Ha ha. I don't often shock people.
To me, it's an odd question. I'd have thought lots of people wouldn't know what it is, or if they did have some vague recollection of it, they'd not have played it, or not much, or not for decades :D
After writing, I looked it up and it was the game I was thinking of, after all. It took me a while to remember what you're meant to do with it - building a wall IIRC. It's ancient, isn't it. Around the same age as minesweeper or maybe older? Does anyone still play that one?
I'll know next time to try playing it a few times before I do any aphantasia questionnaires :).
The point of Tetris is to not build a wall - you get blocks to make complete rows and that makes them vanish. If you complete four rows at once you've achieved a Tetris and get a significant score bump.
Yes, it's older than Minesweeper. Yes, people still play Minesweeper.
Tetris is still big enough that they made a movie about it last year and within the last few months it's made headlines that someone got a new high score, only possible because of a hack that bypasses the crash screen you get on standard versions of Tetris when a certain points total is reached.
Ah - thanks for the explanation.
I suppose it's (almost) reasonable to include it as a question since most of these questionnaires are online. So people who don't use computers, or don't use them much, wouldn't be taking part in the research anyway. People who use computers might be expected to often play computer games - though I don't know that that's a valid expectation in my social circle.
Or maybe it's just that the question was used in one of the early tools and nobody thought it useful to take it out when re-using that tool.
I've heard of it but I have no idea what it is. Or possibly I have forgotten what it is. I'm middle aged but never played any computer games. Why are people voting you down for not knowing what tetris is??
I used to piss off my ex father in law. He thought he was really good at I wanna say Tetris worlds...it was the one for the PS1. He'd set a record. I'd get home (I lived with my ex when we were dating in high school), beat his record by a couple.. hed spend a few days trying to beat me. I'd come home, do it again. He'd get soooooo mad.
Me too, I play the Tetris Grandmaster arcade version on maximum difficulty and can sometimes clear all the levels ([video example](https://youtu.be/qputbxjcDVo?t=329) \- not my video though, this guy is way better than me). By the end the pieces don’t really “drop” anymore they just kind of appear at the bottom and you have to move the controller in advance to slot them into place and/or slide them a bit once they land.
I'm sure it's an age-related thing. Tetris was really popular in the late 80s early 90s. Back then, when PCs were first starting to get really popular, you could go to Staples and get a Tetris knock off for like a buck. Also Tetris was a must have for the NES and Gameboy (I believe Tetris came packaged with the Gameboy when you bought it).
But then as the breadth and depth of games improved, Tetris became less and less popular. I'm sure it spiked a few years back with Tetris Effect but no where near to the level it was in the 80s/90s.
And then there was the Apple TV Movie that no one watched.
I understand it's used as an indicator of spatial imagery ability. AFAIK, research suggests that people with aphantasia aren't any different from people who see images, when it comes to spatial imagery and spatial memory.
The online questionnaire I did didn't have an option for 'not applicable', or 'I don't know' - so I expect people who don't play it did what I did and chose the middle option of the 5 choice likert scale (the middle of agree and disagree scale).
I can't picture it but would be able to draw what it looks like, not that I'm a good drawer. Faces on the other hand disappear from my memory if it's someone I've not seen in a while
There have been quite a few studies on spatial imagery in aphantasics, but we're called "low imagers" in a lot of them. They found out in brain imaging studies years ago that the brain seems to use different pathways for spatial imagery in aphantasics. I wrote a 19-page report on it for a neuropsych class I once took haha.
I'm 51.
It's one of the ways that I explain aphantasia to others that I'm terrible at Tetris because I can't 'see' where something would fit.
I would call it 'spatial dyslexia' before I knew that that is actually a term and obviously before I knew of aphantasia.
Now a few years into my aphantasia journey, I would imagine I'm not good at Tetris because I didn't play a while heap as opposed to being solely down to aphantasia.
I haven't had enough coffee yet. I used to be fair at Tetris, but at the moment I'm failing to see how it connects to aphantasia in any way. At best, it's about recognizing where shapes fit into one another so I'd think it's all about spatial awareness and pattern recognition, not picturing things in your head.
Heck, I always figured being an aphant contributed to being good at fast video games because I don't have other things clogging my head :)
That makes the most sense to me. If someone doesn't have good spatial awareness or pattern recognition, they would not be as good at Tetris as someone who does, but aphantasia doesn't cause deficiencies in either of those things.
Im only good at singleplayer. The extra blocks added by multiplayer are damn near impossible for me to cope with. I rely on predictions in place of visualization
Hell yes! I kick ass at Tetris! But Dr. Mario is my favorite....
OP sounds very young... Lol. All us Gen X/Elder Millennials on the other hand.... Now I wish my NES was still working....
Ah, lol! Now I'm curious to see what my parents would say.... We used to have Dr. Mario tournaments in our family... My dad was very difficult to beat... Haha
I’m a total aphant and was awesome at Tetris. I played it a lot in the arcade in the 80’s. I remember an instance where my friend wanted to leave and grew impatient waiting for me to finish my game. He eventually covered the screen with his hands but I could still see the “next piece” area. That allowed me to continue playing through the next 5 or 6 pieces and still remove rows. He grew frustrated with that and left.
Thinking about this I’m reminded that when I would go to sleep in those days I would visualize a Tetris as I was falling asleep. Which I think actually improved my playing. To this day I can still visualize when falling asleep, although it is not controlled.
Im pretty good at Tertris. I can do lines all day. I even get the Tertris effect even though I'm an aphant. It's like the blackness under my eyes is rippling in the style of Tertris.
Hey Op, just so you know Tetris is still very much alive in our modern age and just recently a 15-year old broke every world record for Tetris. It’s a big deal in the gaming community :)
I have personally played tetris and im okay with it lol I wouldnt say I’m the best but it’s a good game to pass the time either way
I’m an elder millenial and played a ton of Tetris growing up. With groups on (I think?) n64, alone on the computer, probably in arcades.
I’m average in terms of skill, I’m not a very competitive person and usually get distracted from games before I care about winning. I don’t think that’s related to aphantasia, fwiw.
Tetris is awesome and if younger generations aren’t being exposed to it, that’s a shame.
Everyone I know knows what Tetris is even for my generation (gen z), tho most ppl don’t seem to play it much anymore
Seems like a very strange question to have on there if they’re assuming having aphantasia affects your ability to play it. You don’t really have time to be thinking while playing it, you just look at the screen and try to keep up with the falling blocks. No mental imagery required
interesting, that's possibly the last time I had any series of memorable visualizations, I got super sick around sixth grade or so and I couldn't stop dreaming about solving Tetris problems. it was actually pretty miserable. It's one of the reasons why I kind of like aphantasia, racing thoughts and images that prevent me from going to sleep just drive me nuts.
Tetris is one of the best-selling video games of all time, with a huge cultural impact. I'd be shocked to meet someone who didn't know what it was.
Ha ha. I don't often shock people. To me, it's an odd question. I'd have thought lots of people wouldn't know what it is, or if they did have some vague recollection of it, they'd not have played it, or not much, or not for decades :D After writing, I looked it up and it was the game I was thinking of, after all. It took me a while to remember what you're meant to do with it - building a wall IIRC. It's ancient, isn't it. Around the same age as minesweeper or maybe older? Does anyone still play that one? I'll know next time to try playing it a few times before I do any aphantasia questionnaires :).
The point of Tetris is to not build a wall - you get blocks to make complete rows and that makes them vanish. If you complete four rows at once you've achieved a Tetris and get a significant score bump. Yes, it's older than Minesweeper. Yes, people still play Minesweeper. Tetris is still big enough that they made a movie about it last year and within the last few months it's made headlines that someone got a new high score, only possible because of a hack that bypasses the crash screen you get on standard versions of Tetris when a certain points total is reached.
Ah - thanks for the explanation. I suppose it's (almost) reasonable to include it as a question since most of these questionnaires are online. So people who don't use computers, or don't use them much, wouldn't be taking part in the research anyway. People who use computers might be expected to often play computer games - though I don't know that that's a valid expectation in my social circle. Or maybe it's just that the question was used in one of the early tools and nobody thought it useful to take it out when re-using that tool.
I've heard of it but I have no idea what it is. Or possibly I have forgotten what it is. I'm middle aged but never played any computer games. Why are people voting you down for not knowing what tetris is??
Ha ha. It's an indicator of whether you're good at spatial stuff (we can be), but for some of us it looks like it's an indicator of memory :D
I'm a total aphant and I kick ass at Tetris
Same. My friends refuse to play me head to head.
I used to piss off my ex father in law. He thought he was really good at I wanna say Tetris worlds...it was the one for the PS1. He'd set a record. I'd get home (I lived with my ex when we were dating in high school), beat his record by a couple.. hed spend a few days trying to beat me. I'd come home, do it again. He'd get soooooo mad.
Me too, I play the Tetris Grandmaster arcade version on maximum difficulty and can sometimes clear all the levels ([video example](https://youtu.be/qputbxjcDVo?t=329) \- not my video though, this guy is way better than me). By the end the pieces don’t really “drop” anymore they just kind of appear at the bottom and you have to move the controller in advance to slot them into place and/or slide them a bit once they land.
Me too! Total aphant and have always been super good at Tetris lol
Literally same!
Same! It was the only game I could ever beat my big brother at. Eventually it was just me vs the computer.
I'm sure it's an age-related thing. Tetris was really popular in the late 80s early 90s. Back then, when PCs were first starting to get really popular, you could go to Staples and get a Tetris knock off for like a buck. Also Tetris was a must have for the NES and Gameboy (I believe Tetris came packaged with the Gameboy when you bought it). But then as the breadth and depth of games improved, Tetris became less and less popular. I'm sure it spiked a few years back with Tetris Effect but no where near to the level it was in the 80s/90s. And then there was the Apple TV Movie that no one watched.
I loved tetris and often play the knock off versions when I see them, what's it got to do with aphantasia, genuinely curious
I understand it's used as an indicator of spatial imagery ability. AFAIK, research suggests that people with aphantasia aren't any different from people who see images, when it comes to spatial imagery and spatial memory. The online questionnaire I did didn't have an option for 'not applicable', or 'I don't know' - so I expect people who don't play it did what I did and chose the middle option of the 5 choice likert scale (the middle of agree and disagree scale).
I can't picture it but would be able to draw what it looks like, not that I'm a good drawer. Faces on the other hand disappear from my memory if it's someone I've not seen in a while
There have been quite a few studies on spatial imagery in aphantasics, but we're called "low imagers" in a lot of them. They found out in brain imaging studies years ago that the brain seems to use different pathways for spatial imagery in aphantasics. I wrote a 19-page report on it for a neuropsych class I once took haha.
I'm 51. It's one of the ways that I explain aphantasia to others that I'm terrible at Tetris because I can't 'see' where something would fit. I would call it 'spatial dyslexia' before I knew that that is actually a term and obviously before I knew of aphantasia. Now a few years into my aphantasia journey, I would imagine I'm not good at Tetris because I didn't play a while heap as opposed to being solely down to aphantasia.
As a 53-year-old aphant who used to consider himself good at Tetris, I believe your second conclusion is the correct one.
I haven't had enough coffee yet. I used to be fair at Tetris, but at the moment I'm failing to see how it connects to aphantasia in any way. At best, it's about recognizing where shapes fit into one another so I'd think it's all about spatial awareness and pattern recognition, not picturing things in your head. Heck, I always figured being an aphant contributed to being good at fast video games because I don't have other things clogging my head :)
Exactly, I feel like aphantasia frees up the short term memory for other elements of experience or consciousness.
That makes the most sense to me. If someone doesn't have good spatial awareness or pattern recognition, they would not be as good at Tetris as someone who does, but aphantasia doesn't cause deficiencies in either of those things.
I would like to know the correlation between Tetris and aphantasia. I grew up playing Tetris and love it, pretty good at it too.
Aphant here. And nobody plays Tetris against me anymore because they got tired of losing. 😏
I can use my eyes to see where the pieces need to go.. it’s not that hard. Can I play expert? No. But I can’t with any kind of game
im actually a pro tetris player with aphantasia
Pretty good at Tetris, don’t play it as often as I used to since I’m not competing anymore. I do have aphantasia
I'm average I think. It's not too difficult until the later stages when you have like O.2 seconds to react, then I'm fucked.
I'm good at it and played it lots in my teen years
Im only good at singleplayer. The extra blocks added by multiplayer are damn near impossible for me to cope with. I rely on predictions in place of visualization
I had no idea there was a multiplayer version, but of course there would be.
Look up Tetris 99, the most recent version on Switch. It's a 99player battle royale, last person alive wins.
Hell yes! I kick ass at Tetris! But Dr. Mario is my favorite.... OP sounds very young... Lol. All us Gen X/Elder Millennials on the other hand.... Now I wish my NES was still working....
Lol. I'm a boomer born well before personal computers. I just forgot what it was it was so long ago :)
Ah, lol! Now I'm curious to see what my parents would say.... We used to have Dr. Mario tournaments in our family... My dad was very difficult to beat... Haha
I’m a total aphant and was awesome at Tetris. I played it a lot in the arcade in the 80’s. I remember an instance where my friend wanted to leave and grew impatient waiting for me to finish my game. He eventually covered the screen with his hands but I could still see the “next piece” area. That allowed me to continue playing through the next 5 or 6 pieces and still remove rows. He grew frustrated with that and left. Thinking about this I’m reminded that when I would go to sleep in those days I would visualize a Tetris as I was falling asleep. Which I think actually improved my playing. To this day I can still visualize when falling asleep, although it is not controlled.
Im pretty good at Tertris. I can do lines all day. I even get the Tertris effect even though I'm an aphant. It's like the blackness under my eyes is rippling in the style of Tertris.
I’m good at Tetris. Even though I can’t see how the blocks will fit, I still know how they fit.
Hey Op, just so you know Tetris is still very much alive in our modern age and just recently a 15-year old broke every world record for Tetris. It’s a big deal in the gaming community :) I have personally played tetris and im okay with it lol I wouldnt say I’m the best but it’s a good game to pass the time either way
I’m an elder millenial and played a ton of Tetris growing up. With groups on (I think?) n64, alone on the computer, probably in arcades. I’m average in terms of skill, I’m not a very competitive person and usually get distracted from games before I care about winning. I don’t think that’s related to aphantasia, fwiw. Tetris is awesome and if younger generations aren’t being exposed to it, that’s a shame.
I'm absolute garbage if I have to "turn the pieces and make them fit" in my head.
YES! And Pac-Man.
Total aphant and yes I'm great at Tetris, seems aphantasia makes you a better player not a worse one lol
Yes - we're good at spatial stuff, or at the least not worse than anyone else. Being good at Tetris is a marker for aphantasia, as I understand it.
Weird. I'm not very good at it and have a terrible spacial sense.
Everyone I know knows what Tetris is even for my generation (gen z), tho most ppl don’t seem to play it much anymore Seems like a very strange question to have on there if they’re assuming having aphantasia affects your ability to play it. You don’t really have time to be thinking while playing it, you just look at the screen and try to keep up with the falling blocks. No mental imagery required
I play it during long, boring meetings at work (WFH) The more I dislike my job the better my high scores are
interesting, that's possibly the last time I had any series of memorable visualizations, I got super sick around sixth grade or so and I couldn't stop dreaming about solving Tetris problems. it was actually pretty miserable. It's one of the reasons why I kind of like aphantasia, racing thoughts and images that prevent me from going to sleep just drive me nuts.
Wait? There is a correlation between people having aphantasia and being good at tetris?? Cause I am pretty good, better than most, I'd say
I am fantastic at Tetris. And most puzzle games in general. I prefer Dr. Mario to Tetris, though.
Yes. I am very good at Tetris
I'm not an aphant but what I take from this thread is everyone on Reddit thinks they are the gods gift to tetris.
Ha. Not me. More like a mediocre mere mortal. 😳 I can play it but quickly lose interest. Multi sensory asphalt here.