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Prosopagnosia and portraits

Sabrina

Sabrina

Gentle & brave earthling
“Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces”.

I think I have some sort of light prosopagnosia because it’s tough for me to recognize new acquantainces’ faces (it can be embarassing). Maybe I meet a mom of my kids’ friends one day and the next I might not recognize her, for example.

I’ve realized lately that when I try to remember people’s faces, even if it’s someone very close to me, the only way I can do it is remembering a portrait picture of them. If I try to remember them as I saw them in real life, I can’t, unless I’ve seen them very recently, like the same day.

Does this happen to any of you too?
 
That's a very interesting strategy, I might give that a go.

But yes, it's the same for me. I recognize people by their hair instead. I guess I started doing that long before I realized I was faceblind. If someone changes hairstyles or hats, I won't recognize them, or if I do it'll take a few seconds or another contextual clue. So yes, I did notice your new haircut, I just didn't recognize you :p
 
Yes, the same for me. I have problems to recognise people especially outside the context in which I've met them before, for example I have a hard time recognising my colleagues outside the working environment or my aquintances from uni outside of the uni. It's especially hard if someone has a typical hairstyle or skin colour, or if they changed their hairstyle or put more make up than normally since hair, skin colour and clothes are the things I focus on the most when trying to remember people. Then, even if I do recognise the person as someone I know, I have a hard time figuring out who exactly they are and where do I know them from and then what was their name. It can lead to some pretty embarassing moments as you know.

I tried yourstrategy already and unfortunately it didn't work for me. Instead I focus, as mentioned, on hairstyle, skin colour, clothes, silhuette, although it's surely less efficient. Still, beggars cannot exactly be choosers, right?

Concerning the context or its lack, I guess it's the same when we're talking about someone I met only a few times. If the context is not mentioned, I won't know who they are.
 
Sabrina said:
“Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces”.

I think I have some sort of light prosopagnosia because it’s tough for me to recognize new acquantainces’ faces (it can be embarassing). Maybe I meet a mom of my kids’ friends one day and the next I might not recognize her, for example.

I’ve realized lately that when I try to remember people’s faces, even if it’s someone very close to me, the only way I can do it is remembering a portrait picture of them. If I try to remember them as I saw them in real life, I can’t, unless I’ve seen them very recently, like the same day.

Does this happen to any of you too?
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Heard of this, both with those with Autism and those without. I've had it in the past or experienced symptoms.
 
Unless I know someone very well, I can't identify them by their faces, though I usually can by other features such as hair or the way they are dressed, how they walk or for some, how they stand. Even then though, it is almost entirely based on the context from which I know them, and outside that, I can't tell people apart at all, though I may sense that I know a person, I don't know who it is.

I stay away from situations where I might have to deal with multiple people because I always get them mixed up and wrong, and I can't make sense out of a lot of TV programmes because if the characters are dressed similarly, I can't tell which is which.

The longer I know someone, the better I can see them, so my daughter for instance is instantly recognisable in any location, but there's probably no more than maybe 3 people that is true for. After my wife left, I couldn't describe her face at all, and once when I paid a visit to my mother after she had moved, when an old lady I didn't recognise at all answered the door, I apologised and was walking away thinking I'd got the wrong address, but it turned out to be her. I hadn't seen her in that location, or in fact for a couple of years or so.

I do recognise photographs of people, though as soon as I look away, I can't describe their faces, or anything about them.
 
kay said:
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OMG!!! Exactly! I can have great memory with things that are flat, but if they are moving, terrible :). Thank you so much, that’s the explanation.

Maybe that’s why I can’t remember a simple cooking video, but I can remember words in other languages that I see written very easily.

WOW this explains so much why with “practical” issues I suck, but with whatever that it’s written in a book I shine :D.
 
Yes, when people are out of the context where I met them it’s terrible! “Hi! How are you?” And me thinking “Who is this??? Smile, say hi!” :confused:

I wish everybody wore the same clothes everyday, like the man in the yellow hat in Curious George, (or like in most of little kids’ cartoons):p. Or at least, that they had something unique that never changes, like a purple hair strand, or something like that. How about tattoos in their hands with their names ? :D
 
Sounds like me. I've never been good at IDing people by their faces alone. One person can look like 10 different people just based on expressions alone. I've always see more of a general form, like if you stand back far enough, I'm better by seeing how they stand or walk than their face. I'd hate to ID someone in a lineup because if they forced me to pick one, someone innocent would be put away.

When I was married to my daughter's mom, she already had a son who was afraid of his dad, I had seen the guy several times. One time my dad came to the door, dressed in the same golf outfit, shorts, sunglasses, hair, same shape dark tanned face, and crouched down the same way. The son ran screaming. And got scolded for it. I knew why he ran because what he saw, I saw it too. Trying to explain it was useless, of course we didn't last maybe 2 more years anyway.

Like when I was a kid, I'd get Jon Lovitz and Kevin Nealon mixed up. Same for Mel Gibson and Ted Danson. There were more. Another thing is I didn't see skin color until my teens when my bigoted family started making jokes. I said once that my aunt looked like Nell Carter because to me she did, same face shape, hair, build. Boy I got grilled for that. I'd watch Diffrent Strokes, Webster, Cosby Show and not see that they looked any different. Heck I had a schoolmate from the Virgin Islands who I had a kiddie crush for when I was about 9.

It doesn't bother me that I now see some of the additional differences in people, I still treat everyone the same. But I do miss that innocence I had for so long.
 
If I haven't seen anyone in a very long time then I'm going to need them to talk first since it's easier for me to go with how they sound and then how they move around first before I know who they are. People can change far too much so that was always confusing on who is who.

tlc said:
Sounds like me. I've never been good at IDing people by their faces alone. One person can look like 10 different people just based on expressions alone. I've always see more of a general form, like if you stand back far enough, I'm better by seeing how they stand or walk than their face. I'd hate to ID someone in a lineup because if they forced me to pick one, someone innocent would be put away.

When I was married to my daughter's mom, she already had a son who was afraid of his dad, I had seen the guy several times. One time my dad came to the door, dressed in the same golf outfit, shorts, sunglasses, hair, same shape dark tanned face, and crouched down the same way. The son ran screaming. And got scolded for it. I knew why he ran because what he saw, I saw it too. Trying to explain it was useless, of course we didn't last maybe 2 more years anyway.

Like when I was a kid, I'd get Jon Lovitz and Kevin Nealon mixed up. Same for Mel Gibson and Ted Danson. There were more. Another thing is I didn't see skin color until my teens when my bigoted family started making jokes. I said once that my aunt looked like Nell Carter because to me she did, same face shape, hair, build. Boy I got grilled for that. I'd watch Diffrent Strokes, Webster, Cosby Show and not see that they looked any different. Heck I had a schoolmate from the Virgin Islands who I had a kiddie crush for when I was about 9.

It doesn't bother me that I now see some of the additional differences in people, I still treat everyone the same. But I do miss that innocence I had for so long.
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I didn't see skin color either growing up.
 
Well, here we go again. I am the weird one. I never, ever forget a face. The problem is that most of the time I have no idea who they are. I know that I should know who they are, I just can not remember. I have been around a long time and have interacted with a lot of people. People come up to me and start talking to me using my name. I will usually just play along and try to remember who they are. Very embarrassing.
 
I remember faces that I see regularly, but less if I don't. It is the worst when I half-way recognize someone, but can't remember from where.

One of the main purposes of my action doll collection is so I can have different reference faces to draw from. Without them, my drawn faces tend to be generic and inconsistent.
 
Sabrina said:
Does this happen to any of you too?
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Only all my life. It's not full-blown face blindness - just an incredibly bad ability to recognize all but very familiar people.

I have no visual memory - not for faces, images, cars, scenery, maps - anything. I can stare at someone's face for 5 minutes and if I close my eyes, I won't be able to describe anything about them. (For you Doctor Who fans, it's like everyone in the world is a Silence.) Now, if I make a mental note and translate something visual into words, like saying to myself, "John has glasses, a hat, and a mustache" - then I'll remember those words. But if you then ask me if John has a beard, I won't be able to tell you.

When I got engaged to my wife, an aunt asked me "What does she look like?" And I replied, "I don't know." She rolled her eyes and said, "You're just like my dad - no visual memory." And I got so excited - "That's a thing!? I'm not the only one?!"

If I work with you and see you at the store, I won't recognize you. If I am used to seeing you in a dress and you show up in jeans and a t-shirt, I won't recognize you. (For you computer geeks, I say "You've changed your hash code and now I don't recognize you.")

I've had to learn that when a new lady shows up in certain social circles and acts like she knows everyone there, it's the same lady that always keeps changing her hair - I've reintroduced myself to her several times. My wife is used to apologizing for me.

What helps: I can recognize people by their gait at a distance more easily than I can recognize their face up close. When I am trying to learn someone's name, I'll call them by their name as often as possible when we first me. I'll also imagine their full name printed above them - translating it to text seems to help. Playing word games with their name seems to help increase the association, too.
 
I'm still horrified recalling when I left the company I worked at for nearly twenty years and saw someone about six months later who greeted me in a store. I had no idea who she was.

I just couldn't place her face. :eek:

Though in hindsight I can't help but wonder if I didn't recognize her because I really didn't want to. She wasn't someone I really liked, even though I worked only a cubicle away from her for about five years.
 
Judge said:
I'm still horrified recalling when I left the company I worked at for nearly twenty years and saw someone about six months later who greeted me in a store. I had no idea who she was.

I just couldn't place her face. :eek:
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I'll have to meet you in person sometime so we can not recognize each other at the store.
 
fairy_girl said:
If I haven't seen anyone in a very long time then I'm going to need them to talk first since it's easier for me to go with how they sound and then how they move around first before I know who they are. People can change far too much so that was always confusing on who is who.



I didn't see skin color either growing up.
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I did see it but not 100%. I remember reconnecting with an old friend from high school in my thirties, thinking, “I never realized this, but he’s totally American Indian”. And also in my thirties, a person that had never met my mom told me, “but she’s darker than you” , and I was “Uh???? Now that I think about, she’s a shade darker, true, I’ve never noticed it”. :D
 
I not only remember faces, but I see faces where there are no faces. In a pile of rumpled up cloth, in designs on wallpaper, in clouds, the grain in wood and many other places. I see faces and patterns everywhere. Does anyone else do this, or am I just crazy?
 
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