Anyone have difficulty recognizing people?

[slayer202]

I don't think I have problems recognizing people, but I do notice that I don't look very carefully at people's faces. It's more that I see their face as a whole without studying the details. If I go on facebook and actually look closely at people's pictures/faces they look completely different to me. It's very strange. maybe it's only with people I've known forever, where they've changed but my image of them has stayed the same? I'm not really sure

 

[yhelothar]

Our facial recognition system is incredibly robust if you think about how incredibly reliable it is in doing its job. You can talk to someone for 5 minutes, and you'll still recognize them 10 yrs later.

But few can say the same with names(the 99.9% of us who aren't blessed with photographic memory), which on the other hand, is unfortunately plagued with our very unreliable, leaky memory.

 

[Saint Nick]

Some chick on NPR had this last week. I think it was on "This is the Story".

Prosopagnosia

aka "Face Blindness"

 

[destrekor]

I have no trouble recognizing faces of people I have met. It could be years later, but I recognize the face.

Names, on the other hand, I am terrible with. I am a visually-oriented person, very awesome with anything visual, but outside of that and I fall a little flat.

It's actually kind of funny, I can walk by people and can easily tell they don't recognize me at all. I usually just pass on by then.

But yeah, with names, even people I work around on a consistent basis, it will take me awhile to remember their names. Quite a while, in fact. Sometimes I feel a little embarassed at how long it might take to remember a new name of someone I see frequently, but then I realize everyone has their own best and worst styles of memory. Me, I'll remember other faces far more easily than most. And hell, even people I might see only once or twice, I usually can recall exactly where (and when) I saw them.

 

[destrekor]

Our facial recognition system is incredibly robust if you think about how incredibly reliable it is in doing its job. You can talk to someone for 5 minutes, and you'll still recognize them 10 yrs later.

But few can say the same with names(the 99.9% of us who aren't blessed with photographic memory), which on the other hand, is unfortunately plagued with our very unreliable, leaky memory.

photographic memory isn't necessarily a skill that will tie words to pictures.
I've remembered words tied to pictures, only when there were actually words in the picture to remember. Say, textbooks or something... but that skill is something I've lost touch with a little... I used to be blessed with the ability to remember almost entire pages out of a text book and find the answer to a question on the page... now, I've kind of lost that degree of my ability, but I can still recall visuals with awesome accuracy. I actually get a lot of nostalgic-feeling deja-vu due to all the damned visuals stuck in my head, ofted tied with other forms of memory.

 

[tynopik]

take the faceblind test

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php

the first one is probably most relevant but does take a while to finish

 

[MJinZ]

Everyone basically looks the same. Unless you're ugly.

 

[BoomerD]

I have trouble recognizing people all the time. Not because I can't see, but because I don't know who they are.

"Damn, who is that? The face looks familiar, but..."

"I'm your wife, you asshole!", she sez.

 

[HeXen]

if its someone i havnt seen in a while or they grew a beard, sometimes even wear a hat that i wasnt used to, then i wont recognize them...i had an embarrasing moment in a pizza shop where this teenager wearing his uniform hat waved at me and i thought he was waving to someone behind me, the look on his face made me turn around...after a few very uncomfortable gestures and my dumbfound expression, i asked my g/f and turned out to be stepsons friend whom i then recognized and his hat really threw me off.....i apologized but was kinda embarassing. Yet not the first time similar has happened

but some people from HS i recognize to this day..i guess its how many times i have seen the face at any point in time

 

[MJinZ]

take the faceblind test

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php

the first one is probably most relevant but does take a while to finish

Results


Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 70.
In other words, you got 97% correct.

On our previous version of this test, the average person with normal face recognition was able to recognize about 80% of the faces. If you correctly identified less than 65% of the faces, this may indicate face recognition difficulties.

For more information about face blindness and other face recognition difficulties, please go to www.faceblind.org.​

Problems with this test? Questions or comment? Email us at facetests@googlemail.com.

 

[alkemyst]

face recongition is a rarity. Casinos and the like look to hire people that remember them quickly.

I never forget a face. I have turned down jobs for the skill. I think I should have just moved to Las Vegas or Atlantic City instead of worrying about cruise ships.

 

[alkemyst]

Results


Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 70.
In other words, you got 97% correct.

On our previous version of this test, the average person with normal face recognition was able to recognize about 80% of the faces. If you correctly identified less than 65% of the faces, this may indicate face recognition difficulties.

For more information about face blindness and other face recognition difficulties, please go to www.faceblind.org.​

Problems with this test? Questions or comment? Email us at facetests@googlemail.com.

these things fail because like IQ tests online people take them 10+ times until they get a good score.

 

[zinfamous]

It takes me a few times to actually register and store the details needed to pick individuals out of a crowd.

the image that I store of a person that I have recently met is often slightly inaccurate--meeting them again a short time later, I find that they look strangely different from what I remember. It takes even longer to assign names; I just tend to ignore those things, I think, and go for the info related to that person that I find more relevant, for whatever reason.

I also have Lois Lane syndrome--throw on some sunglasses, and someone like my mom is a complete stranger.

 

[Albatross]

Mild autism maybe?

 

[LumbergTech]

I would get it checked out if its causing you trouble. Possible its nothing, but if you do have some kind of issue it could make your life easier to know how to counter-act the problem.

 

[CZroe]

I don't think my eyesight is very poor, but when I walk by people I oftentimes don't recognize who they are until after they say hi, and it takes a few seconds after they pass for me to remember who they are. We aren't walking around a corner either. It could be an open field and I've only him/her in my eyesight for twenty seconds.

It's definitely a problem. People think I am rude by not responding quick enough, but I just can't for the life of me recognize some people. I've had it brought up to me before.

EXACTLY my problem. Even when I think I might recognize someone I am often too unsure to act on it. I'm talkin' about neighbors at the neighborhood store even. On top of that, I seem bad with names.

Mild autism maybe?

I have other reasons to suspect this in my case too. Aspergers, perhaps.

 

[yhelothar]

photographic memory isn't necessarily a skill that will tie words to pictures.
I've remembered words tied to pictures, only when there were actually words in the picture to remember. Say, textbooks or something... but that skill is something I've lost touch with a little... I used to be blessed with the ability to remember almost entire pages out of a text book and find the answer to a question on the page... now, I've kind of lost that degree of my ability, but I can still recall visuals with awesome accuracy. I actually get a lot of nostalgic-feeling deja-vu due to all the damned visuals stuck in my head, ofted tied with other forms of memory.

Interesting, so you have photographic memory I presume. I once met someone who had it and we just introduced ourselves. We ran into each other 2 years later and she still remembered my name and the details about me. I was like, wow magic.

 

[sandorski]

No, who are you?

Ever since I was a kid I have always had problems associating Names with Faces. Mostly with people I have met once or twice, but on occasion with people I had seen/conversed with everyday, I would need to take a second to think of their Name.

In the last 10ish years I have had the same occur with certain words. Where I'm trying to express a specific thought with a specific word, but the best I can do is to think of synonyms that don't quite fit. Thankfully there's Dictionary.com to help me muddle through. It's really annoying though.

 

[yhelothar]

No, who are you?

Ever since I was a kid I have always had problems associating Names with Faces. Mostly with people I have met once or twice, but on occasion with people I had seen/conversed with everyday, I would need to take a second to think of their Name.

In the last 10ish years I have had the same occur with certain words. Where I'm trying to express a specific thought with a specific word, but the best I can do is to think of synonyms that don't quite fit. Thankfully there's Dictionary.com to help me muddle through. It's really annoying though.

I get that all the time, seemingly more after I smoked pot to a year, but I'm not sure it that's related. But what you're describing is called tip of the tongue syndrome.

 

[sandorski]

I get that all the time, seemingly more after I smoked pot to a year, but I'm not sure it that's related. But what you're describing is called tip of the tongue syndrome.

Indeed, that's exactly what it's like, so close, but so far. I can usually almost visualize the Word/Name in my head, almost.

 

[Taejin]

i got 66/72 faces right on the faceblind.org test