Problem remembering faces?

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I see me in the mirror.

I can picture loved ones and friends.

I've never been good remembering faces and names. Now I work in the public and the problem is bigger than I thought. I meet many folks everyday. But it is only after 4 months that I am recognizing them--and that's just a few of them. Like one lady gave me some very nice stuff AND took a copy of my book, saying she'd come back and pay for it another time. I made a point of looking at her, hoping I'd remember. A week later, a woman comes up with money in her hand. I began to wave her off--thinking she was wanting to tip me. lol. She said, "it's for your book." Embarrassing.

Usually I can get away with it by just saying a big ol' friendly "HI!" And letting them talk, and eventually they will say something that will clue me as to who they are and what we may have talked about before.

I feel stupid. Is this a neurological thing? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

I am very badly face blind when it comes to connecting names with faces.

I don't actually have this problem. In fact, I can recognise faces very quickly, if I look up at people. The reason why I don't spot people is because I don't look at anyone (because I have a fear of crowds), so I tend to scuttle straight past people with my head down. This is where the big problems come in when I'm meeting somebody at a particular place. I may be OK if I'm waiting there first because I can plant myself in a good position when I can see around me and spot the person whom I'm meeting more quicker. But when the other person is waiting there first, I usually walk straight past them then stand there puzzled and looking around for them. Ohh it makes me feel such a twat!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !

It is called "prosopagnosia" and its milder forms are more common than you might think. Total "face blindness" is rare but a lot of people (perhaps as high as 1 in 20) have measurable difficulty recognizing faces. Whether or not it is related to AS in any way, I have no idea.

Mild prosopagnosia has caused a lot of embarrassing social situations for me (not spotting a close friend/relative in a crowd, trouble learning co-worker's names in a new job, etc.) but I have learned coping mechanisms. Most NT's respond to social cues, so if I say something like, "Hi, I'm Mushroom, I think we've met before but I can't remember where," nobody has ever said "Of course I know who you are, you jerk!" but more likely "I'm Steve, we met at Bob's wedding" or whatever. In the past I used to just "play along" and pretend I knew who I was talking to, but in my experience that is more embarrassing in the long run than simply admitting that you've drawn a blank.

I'm actually not *terrible* at telling people apart, and after two or three encounters, I'll remember a face, but names take me ages. I can never remember names, it's actually one of the worst parts of social interaction. People walk up to me, and I might remember that I've seen them somewhere, but I will almost *never* remember their name if I haven't spent significant amounts of time with them...

If I am introduced to someone I often won't remember what they look like until I've seen them many many many times. This causes a problem with work, because often people will bring things to me that I need to return to them. I remember the room to bring them to, but not who in the room to bring them to. I walk to the door and hope that someone recognizes me and approaches, because if they don't I don't know who to talk to.

If I see a person out of the context in which I normally see them it's very unlikely that I'll know who they are. It is terrifying if I am at a store and someone comes up to me and starts talking to me as if they know me, because in so many cases I won't know who they are and I hope that they say something to identify themselves.

I remember one time when I was a child and I went on a trip for a few weeks and when I returned my mom was there to get me and I didn't even recognize her. I usually do recognize her.

If I watch a movie, and if there are two people with the same color and same amount of hair, I often can't tell who did what and I get really confused.

Let's just put it this way: It took me until the age of 14 to learn the first and last name of everyone in my year. I've been at the same school since the age of 3.

Yup. Well, sort of. I actually do remember faces and recognize them without too much trouble, but the problem I have is with connecting the names that belong to the faces. For example, I might remember the name, but can't place a face with the name in my mind. or I might remember a face, but can't place the name.

Context is an extremely important factor. I used to work in a convenience store for years, and eventually had no problem remembering all the regular customer's names and faces, but if I saw the same people outside work, I knew I knew them, but couldn't remember their names, because the face was in the "wrong" context.

Or, if the person wasn't present, but their name was mentioned, I couldn't place the face that belonged to the name in my mind, but could see their checks with their name on them, if they were check writers.

Wow, I never realised I have face-blindness! Most examples here are very extreme, so I thought I just suck at remembering people's faces. I also cannot picture someone in my minds eye, but picture them in a kind of mixture of feelings and colours associated with them. I had a very hard time telling people apart in secondary scool, as I described most people as being in the catagory clone-kids; wearing thesame clothes and acting thesame. Now in University people seem to be more at ease with having a distinct identity thus I find it easier to distinguish them, although I never am able to recognize someone in a crowd I have only met once.

Even with a glimpse, I never forget a face or anything visual-based, but I'm terrible with names, it can quite literally take me weeks and months to remember someones name. I wonder if my problem to recall names is linked to my CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder). I'm curious to know if those who report to have Prosopagnosia might have visual processing disorder.

Hmn, interesting thought, but I must say that I am superb at mapreading and finding my way in a forest, city or any other area.

I forget both names and faces. If I only met someone once, I tend to forget both. If I've met someone a few times, I remember the face, but not the name. If I knew someone for a long time but haven't met them in years (like people I went to school with), I'll usually forget either the name or the face, but which is a bit random. I also tend to offend people by introducing myself like I've never met them before, which is pretty annoying.

I have mild face-blindness. It is not disabling but my ability is far below the average person.

The thing that drives me nuts is I get really dumb when describing people's features:
I hate the what did he/she look like questions.
No, I really don't remember how tall you were, what your hair color is, or roughly what age you might be, or any other distinguishing features. And if you ask me about eye color--I'm going to laugh at you.

I never see people with physical details when I remember them in my mind. People are like bodiless entities to me. I associate them with some sort of abstract perception of who they are that I can't really explain in detail. Therefore people in my dreams and memory are faceless. They are kind of like ghosts as depicted in movies, hazy floating formless shapes. I remember them and I recognize them when seen. I just dont place much emphasis on physical details, I suppose.

If I try very hard to picture someone's face that I know well I can see a sort of hazy photograph of them. It looks like a school photo where it is just the shoulders and face and they are smiling. The details are still fuzzy, though.

*edit* I just started reading some of the posts above and this is sort of what I am trying to say too:

I'm somewhat below average when it comes to remembering names, and terrible with faces (my visual memory as a whole is rather bad).

I'm just fine at recognizing faces. Although sometimes certain details, like where I saw the person, or what they're wearing, can mess with that. There's this kid that works at pizza hut with me, and one day when I was at mcdonald's(my other job) putting away the truck order, he came to the drive-thru, saw me, and called out to me. At first, I had no idea who it was. I didn't expect to see him there, and he wasn't in his pizza hut uniform. Plus, I don't see him incredibly often at pizza hut anyway.

My problem isn't with recognizing faces, it's trying to put a name with the face or remembering exactly where it was I saw the person.