If you have aphantasia, you have probably been told that the solution to memory problems is visualization. Create a memory palace. Imagine the word on a billboard. Picture the scene vividly. This advice is useless if your mind's eye is blank, and it can feel like being handed a map in a language you cannot read.
Anki does not require visualization to use, which is why many aphantasic learners gravitate toward it. Spaced repetition is algorithmic, not imagistic. The cards do not ask you to picture anything. For vocabulary and factual recall, Anki works well regardless of whether you can visualize. The limitation appears when you are trying to learn material with inherent spatial or relational structure that flat cards strip away.
There are newer tools that take a different approach. Spatial memory - remembering where things are positioned on a screen - works without mental imagery. It is a different cognitive system from visualization entirely. Tools built around external spatial layouts offer aphantasic learners something that card-flipping apps cannot.
Research on aphantasia and memory is still developing, but the evidence is clear that aphantasic people use different cognitive strategies, not worse ones. Verbal encoding, semantic networks, procedural memory, and spatial reasoning based on physical layouts are all available and effective.
The critical distinction is between internal spatial memory (imagining a memory palace) and external spatial memory (seeing items arranged on a screen). Internal spatial tools require mental imagery. External spatial tools work through perception. A grid on a screen where you can see the positions is fundamentally different from a memory palace you are supposed to construct mentally. For aphantasic learners, external spatial layouts provide genuine spatial encoding that does not depend on visualization.
Anki power-user culture is saturated with visualization recommendations: turn each card into a scene, use images as memory anchors, build mental movies. If you have aphantasia, most of this can be safely ignored. The spaced repetition algorithm works independently of any mnemonic technique you layer on top.
What aphantasic Anki users find useful instead: rich verbal context on the back of cards, audio pronunciations for language learning, and sentence examples that create semantic rather than visual connections. For structured information where you want spatial encoding, supplementing Anki with a grid-based tool gives you both the algorithmic review scheduling and the external spatial layout. The tools address different parts of the learning process.
Spatial memory is intact in aphantasia. People with aphantasia remember where things are just as well as everyone else (Bainbridge et al., 2021, Cortex).
Non-visual spatial strategies are as effective as visual strategies for memory (Monzel et al., 2024, Cognition).
Spatial memory is more durable over time than object memory (Megla & Bainbridge, 2025, Cognition).
The Method of Loci works because of spatial placement, not visualization (Caplan et al., 2019, QJEP).
College students with aphantasia achieve equal or higher grades using compensatory strategies like spatial anchoring (Taylor & Laming, 2025, Frontiers in Psychology).
Anki works for aphantasic learners when you ignore the visualization advice and lean into verbal and contextual encoding. For structured material where spatial relationships matter, a grid-based spatial tool like Gridually adds external spatial encoding that does not require mental imagery. The two approaches complement each other well. Gridually's spatial encoding is based on memory research from the University of Chicago, University of Bonn, and Macquarie University.
Yes. People with aphantasia can learn effectively with flashcards - research shows aphantasic students achieve comparable or higher academic results. The key is using techniques that do not require mental imagery. Spatial memory based on external layouts (remembering positions on a screen) works without visualization.
Gridually is the only major flashcard app designed specifically around external spatial memory, which works without mental imagery. Its approach uses position and location as memory anchors on a visible grid, not mental images. Other apps like Anki and Quizlet work too since they are verbal and semantic, but they do not actively leverage spatial encoding.
Yes. Spatial memory and visual imagery are different cognitive systems. You know where your phone is right now without forming a mental picture of it. Gridually uses this position-based memory, not image-based memory. People with aphantasia typically have intact spatial memory.
Research identifies several effective strategies: spatial encoding (placing information at fixed locations), verbal processing, externalization through list-making, and anchoring to familiar references (Taylor & Laming, 2025; Hinwar & Petkov, 2025). Gridually combines spatial encoding with spaced repetition - both proven effective for aphantasic learners.
Traditional memory palaces require visualization, which is difficult or impossible with aphantasia. However, the Method of Loci works primarily because of spatial placement, not visualization (Caplan et al., 2019). Gridually provides an externalized memory palace - a fixed grid where every item has a position - that works without any mental imagery.