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mollisol
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07 Oct 2010, 10:00 pm

I've lived across the street from these people for eight years; we interact occasionally; and yet when I saw them at a school meeting for parents today, they walked right in front of me to get seats; I looked at them several times and did not recognize them; it wasn't until one of them said "hi" (and I recognized her voice) that I realized who they were. I didn't recognize them until then.

I do recognize some people, though, especially if they look "distinctive" in some way; but if they look average or very, very normal I don't recognize them, or if I see people out of context I often won't recognize them. It's really frustrating sometimes. I just realized that there was one guy that I had a long conversation with after a funeral, we emailed a couple of times after that, but then at community functions in the following years I didn't recognize him until a few weeks ago. I don't know if this is prosopamnesia or if it's normal, but dang it, I want to get a handle on this. Is it normal to not recognize people like this? (Wait, did I mention that this is frustrating? aargh)



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08 Oct 2010, 12:12 am

mollisol wrote:
I've lived across the street from these people for eight years; we interact occasionally; and yet when I saw them at a school meeting for parents today, they walked right in front of me to get seats; I looked at them several times and did not recognize them; it wasn't until one of them said "hi" (and I recognized her voice) that I realized who they were. I didn't recognize them until then.

I do recognize some people, though, especially if they look "distinctive" in some way; but if they look average or very, very normal I don't recognize them, or if I see people out of context I often won't recognize them. It's really frustrating sometimes. I just realized that there was one guy that I had a long conversation with after a funeral, we emailed a couple of times after that, but then at community functions in the following years I didn't recognize him until a few weeks ago. I don't know if this is prosopamnesia or if it's normal, but dang it, I want to get a handle on this. Is it normal to not recognize people like this? (Wait, did I mention that this is frustrating? aargh)


This is so like me, I could have written it myself. I find it nearly impossible to recognize people out of context (which is the exact phrase I normally use to describe it--interesting!) unless I know the person rather well. And even then, I have my moments, especially if something has changed about them (new haircut, no longer wearing a trademark hat or jacket, etc).


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08 Oct 2010, 2:03 am

Inability to remember people's faces also counts as prosopagnosia. In fact, it's possible to be face-blind and still be able to tell faces apart when you are looking at them side-by-side, and have the deficit come out only when you are trying to remember whether a face is familiar.


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08 Oct 2010, 12:14 pm

I also have a rough time with this. I have people walk up to me I don't recognise and start talking.. it's awkward to have to ask who they are. At family get togethers I have no clue who 99% of the people there are or which side of the family they are from. Many times some bring dates which really complicate things.
At a company picnic, I didn't recognise anyone, even the guys who worked right next to me..

frustrating is an understatement


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08 Oct 2010, 6:47 pm

I wonder if it's possible to have stress and situation based prosopagnosia.



mollisol
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11 Oct 2010, 11:24 pm

Oh, and the other day while helping some folks move, at one point they said that X was on their way. X has a white car. A few minutes later, a white car stopped in front of where I was standing. That must be X, I thought! I leaned in the open passenger side window. There was a guy with X's hair, but he was wearing sunglasses. Dammit, is that him? Real quickly I double-checked the car: yep, I was pretty sure that was X's car. Then he spoke: yep, X!

X and I dated for four years, and we've been broken up for 1.5 years. I've seen him several times in the past few months, too.

I think that maybe I'm not normal.



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11 Oct 2010, 11:47 pm

Oh, ditto, ditto, ditto.

AND the other - expecting to see someone, like meeting X at an airport - someone I REALLY know, I can see a dozen copies come off the plane. OCCASIONALLY I see a dozen copies and miss the real one.



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12 Oct 2010, 1:36 am

Yeah, I am not really familar with the difference between the two. I am usually pretty bad at identifying faces outside of context and with remembering people's names, which can add insult to injury when somebody wants to know why I completely ignored them. The thing I have noticed is I can identify by some other feature, such as how they move or how they say certain things. I am somewhat surprised by this because I don't consider myself that fluent in reading nonverbal cues.