[Misc] Are you a super-recogniser?

[SAC]

On the UNSW Face Memory Test you scored 20 out of 40.

On the UNSW Face Sorting Test you scored 38 out of 80.

Your overall score on the UNSW Face Test was 48%.

Much better than I expected, although most was guessing.

 

[Questions]

I just cant

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

24/40 and 38/80

Better than I thought. I have no minds eye and am pretty bad at recognising people - I once didn't recognise my mum when I was getting picked up at Heathrow.

That said I might have done even better. Towards the end of the second part I noticed it said to put matching pairs to the right and non matching to the left. I'd been putting them the other way round up to that point...

 

[Seagull58]

22 out of 40 and 44 out of 80. 55%
I am rubbish at recognising people. I even once went up to the wrong girl getting off the coach when meeting my girlfriend, and I was sober.

 

[Official Old Man]

I'll greet someone in my shop and say 'hello, how are you?' Then 5 minutes later say it again as I don't remember seeing them before.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

No, I'm rubbish.

There's a lot to understand with this subject. Personally I think I'm face blind, or at least I have a mild version of it. I really struggle to recognise people, especially out of context, including friends and family members on occasion. It can be acutely embarrassing in both work and social situations.

Same. Watching war films, for example, where everyone is wearing the same clothes, is a nightmare. I have no idea who is who or how you are supposed to follow it, unless there is a ginger or something in there. Weirdly though, I will remember the name of someone I met for ten minutes fifteen years ago. But wouldn’t have a clue who they were if they walked into my front room.

Identify with all that. I can spend almost two hours with someone I've just met for the first time, in a one-to-one work situation, but if I ran into them half an hour later in the street it's very likely I won't recognise them. Struggling to follow the plot line of a film is apparently a classic face blindness thing. (Rioja can also cause it.)

No. I am the exact opposite; indeed I struggle to recognise people I know well if they're wearing sunglasses. It's a source of both an embarrassment, amusement and exasperation to my family. I'm constantly saying "Who's that?" when we're watching TV/films as I struggle to recognise the different characters. My wife often has to apologise for me when people say "I saw your husband and he completely ignored me".

I have various coping strategies when people who obviously know me approach me and I haven't a clue who they are; the best one being smiling and nodding until they give a clue as to their identity. Sometimes I think I know somebody and launch into a conversation, until embarrassingly they have to stop me as they haven't a clue what I'm on about.

I always score highly, i.e. off the scale, on those 'autistic' tests though, not sure if the two are related.

22 out of 40 and 44 out of 80. 55%
I am rubbish at recognising people. I even once went up to the wrong girl getting off the coach when meeting my girlfriend, and I was sober.

Wow, just wow - I had no idea it was this common - I've been crap at facial recognition all my life.

I've read up a bit on left brain / right brain and the difference between art/music lovers and binary black/white computer programmer type-people - I'm very much the latter.

I'm nearly 62 now yet I can still recall all 4 car reg numbers my dad owned between my age 7 to 21 - utterly pointless info but I can't un-remember them ...

 

[Monkey Man]

22 out of 40 and 44 out of 80. 55%
I am rubbish at recognising people. I even once went up to the wrong girl getting off the coach when meeting my girlfriend, and I was sober.

I genuinely couldn't spot my own kids at picking up time at school once. Admittedly, they all seemed to have blond hair and were wearing the same uniform but I was genuinely struggling, even though we all live together and always have.

On occasions I have not recognised close friends at close range simply because they were in places I wasn't expecting to see them.

Most of the time this is just something you can laugh off, but at other times you can cause a bit of offence by accidentally blanking people.

 

[Goldstone1976]

23/40; 55/80; overall 65%.

Kin 'ell. It felt like pretty much pure guesswork, but perhaps it wasn't. I had very low confidence levels though - particularly as my most frequent refrain when watching a film is "...but they all look the same".

 

[Bry Nylon]

I'll greet someone in my shop and say 'hello, how are you?' Then 5 minutes later say it again as I don't remember seeing them before.

Are you sure you aren't talking to the mirror behind the counter?

 

[clapham_gull]

Very much so but in a completely useless way.

To give you an example I was standing next to someone at bar and remembered I was behind them queuing for a coffee...

.. in a completely different part of London over a year before. A complete stranger.

Happens to me all the time Useless skill.

 

[Hugo Rune]

72% so I’m in the top percentile, just. BUT I did ‘game’ it by focusing on an unusual feature in each face, for example, facial moles etc. Still it was very difficult for me, especially with ‘make-up’ being applied.

 

[MJsGhost]

Wow, just wow - I had no idea it was this common - I've been crap at facial recognition all my life.

I've read up a bit on left brain / right brain and the difference between art/music lovers and binary black/white computer programmer type-people - I'm very much the latter.

I'm nearly 62 now yet I can still recall all 4 car reg numbers my dad owned between my age 7 to 21 - utterly pointless info but I can't un-remember them ...

I can still remember the reg no of a car (A344 CJH if you're interested) in a TV show because I thought it was going to be crucial to the plot (it wasn't). That was when I was 9 or 10, so late 80s... Weird.

I couldn't be less arty/musical, so I guess we're in the same camp!

 

[el punal]

Identify with all that. I can spend almost two hours with someone I've just met for the first time, in a one-to-one work situation, but if I ran into them half an hour later in the street it's very likely I won't recognise them. Struggling to follow the plot line of a film is apparently a classic face blindness thing. (Rioja can also cause it.)

Not all bad then - you can recognise and remember a corkscrew.

 

[Albion my Albion]

I remember faces but can't remember names.

You look very familiar....... Er, Palace. John, Bob, Ian, Ralph, Terry, no wait...........................I'll get it...........................

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

I remember faces but can't remember names.

I'm the same as Thumpy Balls

 

[marlowe]

I genuinely couldn't spot my own kids at picking up time at school once. Admittedly, they all seemed to have blond hair and were wearing the same uniform but I was genuinely struggling, even though we all live together and always have.

I've no idea why but your post reminded me of this old film classic...

 

[Motogull]

71% here. A bit shocked as it goes.

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Not wanting to derail thread, but after being introduced to someone and told their name, how long / frequency of meeting said individual, have you been without actually knowing their name? Just been about 6 months of weekly meeting someone in group of about 8 and finally to my relief have established their name....

I think the way out of this is to fess up on second meeting, and say sorry, can't remember your name ..... but I'm not particularly good at that either (mainly through fear of forgetting it again!!) Ahh well

 

[dannyboy]

63% better than i thought as it felt like i was guessing most of the time

in regards to remembering names, does anyone get this? For example youre with 1 person you know in the pub then another person you know walks in the pub . You know both their names. Politeness says you introduce the 2 people to each other. I always forget one of their names ... embarrassing !

 

[Tokyohands]

72% so I’m in the top percentile, just. BUT I did ‘game’ it by focusing on an unusual feature in each face, for example, facial moles etc. Still it was very difficult for me, especially with ‘make-up’ being applied.

Did you end up looking like this?