no thought process is wrong as far as I know. you don't need to visually imagine things even to be successful in art, I know at least one artist who doesn't think visually, they still paint beautifully, their process just involves a lot of references and live models when possible. there's a lot of creative professionals who use just as much visual references as they do.

For ne it just happens, like blinking, no though needed. I picture a red ball and it is there i see it, i can spin it, i can even move tge camera around. Even the empty space between the ball and wall and there.

I have a similar problem. My apple becomes like 30 different recent apple images I have seen. Like I can try to imagine a Red delicious and at some point I lose focus and it might become a granny Smith and then back to like a honey crisp.

I’ll get snapshots that are blurry, like a momentary glimpse at a developing photograph, then it moves to the next portion. I’ll see shades of apple colors, faded to just the shape, a silhouette and only a concept of depth. I’ll imagine the weight, having thrown them so often. But no. There is no apple.

Maybe you could train yourself to imagine longer passages?