Have Trouble recognizing People's Faces?

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I have a really strange, contradictory ability. I wonder whether other aspies have anything similar:

Like many aspies, I have a very hard time remembering faces. The other day, I was introduced to my new neighbor and talked with her for 10 minutes. I saw her later on that day and didn't recognize her. I introduced myself AGAIN, to both our embarrassment....

But not so with famous people. I live in Beverly Hills, which has probably the highest concentration of recognizable faces per capita in the world, and I spot famous people ALL THE TIME. All I need is one glimpse, and I've got them. They can be wearing hats, glasses, weird/new hairdos, and not look anything like they do on TV or on screen ... doesn't matter. I can spot them a block away, and I'm right 95% of the time.

Example: I was at the Grove today and saw Joe Pantoliano talking with the guy who played Happy Gilmore's nemesis Shooter McGavin in the movie HAPPY GILMORE (His name's really Christopher McDonald). Pantoliano was wearing a baseball cap, dark glasses, a huge coat, diamond-stud earings, and wasn't wearing his hairpiece (he's actually bald.) Not the way his characters usually dress or look, yet it took me about two seconds to place who he was, and it WAS him. I double-checked.

And it doesn't matter how often I've seen them. Example: I had seen one picture of Jack White of the WHITE STRIPES in Rolling Stone. Other than that, nothing. At an airport in Detroit, I saw this guy, and my "celebrity sensor" went off. I turned to my brother and said, "Isn't that the singer you like so much?" My brother went nuts. I was right. And just at that moment, the flight attendant came out and personally escorted Jack White and his fiance onto the plane ahead of everyone else.

Do you see how this doesn't make sense? I can't spot my old friends or even remember new people's faces like my neighbor. Everyone who knows me--NTs included--has seen this talent at work, and they're astounded at my sensitivity. My sensor is so sharp, it's like witchcraft. I can spot a celebrity when no one else can.

Anybody else have anything like this contradiction?

I'm very good at remembering whether or not I've seen a face before. I just sometimes have a really hard time remembering who the person is or where I saw them before (unless I see them often). Sometimes I'm absolutely certain about where I know them from, but any attempt at conversation quickly proves I'm wrong.

I'm also not very good at remembering some people's names. If I pass someone in the hall at work, by the time I think of their name they are already long gone.

YES!!

I'm very happy to see you post about this because I have this same very odd thing and can't figure out why, nor have I ever read about it anywhere else.

I have a terrible time with recognizing people. I pass right by a person I 'should' know or do know well, and don't realize who they are.

But I'm VERY good at picking put people on tv or movies. My husband thinks this is fun, we test each other all the time on guessing who someone is - I get alot more right then he does.

I did come up with one decent theory on this, but you just blew it away by saying you can spot celebs in person. Hmmm, I lived in Southern CA for 14 years and didn't see or at least recognize hardly any celebrities.... others around me always saw them though.

My theory is that real people are real and those on tv and the movies are not real to me. They are objects. I am very good at picking out details on objects, and reading everything without trying to, and remembering odd things about everything, so it would be right to conclude that since I don't know these people, and they are 'icons' more than people to me, I'm just memorizing there features like any other object.

I don't know...

I'd be very interested in any other theories on this, or if anyone else has the same odd thing.

:> earthmom

earthmom,

your theory still holds.

You learn these 'objects' (people's faces) on TV, where it's not RL.

Then in real life, you have the knowledge to draw from.

Meeting someone IRL and learning their faces then requires a different system. Or probably part of it, other systems (emotion) get in the way of the recognition and learning.

Once you DO learn the face/object, you can recognize it.

IRL there is too much other information coming in, not to mention your (maybe, mine anyway) aversion to eyes. It's easier to look at a face on TV than IRL, therfore it's easier to learn and recognize.

I think the theory is about right. It's been suggested before, I believe.

I have an awful time recognizing faces. When I was to get my diagnosis, I entered the clinic simultaneously with an older man. I thought, "awgod, I hope I don't have to make small talk in the waiting room." But he followed me there and started talking, as if he knew me.

He did. It turned out he was my Doctor, the one who sent me to the AS evaluation in the first place...

I have the same problem I find it easier to remember faces from photos than in real life

Me too. Except I probably don't have as big of a sample to draw from as you do, but whenever the Sundance Film Festival comes to town, I can spot people left and right. But when it comes to recognizing actors in movies, I'm an ace. Like in King Kong, I was the only one in my entire extended family and small circle of friends to realize that the sailor who gets eaten my the giant maggots (yuck) was actually Andy Serkis before I went online to check out the cast. This led to a discussion about why it is so hard for me to recognize "normal" people, but not people I see on TV. Or why, if I see someone out of context (like if I'm at work or school and I see someone I'm supposed to know from church), it's like a guessing ! I wonder why that is.

Same here apart from the first bit in which I'd say I'm just 'reasonbly ok' at remembering IF I've seen a face before.

Faces that I remember can cause me confusion if seen out of context, unless it is distinctive to me.
I am better at recognising pairs of people or groups, but if they are alone, away from the pair, it is harder to recognise and this has happened far too often and is embarrasing.
I feel better since I have learnt it is an Aspie thing and can explain to people who are always very good about it.

EDIT--

Sorry, I only answered half the question.

With famous faces it is quite hard for me to tell if I would recognise them out of context; I see them when and where I expect to rather than randomly.
'
If it is a famous person well known to me like an 'Eastenders' actor then I am fine if they look like their charater and less so if they don't.
I live near the TV studios for Eastenders and Holby City. I tend to recognise the Eastenders that are main charaters but not always the Holby City actors as I don't watch it too much and its only on once a week.

As I am waiting outside the studios to get them to pose with Bearsac in photos for his Bearsac Meets Celebrities page on his website there is a high chance that if a person looks like one of the actors, then it is them as I would expext them to be there.
I still miss them at times as it can takes a good few seconds for me to recognise even the very well known ones.
It is always helpful to me if there are other people wating that recognise them quickly.

I have lots of trouble with the Arsenal players though even though It should be easy as I stand outside the training ground. I no longer go to matches and don't even watch them much on the telly, so are not familiar enough with the faces to tell the difference between the ones that look similar unless the ones that look similar are both there for me to see at the them same time so I can compare. for example - Reyes and Pires look simliar and it takes me a while to know which one im looking at or talking to unless I see them at the same time in the flesh, in photos or on TV. I fancy Pires but still find it takes a while to regognise him when I expect to see him!

Last edited by Bearsac-Debra on 26 Jan 2006, 12:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I can relate. I can see someone I met at a meeting, and I either totally do not recognize them or I can sense that I know that face but do not remember who they are or wher I met them. The person who was my son's afterschool care person (in his youth center), I saw her every day for four months, she changed jobs to work security where I work. I totally didn't recognize her. She was speaking to me about the kids and I am just looking at her thinking "who is this woman? How does she know my kids?"
With friends I have difficulty remembering names until I am very familiar with them.
I have no problems recognizing people on tv programs or movies.

OWWWW! Oh I know that pain - ouch! I hope at least that he understood! Heck he's the one that suspected you were an Aspie. He should have just taken that as verification!

Thanks for the back up on this theory, I haven't ever heard it mentioned before but it just made sense to me. Now, the Original Poster does mention that he can pick out celebs in real life too...... that must be because he has memorized the features as an object and just pick those out very well when he next sees the 'object' (which happens to be a person)

:> earthmom

I gave it some thought, and you hit the nail right on the head, I believe. This is exactly what happens. Whenever I meet someone in real life, there is this emotion storm going on. I'm always very nervous. Can't seem to help it, and I can't remember faces or names.

But actors are THINGS for me, and for some reason, I have a savant-like capability to recognize 'things' I've seen before.

This doesn't just apply to people, now that I think about it. It also applies to other objects. I can recognize just about anything and tell you where I saw it before. (Car's I've only seen once for a second, etc.) In fact, I may have a speices of photographic memory, though I've never considered it that way before...

One of my friends remarked I should go to work for the FBI.

Have you seen those photos that are extreme closeups of an object and you're to guess what the object is? I usually do very well at those games and I'm sure you do too.

I found this site with lots of them - they're for kids but they're fun!

:> earthmom

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkid ... ntheworld/

It takes me a while to memorize a face. I sometimes even get celebrities confused when reading magazines. I'm not sure I'd be able to recognize them IRL unless they were a celebrity I was obsessed with. For some reason I have trouble telling the difference between Bill Murray and Jim Belushi. Same with Sylvester Stallone and Al Pacino.

Umm, what happened was that I suggested I was an Aspie. I'd read up on AS when my son was diagnosed and thought "hey, this is me, too".

But yes, he took the whole thing very well. I suppose he knows about the face blindness thing being quite common among Aspies.



I've read that if you memorize a person's face upside down, face blindness doesn't necessarily kick in since the face becomes, as you say, an "object". That makes a lot of sense to me. Not that I'm going to try anytime soon.

Which leads me off on a tangent here: Many years ago, I saw a TV show or series that explained how the brain works. One of the things demonstrated was how vision is handled by the brain. If you had a test person wear glasses with a prism device that effectively turned the image upside down for a day or so, the brain adjusted to the new situation. The test person had no problems walking around or working using the glasses, once the initial shock had passed.

So what I'm wondering here is if a person with face blindness wore those glasses, would her face recognition improve, assuming that an upside down face is seen as an "object" instead of a face, and thus processed in a different part of the brain? I'd love to know.

I wouldnt know people I see every day if they got a hair cut.

Dont eat the food at the Detroit airport.