Recognising people

[iff]

I would rate my facial recognition as very poor

 

I could go into a place and if I was not aware of someone I know being there, I could walk right by them. 

 

I saw the film the female brain a few weeks ago, I confused Sofia vergara's character with Whitney Cummings. 

[Feynman]

Prosopagnosia. I struggle to distinguish between people other than by more obvious physical characteristics such as hair and skin colour, although I have very good voice recognition.

[kiaroskuro]

Pretty good, I'd say. Yesterday I recognised someone who I attended a class with 12 years ago. I spent no more than one or two hours in their presence, I think. I'm 99 % sure it was them.

[The Abhorred]

I voted poor. It's a common misunderstanding with others and I feel bad when someone says hello or waves at me and don't know who he/she is. 

[Lord Jade Cross]

Unless Im comstantly seeing them, I tend to forget people rather quickly

[Duke Memphis]

I'm not that great at remembering faces, but I'm even worse at remembering names. I think my name's Dirk Monsoon or something like that.

 

In all seriousness, though, I have quite a bit of trouble remembering faces and especially names if they're not fully ingrained into my memory.

[Grumpy Alien]

Average. I’m very poor at remembering names though.

[firewallflower]

I'd say very poor, ranging to merely poor - and when I do recognize someone as familiar outside of a context where I'd expect to see them, being able to place them/match them with a name is even harder.

 

It dumbfounds me when people who have seen me maybe twice recognize me right off the bat. I'm still patting myself on the back for knowing my coworkers, whom I've seen on a regular basis for months. 

[Muledeer]

Very poor at remembering names and especially faces.  I have encountered other Aces in the 50's thread who are also prosopagnostic.  I wonder it there is a connection to asexuality?  I found Oliver Sacks book "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" to be especially enlightening.  

[WinterWanderer]

Good, but not great. I recognize people almost instantly, but may have a hard time placing their name or how I know them. And sometimes I'll think it's someone I know, only to find out they just look a lot like that person. 😜

 

[- Saph -]

I'd say that it takes me a few meetings to remember some people's faces. I'm aphantasiac so it may not help.

I am much worse with names and even more terrible when it comes to ages or birthday dates.

[Gloomy]

Yeah I'm somewhat good at remembering faces. It's names that I have a problem with.

[Blaiddmelyn]

Very poor. I usually have to have met someone a few times to remember their face unless there is something that (to me) is very distinctive about them. The worst was when someone had to introduce themselves to me on five separate occasions, because I kept forgetting what they looked like. 

 

[Firefly8]

I'm poor at remembering people, but very poor at remembering names. It's embarassing. I know most people think they're below average at this, but I really am.

[Larkaloke]

I remember people visually very well. I'm good at remembering names only if I've seen them written; otherwise I'm quite poor at it. I'm not at all good at recognising voices.

[kenny.]

faces are a no go for me, same with names, but mostly faces. the thing is that it's not the inability to recognize faces, but instead i overcompensate in that area, and i always feel like i've seen everyone before. it happens with almost every person i see, most of the time i'm incorrect and they are actually complete strangers. 

[ColeHW34]

Not good at recognizing people one bit.

[Ultima]

I actually have great facial recognition but i never remember anyone's name. I also recognize people by the way they walk. 

[Luftschlosseule]

Another one with prosopagnosia. Once, I didn't recognise my best friend because I remember where I met people to be able to recognize them and she visited me at my school, which never happened before.

[mausgrau]

On the whole, I'd put myself down as average. But it's a bit more... scattershot in practice, and it's a strange one for me. To my brain, standard operating procedure regarding anything to do with people/the public/the great unwashed seems to be, I just see a generic person-shaped blob, basically. As soon as they leave my line of sight, I pretty much forget what they look like. But, however: if and when something or other about them actually catches my attention (my shiftless, unreliable, fleeting attention) -- once I actually see them -- I'd recognize them under a fairly elaborate disguise, even. It appears to be mostly a question of effort and focus for me, I guess.

[OmegaTheMetamorphicDreamer]

I'd say I'm pretty good at recognizing people from their physical appearance. Though I also have a very hard time remembering names.

[Skycaptain]

Awful, I think poor facial recognition is comorbid with ASD 

[J. van Deijck]

I really need *a bit* of time to start remembering somebody's face.

By this, I'm actually much better at recognising people by their voices.

[daveb]

Mixed. Sometimes I won't recognize someone I know well, because I encounter them in a situation I wouldn't expect them in (even people like my brother or my father). Other times I can pick out who someone is even if they don't look the same (like some people I'd only seen "en femme" and then later saw them in male mode; other people with me would think it wasn't who I thought it was, but I know I was right). And I seem to pick up on character actors in movies. Then again, I will see someone and think it's someone I know pretty well, only to find out it's actually someone else who I don't know. Or not recognize people (or recall their names) if I've only met them a small number of times. And I'm always surprised when people seem to know me.

[Sally]

I'm not good with faces and very poor  with names.  It's really embarassing when someone I recognize talks with me and waits to  be introduced to someone else I'm talking with.  Sometimes I've just said "Introduce yourselves", but that seems rude.  People expect to have their names known,  especially when you've been around them for years.   By that time, you can't really ask them to tell you their name.  

[firewallflower]

4 hours ago, Sally said:

I'm not good with faces and very poor  with names.  It's really embarassing when someone I recognize talks with me and waits to  be introduced to someone else I'm talking with.  Sometimes I've just said "Introduce yourselves", but that seems rude.  People expect to have their names known,  especially when you've been around them for years.   By that time, you can't really ask them to tell you their name.  

Ooh, yes, all of this.

[Ortac]

Occasionally, I experience the embarrassing situation where I will be walking along the street in my home town, and somebody will say hello to me and greet me by my name, so obviously we have met somewhere before and they know me, but I will be thinking to myself "Who the hell are you!?"

[SithLord]

My facial recognition is pretty decent. It's my name recognition and putting names to faces that screws me up. 

[LonesomeCrow]

Sometimes I think I recognize someone, but I second I guess myself and am not sure if it's really the person I'm thinking of. I'd say that my facial recognition skills aren't that great..but then again, I don't really look at people too close or study their appearances.

[Enbious1]

I have prosopagnosia from brain trauma as a result of a drowning when I was younger. I have an inability to remember faces. I try to recall general body shape, height, hair shape and color, clothing, shoes, and the smell of people and where people are seated when I can. I hate when I run into someone I should know out and about though because I have to piece together who they are. It really hurt the feelings from a classmate I had in college when a year after we had the same class and spent countless hours on two major school projects, I didn't recognise her when passing by her in the hall. Had police that didn't believe it was a thing when a store I worked at got robbed and I had talked to the guy just minutes earlier. Couldn't describe him.