I saw my doctor yesterday but no longer remember his face!

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Any one else has this problem with remembering faces?

Definately.

I hate sitting in the doctor's office and having to wait for the doctor to come get me, because I can't recognize her. I purposely don't watch for her adn look elsewhere so that she has to call my name to get my attention, and then I know it's her.

Hi Supertrouper, it made me smile reading your reply cos I do exactly the same thing. I sit there looking blank, pretending to be in deep thoughts or reading a magazine until he calls me. I have tried very hard to look at him during consultatin to remember his facial features...i can describe what he looks like ie short, clean shaven, very short silver hair, pale skinned, pointy nose etc but can't create a mental image ever...

For me it is quite the opposite.
I can very easily remember a face but not describe it.

Yeah, I typically vaguely recognize people when I see them, but I can never recall what they look like until I've seen them a bunch of times. I typically remember single features first, which leads to comical insights i.e I'll be on the bus, someone steps on and I go, hmm I recognize that nose, I wonder if it's someone I know?

I score average on the face-blindness test though, but then I stare and memorize. Don't wanna do that in person, makes everyone awkward, especially me.

I also can't picture myself. I've tried but failed. I only remember my features separate from each other.

I don't have a problem recognizing faces so much if I actually look at them. I find that people with whom I am comfortable are easy to recognize because I do look at their faces. Others are an issue because I don't look at them. You cant remember what something looks like if you don't look at it, right?

I'm actually the opposite, I tend to recognise people's faces more than I forget them... If I was to see this person once, I will remember them the next day or whenever... But not all the time though.

Is it actually normal to be able to visualize someone's face after seeing them only once or twice?

I saw my doctor yesterday. At his practice you often see other doctors although I see my main one most of the time. My main doctor walked in yesterday when a different doctor was scheduled to see me and I didn't recognize him at all.

Yeah, apparently it is. NTs have this special area of their brains that's dedicated just to recognizing and remembering faces; and how we found out about prosopagnosia was when NTs had that part of their brains injured, and couldn't recognize faces anymore, sometimes not even their own in the mirror.

Of course now we know that there are lot of people with what is called "developmental prosopagnosia", which is just being face-blind from birth, being able to recognize faces only about as well as you would recognize other objects that are similar to each other. For example, could you recognize your friend's tabby cat if you met the cat once, interacted with it for a half hour, and then saw it on the street the next day? Probably not. You might surmise that it is probably your friend's cat because it has the same pattern and is outside your friend's house; but you don't have a special area of your brain just for recognizing cats, so if you saw the cat somewhere across town, you wouldn't even make the connection. If you recognize a cat on first seeing it, it is probably your own cat, and you have known the cat for a long time.

Similarly, people with this non-injury-related face-blindness can generally learn to recognize people just like the average person can learn to recognize cats. It takes a while, and at first it's mostly by context and clothing and memorized distinctive features like jewelry, hair, or clothing. Depending on the degree of face-blindness, it may take years to learn to recognize somebody, or it could just require a few weeks of daily contact.

No.

I recently saw my doctor and I was baffled that it was the same person. I have family faces memorized and if someone spends a long time talking to me, memorized but sometimes I get confused if another person walks by with the same hair and have to rationalize why it can't be that same person. Sometimes, facial hair or someone who has several different hairstyles takes time to get to know unless the person is in the same location such as their place of work then it's obvious to conclude it is the same person.

I also often mistake people who look similar.

I recognize people that I have seen before when I see them again.

Something that has always bothered me is that I can't recall a face in my mind, not even my kids. I CAN recall a photograph, though, so when I think of my kids its of certain snapshots instead of their live faces....

yes i agree and have experienced what some of you wrote. in my case, i probably won't recognise say my doctor, dentist and other people who i only see every now and again if it's out of context. ie i won't recognise my doctor if i was not waiting at his practice and expecting to see him. if we ever bumped into each other else where, say the cinema or shopping centre, and if he came up to me to say hello, i'd more likely be all baffled as to who he is. as for cats, i only know the face of my three cats. all other cats look very much the same to me (i know the various breeds and features but not the face).