Do Any of You Have Problems with Facial Recognition?

Post Reply New Topic

I used to work in a school, and the headmaster once called me in and gave me a dressing-down for showing disrespect towards his wife by not acknowledging her in the local high street. I'd only met her once before, and had no idea it was her.

When I was about 15, I told my mother that 'some bloke' was acting suspiciously outside our next door neighbour's back garden. It was our next door neighbour. He'd been living next to us for three years....

Oh heavens, that sounds like me in both cases.

What a dickwad (the headmaster).

^ Yeah, he was an Old Etonian. These people have been shafting the country for centuries....

Yes, I definitely have trouble with faces. There are probably loads of people who think I'm a jerk because I didn't acknowledge them in passing. I often don't recognise people out of their normal context. Once, my mother invited me to lunch. My brother, whom I hadn't seen in about 4 years, was going to be there, but I didn't know. It was to be a surprise. I followed my mother towards a table, and there was a man blocking my path. I thought, "Why is this guy standing right in front of me? What does he want?" Then he said, "Hi sis". Awkward.

Side note
It took me6 months to notice my wife got new drapes.

I have this issue as well. I also cannot see faces in my mind. Like if I try to picture my wife, kids, parents faces in my mind I can’t see them.

Wow. I had that too. Couldn't picture my first boyfriend for several years. Still can't.

Very definitely have trouble with this.

For quite a few years I thought I was fine with faces but bad with names, but several years ago (still years before my diagnosis with ASD) I decided that a large part of why I'm bad with names is because, by the time I can recognise a face, it's no longer socially appropriate to ask people their name.

Then, there have been a few recent incidents where I actually didn't recognise people who I definitely know well when I saw them in a place I didn't expect to see them, which convinced me all the more that I'm bad with faces.

Finally, I did the Cambridge Face Memory test, where the average score is 80%, and if you score less than 60%, you might be face blind. Guessing randomly throughout the test would get you 33%. I scored 38%. Based on this plus the above, I'm pretty sure I'm face blind.

You can find the Cambridge Face Memory Test here. Just don't double click at the end of the test - double clicking will cause it to forget your entire results throughout the test.

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/psychol ... tartup.php

I would likely confuse the upper left two faces and the bottom left two if both kids were wearing glasses.
I've only occasionally confused similar-looking people IRL, and do fine on prosopagnosia tests.

I'm curious how commonly people on the spectrum have little or no trouble with facial recognition.

I have prosopagnosia - I can't tell one human being from another. Sometimes clues might help - like red hair or a perpetual frown. It helps if I always see them in the same place, but if they switch places I'm out of luck. The really awful thing about it is that people that I don't recognize take it for snobbery and (reasonably) dislike me for it. I bet I would have more friends if I could see who they are and greet them, instead of walking right by.

same here.

Yes I have the problem too. I once got roped into being a girl scout troop leader (long story- bad idea). I felt so bad that I couldn't match faces with names, even after 4 or 5 months. They all just looked like "generic blonde kid" to me (lots of German and Scandinavian families here).

I forgot names....oh boy do I forget names!

And sometimes faces, too. But I do better with faces than with names.

I have trouble recognizing faces all the time. It makes for some funny stories. For example, I was at a work picnic a few years back. While waiting in line for food, I decided to introduce myself to the person in front of me. I said hi. I'm Frank. She replied, I know we've worked together for two years. It was pretty darn funny at the time..

^^^it's good that you had an understanding coworker.