this to help you out with some improv, to make sure that you feel that you're not alone, because you're not, and to help encourage classes and teams and all other improvisers to just be more inclusive and understanding about the people that they are doing improv with.

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We're just big improv nerds being improv nerds.

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So let's get started.

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Let's talk about some improv, or I'll talk at you about improv.

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And then this week, I'll also have a little bit of something at the very end for the other weirds out there like me.

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So stick around after the plugs if you want to hear that.

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So this episode, we're going to explore mental imagery and improv, how it pertains to memory and recall in scenes and sets.

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So mental imagery, it's essentially like a visual imagination.

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It's really any visual representation that you can bring up or recall in your mind about the past, an object, or if you can just conjure up anything random by just thinking about it.

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For example, if it was like, I want to think of a woman, this might not be a woman that I've met or a woman that I have seen on TV or anything like that.

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It might just be a completely fictional thing that I bring up in my mind.

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So that is what we're talking about.

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Mental imagery, it could be fictional, it could be real as in something that you have seen or experienced.

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And mental imagery, it exists on a spectrum from none at all, and this is called aphantasia, to extremely vivid, and this is called hyperphantasia.

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About 2% to 3% of human beings are in each of these two categories with everyone else somewhere in between those on the spectrum.

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Someone with hyperphantasia would be able to visually create or recall an object with a photorealistic degree of realism, and they might be able to see or experience other elements of the environment as well.

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So you might remember feelings, emotions, the humidity, the light, and all of the details of that particular object.

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Someone with aphantasia, so that's no visual mental imagery, has non-visual methods to recall the same information.

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So in other words, it's not considered to be some kind of intellectual impairment or disorder to not have visual imagery or to be weaker on the visual spectrum.

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Human beings are just using different tools that could be just as good or maybe even better for improv.

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I don't know, because I haven't experienced this and I haven't seen any information on this either.

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So it doesn't mean that we all don't have challenges with whatever unique variables we're given in this particular category.

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Just to remind you, it's not considered to be an intellectual deficit or an improv deficit to not have mental imagery available to you.

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So hyperventasia, which is the extremely vivid mental imagery, it's also not photographic memory, which a lot of people talk about.

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That is very short-term and highly precise visual recall of something you've seen.

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So hyperventasia is not that.

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So I go into a lot more detail about what all of these things are and the overall hyperphantasic experience, what that's like in episode 10 of this podcast.

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So if you want more information, go check out episode 10 and it's near the beginning.

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In this particular episode, I will focus a bit more about how mental imagery can be used in improv specifically for information or memory recall.

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So in episode 10, I talked about some of the ways that you can use visual imagination or mental imagery in improv.

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One of the obvious ways that you use it is to help you set up a base reality.

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You might be in a location.

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You might be, I hope you're in some kind of location and you would be describing some of the things that you see potentially.

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So you and your scene partner can get on the same page.

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You might use scene painting within a set or at the beginning of a set.

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You might actually look around and describe the things that you see for that same reason, helping everybody get on the same page.

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You can also use it for character development.

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You might see what your character looks like and let that inform who your character is or understand their point of view maybe even.

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You will potentially see what your scene partners describe as well.

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They might add something to the scene and then you can see that.

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And seeing these things help me remember them, which is something that we'll talk about in more detail in this episode.

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For example, I can still remember some of the scenes that were particularly strong visually months and even years later.

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Now, I did use this technique, hyperphantasia, in my case outside of improv for many years to help me remember things, to help me memorize things as well.

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And developing that skill might be why I find that it's very useful in improv as well.

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This might be a built up muscle, I'm not too sure.

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So I'll describe that in case it is something that I developed that might be something that you choose to develop or something that you notice that you already have developed and then using that might help you utilize it in improv a little bit more.

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All right, so mental imagery and detail recall.

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This is an area that has some science.

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There's been research in this.

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So what is it?

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Particularly strong mental imagery has a impact, quite a notable impact in the ability for someone like you to time travel mentally.

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So what on earth does that mean?

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That means you have a strong ability to remember the past or construct things that may occur in the future through your visual imagery, by how strong you can conjure those mental images in your mind.

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People that have a very strong mental imagery ability, they perceive more details about those constructed or reconstructed environments in their mind, so they can recall and provide those details because of the particularly vivid mental images that they can bring up.

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So there isn't much scientific study on the future event construction, but there is research available on that past recall.

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And I will put links to that in the show notes.

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So the evidence shows that people with this ability can provide richer descriptions of what they call flash-bulb memories of these powerful autobiographical memories.

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So if you do improv, teachers might call this flash memory.

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So if you have strong mental imagery, you might be very good at flash memory.

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I use flash memory to recall emotions too and put those emotions into the scene using this particular ability, in addition to flash memory or ideas or adding other details.

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So it's useful for all of these particular things, potentially.

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But let's look at a few of the applications of memory recall on specific parts of improv.

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So first of all, how I built up this muscle of using visual memory for recall.

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So I used visual memory all the time in college or university as we call it in Canada.

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I used to hand write anything that required straight up data memorization.

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Because at some point I realized that that was the only way I had a chance of memorizing it, if I hand wrote it out.

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And I never read the notes or referred to them.

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I just kept writing them out.

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So it was something I kind of realized if I did that activity, I had a better chance of actually remembering the process.

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So I reckon that there is various variables involved in all of this, but I used to think that it was for the kinesthetic element of handwriting them or something, because I knew it wasn't anything else.

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It wasn't me kind of memorizing it by actually looking at it or something.

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I knew that there was something else involved.

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But what I finally noticed is that I started doing this for my choreo notes for teaching dance fitness, which I also kind of had to memorize.

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And that I would visually return to the time that I was writing it in the room that I wrote them.

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And it was that experience, the actual experience of writing them that helped me kind of remember the piece of paper, the paper that I was writing it on and what that looked like.

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And I went back to the room and that triggered the memory somehow, the memory of the information.

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So it wasn't a photographic thing, like I could see the room, I could see the paper, but I wasn't reading it.

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I only had kind of a vague recall of the words, but I relied on the visual experience to help with that recall.

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So it wasn't kinesthetic, I wasn't photographic memory, and it's not the same thing, but it was something about placing me back to the time that I was dealing with that information.

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So if I was teaching a song in a class and I hit some choreo that I didn't remember, and I was trying to remember the actual choreo, I would go back in time to when I practiced it in the room, I'd kind of see the paper, and then I'd move on if I remembered the choreo that way.

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And by the way, a lot of times I wouldn't, and then I would make it up on the spot, and it was a lot of fun.

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So I think I do that kind of thing in improv as well, if I'm trying to recall something from an earlier scene, for example.

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For me, at any rate, this sort of thing is a strong memory recall tool.

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So in this next bit, I'm gonna talk about some of the visual forms.

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So the highly visual improv forms that you might encounter that can help you experience some of this, maybe a little bit better.

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So at the top of a scene, when you're creating a base reality, your environment, if possible, can be extremely helpful in general.

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This can help you return to that base reality later on in the scene if you need it.

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So remembering that base reality setting, all of those visuals later in the set, it might help you return to a game.

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It might help you rest a game or go to the environment while you are not doing, hitting the game, whatever you wanna call that and so on.

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This is just a good practice in general, of course, to know who you are and where you are, what you're doing, if you wanna get really basic about it.

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But sometimes I'll set up a little bit more of a visual at the top of the scene if I know that I'll need to do something later with it or return there for sure.

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This can, for example, be really useful if you're gonna do a second beat where you need to create an analogous scene to that visual that sort of mirrors the first beat.

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But I'll talk more about that in a future episode.

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But for now, certain forms are perfect for creating a very highly visual environment.

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Forms that you do this in are like macro scenes or mono scenes or close quarters.

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Mono scenes are particularly strong because you are staying in that same environment.

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So you definitely want to know where you are and what it looks like and what's in that environment.

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So you can maybe play with those things or refer to them.

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You want a very strong visual setup.

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And if you're doing one great big long scene, you might want to return to something that you mentioned or that was there at the beginning of the scene to call back near the end.

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This can all really help you develop a strong scene.

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And if you have a very strong visual idea of where you are, this is really useful for memory, for recalling those elements as well, because you're really immersed in the scene and so you will remember them better.

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So making sure that you have that very visual setup at the beginning can be good for your memory recall, and it can be of course helpful for your scene partners as well.

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One example of really setting up of extremely particular, strong visual was a macro scene that I did two years ago.

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And we had to remember walking through an environment.

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That walkthrough was probably six different distinct areas that all had a lot of specifics built into the visual space.

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Very, very specific visual elements, right down to the name of a book.

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And walking through this environment was almost like a drone flying through this great big mansion.

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And all of those elements, I can recall quite easily, two years from the taping of this particular episode.

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If you get really strong visuals, and it can make a very strong set, but it can also stick with you for a pretty long period of time, memory-wise, for recall.

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So that can, of course, help you in the evening that you're actually doing it, of course.

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So in general, this technique of just really adding those details and seeing them as you are in the scene can help you go back to earlier in the set and recall something very specific.

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This is quite a bit like the dance fitness choreo example I provided just before this.

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It is kind of rewinding in your mind to the earlier thing to grab that information and then go back to where you are in the scene.

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And it happens in a fraction of a second.

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But it can be very, very helpful for memory recall.

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And it happens much better, the stronger of the visual space, the environment that you make for at least yourself, but also of course, out loud to your scene partner as well.

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But I'll say that a lot of these visual elements I will create for myself.

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I won't necessarily say them out loud, but it is something that I see.

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And the more things that you and your scene partner put in to the scene through dialogue, of course help enhance this environment.

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But a lot of it, I will mention, will be just something that you have yourself in your mind.

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The stronger you can do that, the better that you can recall it later.

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And I'll quickly also mention that that choreo example that I gave earlier for memorizing my choreo, it's the same feeling sensation to me mentally.

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So I figure it's the same in improv.

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I'll talk a little bit here about remembering names.

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Now, this dives into a little bit of an oddity for me.

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So names, very verbal.

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I mean, you're not going to remember somebody's name by looking at them necessarily in your mental imagery.

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That's not gonna help you.

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And we all have our tools, like I said.

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Like, I still think the best way is to just say the name a few times, that usually is enough to work for me.

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I've also tried purposefully visualizing the name in text in my mental imagery while I'm doing the scene.

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So of course, what I was talking about earlier is in time, in the past, like it's a previous scene that you're recalling.

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And a lot of this hyperphantasia or your mental imagery is happening in real time in improv.

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You are experiencing the scene in real time.

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So this is a little bit different of a technique of purposefully visualizing elements.

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Like I am injecting it into my mental imagery in real time.

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So this is something I've played around with a bit, and I might've detailed it a bit in episode 10.

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I can't remember.

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Anyways, I will like spray paint the name of the person, beside them on a wall or in the sky or something like that to see if me putting that visual thing is something that I can then recall later.

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And I haven't found it to be particularly successful.

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However, in one scene, once, this is not a frequent thing, but once I noticed my brain automatically putting the name in the visuals for me, I didn't try to do that.

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It just happened.

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And it was one scene a long time ago, and I still remember the name Kyle.

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It was written in like an old timey font in yellow.

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And it helped me, of course, for the scene.

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Like I definitely did not forget the name Kyle.

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So I think that the only way here for this is if your brain throws it in there for you on its own and you don't try to force it in.

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Again, I have forced it in.

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You can do it.

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I just haven't found it very effective for memory recall.

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But this also happens in more useful ways in the scene, as long as it's what your brain gives you and you aren't forcing it to be in there.

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The other areas where I found using mental imagery, and this is somewhat recall related, is in creating characters, and I will save those for a future episode.

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So I reckon that a lot of what I've already said is probably what you are familiar with and you're already using in your practice.

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I mean, I'm not saying anything that isn't common sense.

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So I want to clarify or emphasize a couple things before I wrap it up with some practical usage for these pretty obvious things that maybe aren't quite as obvious.

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Like, why am I telling you all of this basic stuff?

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So I think that it is fairly easy to forget to use your visual imagination and your visual imagery consistently during scenes.

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At least it is for me.

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I think that we easily jump to this stuff when it's needed, like to do space work, or you are supposed to describe the location where you are, or at the top of the scene, when you're used to setting the location or setting up the base reality of what you're doing, and you think about your environment at that point, and then you become completely immersed in the rest of the improv, what is the game, what is your scene partner doing, et cetera, and you kind of drop some of the visuals.

:: 22:28

So for this, I'd like to invite you to try to become more immersed in the visuals at the top of the scene, maybe a little bit more focused there, maybe a little bit more looking around and setting that for you internally, and then continuing to live there, getting in the practice of checking in on those visuals throughout the scene to keep you there.

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And I think that will help your practice doing this sort of thing.

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At least that's what I try to do.

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And I find it to be somewhat helpful.

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So if you take away anything out of noticing the visual or maybe trying out some of these more visual forms to see how they fit for you, try to retain the visuals throughout the scene and do some of those periodic check-ins and see how that might change your improv.

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And I also want to add in something else that's a little bit more practical to take away, and that is how to use these techniques that I've been describing for memory doing an analogous second beat.

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Because I find that if you do some of the things I just mentioned of checking in throughout the scene with your visuals, this is something that can actually help you do second beat or analogous scenes.

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And the key is this.

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You want to set up your first beat with a very strong visual, not just off the top, but throughout it.

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Now, if you want to make things potentially easy for yourself or easier, add in some element of visual progression through the first beat.

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Maybe you're walking around a room or you're walking through a building.

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There are various physical items that you clearly see and note throughout the scene.

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Whatever it is, those visuals progressing through the scene will make it way easier to remember that first beat.

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And then you can easily pin them to their analogous mappings throughout your second beat of the scene.

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So all of those things come back to your memory.

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You'll be able to retrieve them because of everything I've described so far in this episode.

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And then you can use those in your second beat.

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You can map them.

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You'll see the first thing and you'll be able to quickly map that to whatever is relevant for the second beat.

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And because you are heavily relying on those visuals, these mappings are quite easy, I find.

:: 25:16

This sort of stuff, I don't know if that makes sense.

:: 25:19

You probably just have to give it a try and see what works for you.

:: 25:25

But hopefully that takes what is probably a pretty basic fundamental concept of visual imagery and hopefully makes it a little bit more relevant to your improv practice.

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Now, as I explained in an earlier podcast episode, it's not all pros.

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There are certainly cons to having extremely vivid mental imagery.

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Some of these things are like with PTSD and so on, like I can recall negative events just like I can recall positive ones, negative emotions come back with that and so on.

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And I can't watch a lot of movies and TV shows, ones with gore and so on as a result of this.

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But regardless, it's a tool that you can use.

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There's gonna be pros, there's gonna be cons to most of these things.

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So use it if you can and realize that there might be some things that you want to adjust or work with as well that come as those cons or the negative side of these things.

:: 26:37

So in this episode, we covered a few different ways that you can use visual memory in improv as it relates to hyperphantasia, aphantasia, and the stuff in between.

:: 26:52

We talked about how you can use your visual memory to return to an environment that you remember from your real life outside of improv.

:: 27:02

This is essentially flash memory to return to information for recall.

:: 27:09

And you might use this to add things to the scene or help you remember an emotion that you want to use in a scene and so on.

:: 27:17

And of course, you're using these visual memory elements to maybe form the environment that you see as part of the scene.

:: 27:25

And creating a very strong visual scene for you to play within seems to be something that can be strongly retained if you have these particularly vivid visuals built up.

:: 27:37

But even if not, you can play with your visual memory and see how much you can get out of it in your improv practice.

:: 27:47

You might want to try playing with this technique or with this way of recall in improv forms that are particularly visually forward, like monocenes or macro scenes or close quarters.

:: 28:02

These are all good forms that are highly visual that you can use to practice.

:: 28:07

Using some of these recall techniques.

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And just see what pops up for you.

:: 28:13

You might not want to try forcing it, or you might want to try forcing it just to see what comes up for you around that.

:: 28:24

And then you can kind of let go and see what happens by chance, which is what I find to be much more effective in the end.

:: 28:33

This is the Kyle example that I provided earlier.

:: 28:37

See what your brain automatically serves up for you in the moment.

:: 28:42

And you might be able to adjust that a little bit.

:: 28:45

Play around with it and see what your brain does.

:: 28:50

And it's, remember, I'm not saying that this is all positives, and if you don't have this, you can't do improvs.

:: 28:56

There are gotchas that come with strong visual minds, and minds that don't have visual imagery at all are just as fast and great at improvs.

:: 29:08

So since it's wired in and it's what you have, whichever one it is, see what's useful for you for you, for you, for you in some kind of application in improv.

:: 29:22

And please share what you experience in the comments.

:: 29:26

This podcast does have a page on Substack with a comment thing at the bottom.

:: 29:33

So please feel free to use that and add your experience in there because it will be really helpful for other people who are listening as well.

:: 29:42

So just another reminder about this podcast.

:: 29:47

I'll be doing podcasts every second week and written articles the weeks that there aren't podcasts.

:: 29:56

So if you subscribe to this podcast and not the Substack, you might be wondering where's the other episodes.

:: 30:02

They're actually written out articles on this same subject.

:: 30:06

So visit the Substack if you want to see the written articles and give me feedback about what you want to see.

:: 30:14

Do you find one of them more useful than the other?

:: 30:17

Just let me know what you're looking for because I'm listening.

:: 30:22

And as for plugs, I have classes at World's Greatest Improv School, which is at wgimprovschool.com.

:: 30:30

It's a great school, so go look at the website.

:: 30:32

I have a character class coming up in April that's up on the site right now.

:: 30:37

I also have a website at flatimprov.com.

:: 30:42

And finally, for the weirds, it was Weird Pride Day this week on March 4th.

:: 30:48

So, happy day to all of us.

:: 30:51

No matter when you're listening to this, even if it's way in the future somewhere.

:: 30:56

So, my Improv friends, I just want to let you know on this week of Weird Pride Day that you are not alone.

:: 31:07

You have company here in Improv.

:: 31:09

We are your scene partners, too.

:: 31:12

Your teammates, your teachers, and your coaches.

:: 31:17

So come and find us.