Forgetting faces, names and even voices.

Post Reply New Topic

Is this more among Aspies? I was so embarrassed today when I came out of Home Depot and an older gent hollered at me saying "hi" and started talking as if he knew me all my life. Anyhow, I was forced to ask who he was and he told me his name and that he was the husband of a woman that passed away not too long ago. Than he mention a woman who I know quite well and is a friend and coworker. I don't associate with her very much since I don't like to socialize because of my social awkwardness, but enough that I never forgot her name. But, that man that I talked to in the parking lot, I didn't recognize his face, name or his voice.

Does this happen to Aspies more than NTs?

Only occasionally. I forget names, voices, and sometimes faces. Like if I try to remember some people in my head, it's like their face is blurred.

Objects and surroundings I can imagine fine, just not really people.

I never forget a face. Unfortunately I never remember names so I always have to skirt around that. It's really annoying if I run into someone when I'm with other people and have to make introductions. I just sort of go "Hey uhh... this is uhh..." and wave my hands around a lot until people give out their own names.

Prosopagnosia (face blindness) is common on the spectrum.

Wow, I just learned a new word that I can't even pronounce. Will have to go to the online Merriam Webster for the pronunciation. But, I do have a lot of trouble recongnizing faces even if it's only been a year or 2 ago. If someone's face is very distinct and have markings where I can associate, I'm usually OK. But, I don't have any problems with recognizing objects.

Wonder what you call it when you can't remember a face, name and voice? You wouldn't believe how embarrassed I was today, because if I remember the face and voice it is only the name I don't remember. But all 3?

I think a lot of people forget faces after a year or two. I'm not an expert about Prosopagnosia but I believe they have a hard time recognizing close friend and family as well as their own face sometimes.

Yes, I do have a mild case of prosopagnosia. When I meet someone I might have met 1-5 times before I'm often unsure if I have met them or not. Since I am like this I also often skip introducing myself to new people, since I might have met them before. It is not a fun thing to not be able to recognize them already the second time we meet.

one of the reasons i avoid people is that i can't remember them.

I'm terrible at names. I mistake faces all the time.

I can't bring up a mental image of someone's face, but when I see a face, I instantly recognize them. I'm pretty good with names, but voices are hard.

I've often offended people accidentally by not being able to recognize them.
I don't tend to remember who someone is unless I see them nearly every day of a significant amount of time each day, and even then, If you ask me to describe their faces or what they look like, I don't have a clue. I don't recognise most of my family members when I see them, and worryingly, since I moved away from my parents, it seems to take me a second longer to recognise them than before. I don't recognise anyone's voice on the phone straight away, either.

Someone who I meet once or twice can come back to me less than half an hour later and there's no guarantee that I will realise that they are the person I was talking to just a minute ago.

It was one of the first things that my stepmother noticed about me that started us realising that I wasn't NT. I became aware that I was face-blind after seeing a documentary about it several years before, so I tended to warn people if I could, to prevent the likelihood of causing offense.
(Everyone else had known me most of my life and didn't question it, or ignored it.)

I don't have any problems with faces or voices but I can never remember names. When I was in school it would take me like half the year to remember my classmates' names. I'd just call everyone "you" all the time.

I think recognizing one of those things would possibly trip the other two as well.

Anyway, facial recognition is not processed in the same way that object recognition is. So it's easy to identify all kinds of things, but faces are just sort of "Huh?"

Last week one of my nieces was visiting and I ignored her because I thought she was someone else entirely. Oops. I did apologize afterward.

I bet another thread will spring up in a few weeks time saying the complete opposite (especially ''are Aspies actually better than most people at remembering voices'' because of some sort of reason like ''Aspies have good sensory auditory and so could be better at remembering sounds), but anyway, we will just have to bet. Sorry, I just can see a pattern a lot on WP now.

Anyway, back to the question. I am actually good with remembering faces and voices. When I'm in bed at night and can't get to sleep, sometimes I go through all the people in my family and present the sound of their voices in my head. Sometimes I get somebody's voice stuck in my head.

Faces I'm OK with too. I don't have face-blindness, I have object-blindness more.

Not all people can remember names. I can remember many times people calling me Jackie or Jilly, anything but Josie (so annoying!)

I'm mildly face-blind. I try to remember certain features that stand out, like a hair style, a huge nose, a mole, anything that will help me to remember someone. People with very generic faces....forget it. I'll never be able to identify them, even if I've known them for some time, particularly if I see them somewhere I'm not used to seeing them like the grocery store.

I have had similar experiences. People will come up to me and start talking, and I'll just try to smile and play along, desperately trying to find a feature that will clue me in on who the heck I'm talking to!

I'm horrible at remembering faces and names! I am pretty good at recognizing voices though. For instance, in movies, a lot of the time I'll recognize well known actors by their voices before I recognize their faces.