Imagining what people look like

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Does anyone else have this problem? Ever since I can remember I've not been able to visually recall people's faces without a long period of concentration, and even then I don't often remember a face. This is true whether the person is a family member or a long term friend. i can only visualise photos of the person (if I have one) so I tend to use photos to remember what people look like.

Here's the interesting thing...if I don't have a photo of a person to boost my visual memory I end up imagining what the person looks like. Although I get it wrong, I find it interesting to see how I percieved the person inside my mind and compare it to the real person in front of me once I see them again. Sometimes I imagine the person is much more beauitful than they are, or even with harsher features. It always tells me something about how I might be percieving them in my subconscious mind.

Does anyone else have one or both these problems?

I've similar problem. Only that I don't think concentrating really helps much. And if I have a photo at hand, I'll simply look at the photo.

When I was young, this is one of the reasons I hated drawing class. Even nowadays, I have problems locating people in a crowd. But other than that, I don't think I have problems recognizing people. Sometimes I wonder how I recognize people myself. btw In everyday life, I think I have more problem with people's name.

Thanks for your reply. The strange this is that I can easily recognise a friend or family member in the street or wherever else, so my face recognition isn't actually a problem, but I can't visually recall their faces inside my head without the aid of a photo. My memory of people's faces must be stored inside my mind somewhere as I will know a person when I see them, but I just won't remember what they look like in the meantime.

That's exactly like me. Except I've missed family members in busy restaurants a few times too.

I tend to remember voices better than faces. If I was mugged or something I would never be able to describe their face, I wouldn't know where to start. I think when I talk to people I look more at their mouth or I look completely away from them so I don't see their faces very often. I often find it difficult to recognise even family members in crowds.

I can't imagine how someone looks. My "Mind's Eye" is extremely poor (for everything, not just faces). I can recognise people, although I'm not good at it.

Something I find curious - when I'm reading, I tend to skip over any description of characters. I didn't even realise I did it until fairly recently. I'm not sure whether that's in response to not being able to imagine what they look like, or just me taking a shortcut. Anyone else do that?

i think this is common among all humans

the mind cannot reproduce a perfect visualization, not even when dreaming

SEEING a complete face, in your mind, is impossible, aspie, nt, or whatever

so its not a problem, but completely normal :]

Hmmm I think there's a difference between the mind not being able to reproduce a perfect image of someone, and being completely unable to remember what they look like once they are out of sight. The latter is more my problem. I know many NTs who are able to visualise their loved ones and not forget how they look.

A face is more than the sum of its parts topic

It is interesting that the mind cannot imagine a complete face, and yet facial recognition depends on recognizing all the parts of the particular face into a coherent whole, according to a website I just visited.Mind360blog

Of course, those of us on the Autism spectrum are differently wired.

I seriously have this problem and find it frustrating. I can recognize and memorize people's mouths though because I tend to look at that when they talk (it's where the noise comes out), but I focus too much on the mouths that I don't pay too much attention to anything else unless it moves, and then only the actual movement more so than the appearance.

I have facial recognition problems and have difficulty associating names to people. At my last job my manager tried to help me. He gave me a photo of almost every person that I would be working with. It didn't help at all. I seem to remember details about the clothes, earrings, shoes, etc. that someone is wearing but not their face. I don't remember the entire outfit, just a detail that was interesting to me, unfortunately, those details change almost daily. If I can get a person to tell me their name every day then I have a better chance of associating their name to their voice or physical person.

I also do what Ambivalence wrote about - skipping over written descriptions. I skip over long, detailed descriptions of people or places. I find myself getting really irritated while reading descriptions, like the writer is wasting my time and I want them to get on with the story.

I've spent a lot of money trying to learn how to create visual images in my head. It is the basis for several memorization programs, and a component for some classes in how to overcome learning disabilities. No luck so far.

redplanet got my attention when he wrote about how he perceived people and then compared his perception to what the person actually looked like. I do that too and sometimes I am shocked at how different my construct is. I recently morphed a tall, large, middle-aged matron with straight, short hair into a diminutive, thin, young woman with flowing, long hair. She told me I looked absolutely shocked when she introduced herself to me (again). She knows I have recognition problems so always starts a conversation by introducing herself.

__biro wrote about being unable to describe a potential mugger. Many years ago my ADHD/AS grandson, who was 4 at the time, decided to explore on his own while we were visiting a park. I called the police to help me find him. When the police arrived I was unable to describe my grandson. I could point to my body to show how tall he was and I guessed at his weight but I didn't know what color his eyes were or what clothing he had on. My grandson came back a couple of hours later and never understood why I got upset at his leaving me, but the incident made me realize that I need to carry pictures of my loved ones in my wallet, or a good description.

Excellent topic. I'm enjoying reading it.

When I try to visualize a face from memory, the face always come out blurry. And if I happen to come across a friend or family member I haven't seen in a while, that person will sometimes appear to me as a stranger, at least until I can place that person's voice with some tone of familiarity.

redplanet posted: Does anyone else have this problem? Ever since I can remember I've not been able to visually recall people's faces without a long period of concentration, and even then I don't often remember a face. This is true whether the person is a family member or a long term friend. i can only visualise photos of the person (if I have one) so I tend to use photos to remember what people look like. Here's the interesting thing...if I don't have a photo of a person to boost my visual memory I end up imagining what the person looks like. Although I get it wrong, I find it interesting to see how I percieved the person inside my mind and compare it to the real person in front of me once I see them again. Sometimes I imagine the person is much more beauitful than they are, or even with harsher features. It always tells me something about how I might be percieving them in my subconscious mind. Does anyone else have one or both these problems?
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For some reason I can recognize a person when I meet them again, however, I cannot draw their faces from memory. Matter of fact, when I try to draw a face, something for me enters the equation - something called constructional apraxia - and the only way around that is to look at a picture of them and then, using the picture, draw parts of the face until the face is completed. Eventually I will have drawn a whole face although it consists of many different parts drawn one at a time.

I can't imagine what people look like if there's only a description of them in a book. I also have difficulty remembering people's faces unless I have seen them multiple times, which is the reason why whenever I feel passionate about a celebrity, I have to keep looking them up over and over in Google Images to remember exactly what they look like.

I have not seen my brother in 5 years and I have totally forgot what he looks like and do not have any pictures of him.

I always get e-mails from people who said I walked passed them in the store and did not even see them. They never believe me when I tell them that if I do not see them for more than three months I forget their face.

Face blindness. People with face blindness can't remember faces accurately. I can remember some parts but not enough for a clear picture. It's like I molded the face too much or not enough so the face I see looks nothing like the actual person. I can remember clothes, body build and hairstyles perfectly though.

I guess because I'm a photographer I can visualise people I have taken photos of, though sometimes it's hard.
People always look different in different locations too. It takes me a long time to realise who a person is even if it's only been a few days or weeks since I last saw them. And if they've got a different haircut and facial hair then hours will pass before I realise I know them.
It made it easy to get over my ex.