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Face Blindness/Prosopagnosia

I've been known to pass by my husband in a crowd and not see him, not even when he's out of uniform and not on a military installation. People will look "familiar" but I can't remember how I know them. Their names? Forget it. My job requires me to talk to people, usually foreigners, and take detailed notes. This way I can hide behind the "all Asians/East Europeans/Martians look the same" perception and if I really need to remember someone, there are notes to refer back to. Doesn't work with people from, say, church though :(
 
Odd Duck 1357 said:
I've been known to pass by my husband in a crowd and not see him, not even when he's out of uniform and not on a military installation. People will look "familiar" but I can't remember how I know them. Their names? Forget it. My job requires me to talk to people, usually foreigners, and take detailed notes. This way I can hide behind the "all Asians/East Europeans/Martians look the same" perception and if I really need to remember someone, there are notes to refer back to. Doesn't work with people from, say, church though :(
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My brother often opines that "All white people look alike." :p
 
When I draw made-up characters, it is hard for me to maintain consistency in their specific faces. That is what prompted me to start collecting action dolls. My faces turn out much better when I use them as face model lay figures. 1:6 scale is big enough to be distinctive.
 
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Movies are annoying when two different main characters, male or female, dress alike and have the same color hair and hairstyle. It becomes very confusing trying to sort out who is doing what.
 
Loomis said:
Movies are annoying when two different main characters, male or female, dress alike and have the same color hair and hairstyle. It becomes very confusing trying to sort out who is doing what.
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In recent years I've gotten over this problem when watching movies, but when I was older, I had problems with movie characters. It would switch to a new scene, and I'd have to ask my family "Who's that?" "Which guy is that one?" "Is that the same woman who..." And this was in regards to the main characters!
 
It doesn't happen very often with me, but when it does it's usually awkward squared. :eek:

Nothing like meeting someone in real time who knows you, but that you can't place who they are. Usually because they look like someone else. Never mind...lol. It's complicated! :confused:
 
Loomis said:
Movies are annoying when two different main characters, male or female, dress alike and have the same color hair and hairstyle. It becomes very confusing trying to sort out who is doing what.
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I thought it was just me with this problem but I reassured myself by looking on a TV forum, it seemed with one series where I was muddling up the characters I wasn't getting them as mixed up as the (presumably) NTs on that forum. The Apprentice and other 'reality' shows are equally confusing, the past couple of series of the UK Apprentice the participants have been pretty distinct but in some past series it took until halfway through the series to figure out which blonde contestant was which. One thing I do with movies and drama series where I have this problem is I give the character a name of another celebrity or family member I can easily remember, and who vaguely resembles the character in some way. The Icelandic drama I am watching at the moment has characters renamed by me as Tony Wilson (after the record producer), Quentin Tarantino and Kath from Pobol Y Cwm (welsh soap I used to watch) amongst others :D
 
Faceblindness happens to me all the time for everyone except my family or very very close friends. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I'm out at the store or someplace and someone comes up to me and says, "Hi" and I have absolutely no idea who they are.

On the times when I'm lucky to have my wife with me she'll later tell me, Oh, that is so-and-so from somewhere." If she is not with me I have to try to make small talk (something that I don't enjoy) until something that they say triggers my memory.

Once I am told who it is I usually remember. It's just getting over that first awkward part.
 
I have this. It can be terrifying trying to continue a conversation with someone without letting them know that you have to glean from the conversation who they are. I mean I know people forget names but that alone wouldn't tell them how terrifying it can be.
 
Loomis said:
Movies are annoying when two different main characters, male or female, dress alike and have the same color hair and hairstyle. It becomes very confusing trying to sort out who is doing what.
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I have a terrible time with that! Like in The Departed, where there are three muscular clean shaven blond men in the same haircut and white short sleeved shirt in the first fifteen minutes of the film. I got terribly confused and had to watch the movie again.

However, I have talked to NT's who have the same problem. Like the casting director just took their top three for a certain role and gave them all the female roles. Okay, but if they are all busty short-haired brunettes with southern accents and upturned noses, it is an additional barrier to figuring out who is who.

Because the movies are not giving me the same cues I get in real life. They might have arty lighting, or everything is going on in a bar or other dim place, or if we are in a particular neighborhood, everyone has the same accent, body movements, and clothing. Movies used to be fussier about distinguishing the players, and let character actors have distinctive looks, but now everyone is pretty, and it is more challenging.
 
I've a terrible time placing acquaintances out of context! Unless they're exceptionally tall or short, or wide, or have very different hair, or some other characteristic that visually sets them far apart.
 
Turanga Veela said:
I've a terrible time placing acquaintances out of context! Unless they're exceptionally tall or short, or wide, or have very different hair, or some other characteristic that visually sets them far apart.
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I've experienced that. Seeing someone at the store, that I normally only see walking down the street. All my life people have come up to me and said hi and I realize I've seen them before, but can't recall their name. I've confused people and called them by the wrong name. I've always thought, I just don't pay enough attention when I meet someone. I now try to assign a clue to each new person I meet. Something that remind me of who they are.
 
Yes, I have prosopagnosia as part of my autism. I do not recognize people I know when they are encountered out of context. I learn people's postures and ways of moving, in order to best identify them.
 
I have this to a degree. If I see people out of context, it will take me a while to recognise them. Also if I am introduced to two people around the same time that have even a passing resemblance ( eg people who work in the same building) I will most probably mix them up for ever more. I did the test, and couldn't get some because they were American celebrities, and I don't know them. Although, I'm embarrassed to say, without hair, I mistook Obama for Tiger Woods.:oops: <Runs away and hides>
 
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