On Facial Recognition: How is it for you?

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When I was 8 or so and in summer camp (which I always hated), I kept thinking about going back home to my parents, but toward the end of the week I had trouble remembering what they looked like. This disturbed me. When they finally came to pick my sister and me up at the end of camp, I could barely recognize them.

This has since changed. I find I can recognize people very well, even if I have not seen them in years, even in a completely unexpected context. I can recognize people whether they wear something different from what they normally wear or they change their hairstyle.

How about y'all?

I usually recognize people, but I cannot remember their names. I know that I know them, I know their context and I usually know 'who' they are in that context - like various details of their lives and I can picture their families etc...but the names - no clue, and if I try to say the name, I often make a mistake.

I remember the first time I realized I had trouble recognizing faces.

My younger sister and I were getting out of a plane after being somewhere for several weeks. Our mom was at the gate to pick us up, but I didn't recognize her. I was looking around but couldn't identify her. My sister identified her immediately, but I couldn't. I just went along, because my younger sister knew what our mom looked like.

The knowledge that I could not even identify what my mom looked like was completely terrifying, and I don't think I will ever forget it.

I still have great trouble identifying people outside of the expected context, unless they have very prominent unusual traits.

It is difficult for me to recognize faces in some situations where I should be able to. I have been embarassed by not recognizing aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. whom I see a lot and whom I should be able to easily recognize.

However, and this might be a reaction (sort of like attempting to turn a weakness into a strength) --

Several years ago I started a little game with my wife and I will see random strangers and tell her who they look like. They may look like a celebrity, a fictional character, someone else we know, etc. Sometimes it might be like, "That woman looks like a cross between your friend Jane and Pam Beasly from The Office" Or it could be -- "Hey that looks like Kevin Bacon, only polynesian."

I've gotten pretty good at it, and it may have inadvertently made me better at facial recognition.

It reminds me of the scene from the movie Arthur with Russel Brand. He plays a game with Hobson where he says things to her like,
"Look! It's orphan Annie, but as a man. Orphan Mannie!" And a few others. I don't know if this is what originally gave me the idea or not.

I have some face blindness, but I can recognize my mom and sisters. I can't draw a picture in my mind what they look like, because my sensory processing is fragmented.

I'm pretty good at facial recognition. There were issues when I didn't use to look people in the face so I didn't recognize them, otherwise it was okay with me.

I have some minor face recognition issues.

I saw my step sister at a store a few weeks ago and took me a while to realize it was her. I almost walked right past her.

I also was meeting someone at work. My boss walked by me and said hi. I had no idea who he was because I was looking for the person I was meeting, despite looking right at him and saying hi back. It took me a while to realize it was him.


I am good at names, but names are one of my main special interest, so I think about them a lot.

Unless it's someone I have frequent contact with, (or, sometimes, semi-frequent or less if they did something more memorable), then when I see them I'll recognize them as familiar, I'll know that I know them, but not be able to connect their name to them. Normally, I associate who someone is and what I've done with them/how I know them with their name, so when they remind me of their name I then remember who they are completely. Sometimes, however, especially if it's been an extremely long time or I've met them perhaps fewer than three times and not recently, while their face may look familiar, their name won't ring a bell (unless it's online where I can't see their face, in which case the name may sound familiar but not be able to connect them to the person), and I won't remember who they are until I'm reminded of something they've done/how I met them/etcetera. I don't even always remember all of the things together, infrequently I'll have several different mental "persons" based off the splitting of interactions with what turns out to be one person. In line with that, sometimes when I find out something they've done, that'll be the only thing that I'll remember, until something sparks another memory with them.

Not as good as it seems.

i don't notice if recognize people by their face i usually think about things like their hair style of clothing voice ect and not their face.

I am pretty bad at it. I knew I was kind of bad, but when I had my testing done, they told me how bad I actually was. I was surprised.

I am actually fairly good at memorizing faces, and I've found that while I'll often forget people's names, even if I've known them for a while, I'll still recognize who they are by their faces.

In some cases though, I've found that if I see someone with a face similar to another person who has given me trouble in the past, that I'll often overreact to the sight of their face and start feeling agitated, even if it isn't the same person. It just seems that certain facial patterns seem to set me off for some reason, and I have a hard time not judging people by how they look.

I am not exactly sure what "face blindness" is, whether it's being completely oblivious to other people's faces, or if it's difficulty telling certain faces apart. If it's the former, I am most definitely not "face blind". If it's the latter, then I do have a few issues, since like I mentioned before, whenever I see certain facial patterns, I tend to start feeling agitated, even if it's a completely different person than who I have "associated" with that facial pattern.

Not too long ago we were at a mall and a kid walked up to me and "hi Ezra!" and then
proceeded to talk to me about a bunch of stuff and I has no idea who he was. This is
where my being mostly nonverbal and inattentive looking paid off because he was used
to that.

Anyways, after he went on his way I was going crazy trying to figure out who he was
and then it finally dawned on me, that he is a kid I went to school with last year and
and knew really well, and he simply was not wearing the cap I had always seen him with.
And at weddings and stuff grown ups, I guess I should know, come up to me saying hi and the same thing.

Hurts me to say this, but if my parents died, I would probably mostly forget about them
after a few months and not really recognize them in a picture - unless I looked at the
picture all the time to remind me.

This has happened a few times where I don't realize I already met the person I'm with. It's not a serious problem though. My serious problem is forgetting the names of people I worked with for 4 years.