Face Blindness Realizations

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Thank you for linking the test. I received a score of 61%, but I was really only able to recall the faces because I made mental notes of each of their features (eyebrows, nose, lips).

This is an interesting revived thread. And now I know what 'pareidolia' is - and realize that cars' headlights and grills and front bumpers have always looked like faces to me. I score slightly above average on face recognition tests because I've had long practice memorizing individual features. But in the real world that can fail when the person is in the sun and squinting or in an unusual posture or in different lighting. I have pretty absolute prosopagnosia - which freaked me out when I first realized it. Honestly faces are far too complex and dynamic for me to see as a whole. I can remember people from pictures, but if I just try to remember someone's face that I've seen just minutes before, it's not possible. I'm blind even to my own face or the faces of my cats who I see every day. It was a big loss when I accepted that. I'll never know what I look like to others. But I often surprise people by naming them when they walk up behind me unseen because I can tell the sound of their walk very accurately. I can relate to having someone start talking to me and they obviously know me but me not having a clue who they are - that happens especially when their features are not overly distinctive - too close to the average face. I've also realized that I don't see objects of any complexity as a whole, but rather as a collection of shapes and textures and individual parts, which I believe is a result of disordered sensory processing - this can make driving to new places quite challenging. I've never found a name for that condition, unless it's just SPD.

You must have a really good memory.


I did the same thing for the first set of faces where I only had to do one at a time (apparently that's a common strategy for those who are faceblind), but it was completely hopeless once the test started presenting six faces at once.

I can visualize people and places I know or have known, and see them as if watching a movie inside my head, not from a picture I have. I can see people I know both from an actual memory and just as a general vision of them, same with places. I can re-run bits of memory like a movie, but also just "be" in that place or with that person again, looking at them.

I have a weirdly selective form of face blindness, and that is when people are sporting very similar physical features such as the same hair type and style, similar facial features, or especially when men have bald heads. I'm really bad at telling one bald man from another. They all look the same to me unless they have a very distinguishing facial feature.

In a movie, if two characters look too much alike, I have trouble following which person is which. But generally I don't think I have face blindness in most cases. I can recognize someone I know out of context but I do get startled and disoriented to see them out of context. I know them right away but I'm surprised, like they shouldn't exist in a setting that isn't the one I know them in, lol.

I struggle to picture people's faces, but only because I don't look at them enough. There are people I've worked with for years that I've never really had to interact with; the first time I am forced to have a proper conversation with them - really look at them and give them eye contact etc. - I usually find I'd pictured them quite differently to how they really look. That's not face blindness though, that's just me being antisocial .

Family members, actors, interesting people etc., I can imagine their faces quite well.

That said, I enjoyed the test that was linked. 93%, woo.

Mind. Blown. I Google imaged both of them. I never really gave it much thought but, considering I didn't know that a person named Scott Glenn existed I must've assumed it was all Keith Carradine.

I'm sitting here trying to picture my family's faces and wondering why I can only picture them smiling and not in motion...it's because I'm picturing pictures of them; thank you for explaining that. It's actually making me a little sick to my stomach that my brain won't let me "see" them. I just tried to picture my Mom when I saw her last weekend and my brain is giving me clothing that she may or may not have worn on that day.

Must ponder and come back later.

I did the test and scored high. Something I never realised I was good at. I ended up doing many tests for the university via email. They emailed me a couple of months(emailed everyone who scored high taking part in the research) ago asking anyone if they wanted to go on a to show for people who were super recognisers on the science channel. I declined as I'm not very peopley.

I generally don't have a problem with video or pictures. Though sometimes my brain makes two people the same... I attributed Scott Glenn's work to David Carradine for years after I knew Carradine died... but come on... they are way too similar looking...


Dude... totally... hadn't even thought about that one.

That is human biology. We are hardwired to see faces... even when our ability to recognize them is wonky.

I did fine on the test. I don't tend to have problems with still pictures... still I had problems with the methodology... using the same 6 pictures in test 2 and 3 skews the "memory" part of it... also the lack of a "no idea" button means you always have a 33% chance... meh... interesting though that I do quite well under those circumstances.

I was also cheating and using image quality on a couple of the ones that were fuzzier than the others.



Exactly, had those six guys been standing around my desk after I finished the test I wouldn't have known it.

I know my dogs' faces though.



Oooh.... that one is neat. I don't do that. I don't think...

WOO HOO! I'm not alone.


I did that. I might have cried when I actually realized it. It was weird and overwhelming. I feel guilty about it. I feel horrible for my wife, like... I can't even think of her the way I assume she thinks of me. It sucks.

But I am overjoyed that so many of us on here know the same feeling... to not be alone with a symptom like that is heartening.

I scored 38%, too.

I noticed that more often than not, the one I thought was the most likely was the face that had better light on it.