Recognition and a Secret Mission

[steepholm]

I remember my mother, the day that we met,
A thing I shall never entirely forget;
And I toy with the fancy that, young as I am,
I should know her again if we met in a tram.

Thanks to ladyofastolat (I would link but the post is locked) I have learned a new word: prosopagnosia. Unfortunately, I also appear to be suffering from it. For those of you still languishing in ignorance, prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize faces. My case is not extreme (I do usually recognize my own family, when I meet them in familiar contexts), but having taken the two tests on this page I'm definitely "on the spectrum".

The stats: on the first test I scored 57%, and on the second 37%. The average scores are 80% and 85%, and the lower thresholds for possible problems are 65% and 50% respectively. Take them, and compare!

In slightly related news, today I was visited at work by a Goon. Not the Diana Wynne Jones variety, but the kind that vets people for sensitive jobs at the MoD. He wanted to know about a student I had taught, and after I had told him what little I knew, we got chatting on other subjects. I happened to mention (what was now much on my mind) that I'd always felt guilty about not recognizing those quiet students in seminars who never say much. (I was thinking to myself that from now on, with my proud new prosopagnosiac status, I could plead neurology and save much embarrassment for all concerned.)

"I'd remember them from the size of their tits," laughed the Goon - and before I had thought of a suitable riposte he had slid from my office, bound on another vital mission to protect the British way of life.

"What a jerk!" I said to myself. But it was much too late.

All the same, I think I would know him again.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Maybe he meant the boys?

(and I got 75% on the first test. I ran into trouble when it moved to dots)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I got 93% on the first test, and 97% on the second (I never recognise De Niro anyway). I have good facial recognition, I tend to know always if I've seen someone before, but I also invariably worry if I'm meeting someone that I won't recognise them, unless they are my immediate family.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Wow! But they all looked the same! *gibber*

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I've always reckoned to be OK at recognising faces and so I was relived when I got 90% on the first test. (I found the dotty pictures hard.)

But the thing that always throws me is when I meet someone out of context and I instantly recognise them, but can't for the life of me remember why I know them. The last time this happened I was walking along a local beach and I was hailed by someone I knew I knew well, but I could feel the gears crunching in my brain until thankfully I placed her as an ex-colleague from my previous job.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I'll recognize you again if I see you ;-) (I got 96 and 97% respectively - I'm ashamed to say that I missed Tony Blair in the second one!)

I'm always the one that can say, oh yes he was the guy in...

[perdix.livejournal.com]

I missed Tony Blair too which is extra lame because I've met him. I also missed DeNiro and Reagan - boo!

[calimac.livejournal.com]

What I had trouble with on the Famous Faces test was remembering their names. I kept entering "whatzisname the guy who played [name of character]" Male because I couldn't recognize any of the women at all.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I got 100% on both. I am possibly a freak.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

We both are!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

what's funny is, I had to take a second look at the pics you posted recently, because your hair was different to what I'd seen in other pics!

[perdix.livejournal.com]

83% (unfamiliar faces) and 90% (familiar faces)