How well do you recognize faces?

[Lionel Mandrake]

Where do you lie on the continuum between Oliver Sacks and Jennifer Jarett?

Best-selling author Oliver Sacks can't recognize himself in a mirror. Nor can he recognize anyone else's face, including his close relatives. He suffers from an extreme form of prosopagnosia, i. e., face-blindness.

Jennifer Jarett is at the other end of the continuum: she is a super-recognizer, as the following excerpt shows:

A Memory for Faces, Extreme Version

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: May 25, 2009
Jennifer Jarett never forgets a face.

A few years ago, shortly after she moved to New York City, one of her friends pointed out a young man standing on the other side of the room at a party. Ms. Jarett took one look and said, “Oh, I know who he is — I went to Hebrew school with him in fourth grade.”

At the time, Ms. Jarett, who is now 38, had not seen the boy in nearly two decades, since they were both children.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26face.html?_r=0

I am more like Oliver than Jennifer. I can recognize the faces of people who are close to me, but I have always had difficulty recognizing the faces of casual acquaintances. In school I often didn't recognize my teachers when I saw them outside of their regular classrooms. I often mistook one kid for another. This was embarrassing, to say the least. I still marvel at the ability of most people to recognize hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of different faces.

[applegrove]

1. I sometimes see someone and recognize them, but I don't know from where. Other times

I see someone and say to myself 'did I just meet that person last weekend' but I can't say 'yes' or 'no' to myself so I don't say anything to them. I usually just wait until someone recognizes me and says hello before I talk to them. Some people I avoid. I am good at recognizing siblings of people I knew when I've never met them. It is all very strange.

[Lionel Mandrake]

5. Your recognition of siblings

suggests to me that you are way above average at recognizing faces (closer to Jennifer than Oliver).

[applegrove]

8. I think I must recognize the phermones

eyes, head shape, and gate of the siblings. I don't know what it is but it is not the face.

[petronius]

2. I am really bad at remembering names and faces. It's a source of shame and

professional embarrassment for me, actually: I meet former students all the time and have to fake remembering them - probably not always with success. It's worse at conferences and professional meetings, glancing down at a name tag only to realize that I'm talking to my PhD advisor. (OK, not really that bad - but blanking on people I really should know is par for the course.)

Years ago I realized that I wasn't even making an effort to remember; as soon as someone said "Hi, my name is..." it was like I completely tuned out for the next 5 seconds. Even making an effort now though, I have a lot of difficulty getting names to stick with faces...

[Lionel Mandrake]

27. Shame and embarrassment are my middle name

(to paraphrase a well-known song by Tennessee Ernie Ford and/or Merle Travis).

Hell, I can't remember my former teachers. And a student has fewer former teachers than a teacher has former students.

I used to think this was a flaw in my character. Now I see it as probably a flaw in the fusiform area on the right side of my brain.


The area shown in red is thought to be responsible for recognizing faces.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I am more like Jennifer Jarett...

Although I do get mixed up as to just where I've seen a slightly familiar face!

[Lionel Mandrake]

20. I also get mixed up

on the rare occasions when I actually remember a face but not the name that goes with it.

I have trouble remembering the characters in a movie or TV show if there are too many of them. If a character changes his or her hair style, I can't tell it's the same person.

This can occasionally work to my advantage. For example, in the 1962 remake of Caligari (which the critics hated) I couldn't tell that Paul and Caligari (both played by Dan O'Herlihy) were the same person. This was so obvious to most viewers that the movie didn't really work for them. Also, the old (real) and young (imaginary) versions of Jane Lindstrom (played by Glynis Johns) did not look like the same person to me. Apropos of nothing, I like movies like this one, or Mulholland Drive, or of course Rashomon, where what you see on the screen isn't what's really happening.

[rug]

4. Everybody I meet looks like Peter Sellers.

[Chan790]

6. I laughed.

I suspect most of these young folk aren't going to get it.

[rug]

7. Is that you, Muffley?

[olddots]

9. I recognize faces but not the names of the faces .

rug really looks like Peter Sellers but I forget Peter Seller's name .

[Lionel Mandrake]

10. Doktor Seltsamliebe

or something like that.

[femmocrat]

11. Terrible at names and faces.

But I have taught school for around 30 years and must have seen thousands of names and faces in those years. So I have an excuse!

Old teachers never die, they just lose their faculties! LOL

[rurallib]

12. I can look at identical twins and not see a resemblance

[Tuesday Afternoon]

23. !

not really

[rurallib]

26. yeah - it is really weird

at least for the first time - if I see them more than once i start to see a resemblance - after many times I have no problem.
My wife thinks I am kidding.

[hunter]

13. Not good, and it's caused me a lot of trouble, especially when people are offended...

...because they think I'm deliberately ignoring them.

I tend to recognize people by the way they move and the context of the meeting.

People who know me joke about it, and sometimes not in a nice way. I get lost in crowded places and often end up standing around looking confused until someone finds me.

[Bunnahabhain]

14. I have always

had a natural talent for remembering names and faces. It's really a good talent to have as people tend to like you for remembering them.

[magical thyme]

16. actually, I hate you for remembering who I am because I sure as hell have no

memory of you. Have we even met?

How do you know so much about me? Stalking?!? Listening in on my phone conversations? Oh craps, now you seem familiar. I'll probably remember who the hell you are at around 2am...but for the moment?

[Bunnahabhain]

18. Well played.

[magical thyme]

15. everybody looks vaguely familiar these days. it helps if I knew their dog or cat

Their furfamily I never forget, furry faces or names. It's their humans that tend to be part of the wallpaper to me. It's especially confusing when I see the humans outside their normal environment. Boss at the beach? Uh-oh...who is that pale, flabby strangely near-nekkid vaguely familiar man babbling away at me?!

My worst moment, however, was when a total, complete and absolute stranger walked up to me at my job and began relating events in my life I'd long since forgotten. She knew more about me than I did! Apparently we'd worked together in another life/city/job about 15-20 years earlier. She had distinctive red hair, I think, but even that didn't stick! (where's the red-face emoticon when we need it?)

[Lionel Mandrake]

22. Here it is.

When I blush, it usually comes on slowly and seems to last forever. Usually there's no place to hide. The feeling that everyone is watching just makes it worse.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. I never forget a cat or dog face, or their name.

Maybe because I generally like them better than people.

[LWolf]

17. Pretty good.

Not THAT good.

I am terrible with names, except for my students. I learn my students names the first day of school, and they test me on them before they go home.

I would probably be good with other names as well, except that I'm just not paying that much attention. I'm not that interested unless I have to be, lol. I'm polite, but somewhat distant unless we've been thrown together enough that I've had to communicate regularly. THEN I'll remember names.

There are a few people in my building that have been there for years, but they are in a distant part of the building, and I've never worked with them directly. I don't remember their names. I could guess, but I'm afraid my guess would be wrong, so when we pass in a hall or attend the same meeting, I say hello without using their name.

[raccoon]

19. If I see the person out of the usual context, sometimes I have difficulty recognizing them. nt

[LeftofObama]

21. I've often said that I could be shown the FBI's 10 most wanted list,

then pass them walking in a group on the street and I wouldn't recognize any of them.

I think it's because I try to avoid people as much as possible.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. I'm pretty good at remembering faces.

The problem is, I have an awful time attaching a name. I'll see somebody whose face is very familiar but then I brain lock on what their name is or where I know them from.