[reading] Say what? "Face Blind!"

[wispfox]

According to Face Blind! Chapter 5: How Most People Recognize Others,


"The face is also the key trait in one's "filing system". If a person's name is said, or something else brings that person to mind, the face image flashes by during the thought. Just as one can distinguish thousands of people by the face, one can also keep separated in his mind what all those people have said, done, etc., by using the unique face image as the key."

Um. What? Really?

I don't think of people's visual representation when I think of a person. Hell, I _can't_, usually. I wonder if this all is why I used to think I was terrible at visualization? People tended to suggest visualizing faces...

(Why do I suddenly feel like I've been hit in the back of the head with a board?)


In the next chapter...

"a face blind person may, for example, come to know each person in his class at school by where that person sits."

Uh. Um. Heh. Or by voice, or by how they move...

You know, I have no idea what I use to index people with. I think it's what I refer to as people's 'feel', or their 'core sense'. But I'm not sure how I'm getting it. And _not_ getting it is what I mean when I say I can't read someone (presuming that they've gotten my attention for me to have tried).

But location information can work to figure out who people are in recently formed memories. And what kinds of things I've talked about with them (or heard them talking about).


"People with good hearing often include the voices of people they know in their repertoire. This is a very strong-running horse, and face blind people who are able to reliably use this clue often have the mildest effects on their lives of us all."

*laugh* Certainly adds to the explaination of why I don't easily handle interactions with people in noisy and/or crowded locations! (There are other factors, which is why I say 'adds to')


"General traits that can become one's key traits fall into one of these three categories:

* Items on the body - Hair and beards, clothing, shape of the body or certain parts of it.
* Essences - Gait, mannerisms, body language, emotions, mind set.
* Sound of the voice - Recognizing the voice, accents.

"More must be said, in particular, about hair. It is reported far more than any other visual trait as important by face blind people. This is probably because of its reliability: it is readily observable on most people, and it is infrequently changed.

"Long hair is particularly easy to recognize, but it is also particularly easy to change. Many face blind people say that if a person pulls long hair back into a pony tail, for example, that the person will appear to be someone else entirely, and they will not be recognized as a result."

I appear to use a _lot_ of 'Essences', almost as much voice, and some hair (long hair).


"People who don't have face blindness can remember faces readily, and they can identify a face so remembered in less than a second."

Oh. Huh. Somehow, that seems odd to me. I kinda want to do a poll to see how many of y'all can do this. Not that it'll be all that scientifically accurate, as it's entirely possible that there's a higher than normal percentage of you who can't reading my journal. But, curious.


"There are other ways to recognize images too. They are not designed to operate just on human forms, so they may not work as well as the above. One that is especially important to face blind people, because it works on the people closest to us, is one I call "general pattern recognition":

"If you put a blindfold on me, put me on a familiar street, and then remove the blindfold, I can tell you where I am without seeing the street signs, if I have seen the street many many times. If I have seen the street only a few times, though, I cannot tell you where I am. This "general pattern recognition" scheme is the one I apparently use to recognize people I have seen many times. I can't always do it in under a second, though. It may take several."

*blink* This is how my "direction sense" works, actually - attaching lots of 'I know where I am now's together. And easily makes sense as far as how I recognize those I've had enough in-person time with.


Ok, I continue to find comminality between things described in the book and myself. *shakes head* The things I accidentally find out about myself... ;)

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

If I've seen a face before, I can nearly always remember it in less than a second. Well under a second. I don't always remember that person's *name*, or who they are -- just that I know the face.

Face blindness seems fascinating. I'd never heard of it as something you could be born with.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

If I've seen a face before, I can nearly always remember it in less than a second. Well under a second.

Wow. Just... wow.

I'd never heard of it as something you could be born with.

Yeah - it's actually mentioned in the online book I linked to. People who have it don't realize it's ununsual, or can't figure out how to explain it, or, or, or... so it's only when a dramatic change causes it (injury, whatever) that it used to be noticed.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

A dramatic change in context can change how I recognize someone, too, though; if I were to see a distant coworker at, say, Man Ray, it might take me a second or two to figure out what was going on. In a neutral context, like Diesel, I'm usually quick, and in familiar contexts it seems to take no time at all to recognize a face when I've had even a small conversation with a person.

I think I'm going to read that book, when I can!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

A dramatic change in context can change how I recognize someone, too

I only require a slight change. Seeing almost any of my co-workers anywhere not at work is likely to do it, especially if they are not one of the ones I seek out for conversation.

[coraline]

hm. i'd say i recognize "i know that person" in under a second, but figuring out who they are can take more thought.

however, i can't really call up a face at will in my mind -- i'm not sure how my viualization works, but it's not at all like "seeing" something in my head, even if i'm sorting through visual information -- it's knowing "that shape nose" or "beard" or "spiky hair", and maybe an outline, but it's not like actually seeing something, with texture and stuff.

brains are weird :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

i'd say i recognize "i know that person" in under a second

Huh. See, pretty much anyone I know, unless they are in an expected context, this is just not the case, for me. Worse when I know someone not very well yet.

brains are weird

Yes. :)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

I can do the face visualization really well, but the intensity/rapidity runs out after a while.

But drawing/describing and any other means of conveying said visual to other people? Non-existent.

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

I recognize people by their hair. To the point that when, in college, my formerly long-haired boyfriend cut his hair, he became someone else to me, and I broke up with him. (Okay, there were other reasons, but a large part of the timing was precipitated on him cutting his hair.)

For me, a person's face is never attached to my memories of them. It's actually, for me, strongly linked to the major thing that's wrong with my brain. (My auditory center isn't hooked up to my ears quite right.) I often wonder if people at work feel like i'm distant because I can rarely recognize people until i've been working with them for 6+ months.

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I once talked to an ex who i hadn't seen in five years for about five minutes before I recongized him. I was on the verge of asking, "Excuse me, have we met before?" when a tone of voice he used a lot when we were dating finally hit my memory and I remembered I'd been in love with this person once upon a time.

My excuse is that his hair was a lot different. Heh.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah. My face blindness isn't this dramatic, thus why I initially thought I wasn't. Now, I think I probably am, but mildly.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

My auditory center isn't hooked up to my ears quite right.

*curious* How not? If you don't mind saying?

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

I have something called Central Auditory Processing Disorder. Basically, my ears are just fine, but my brain has some disturbances in how it processes auditory information. I have periodic episodes where I can hear people speaking, but what they're saying literally sounds like gibberish to me. Even when my internal translator isn't off for a coffee break, it takes me a long time to understand verbal information.

I got lucky and was able to access language through the written word early on (a lot of kids who have it have trouble learning to read; for a long time for me, the spoken word and the written word were two completely different languages) and so the impact it's had on my life in general has been reasonably minimal, especially since they invented the Internet. I finally learned how to socialize in person once i got to practice in text for a while.

I have a lot of workarounds and coping mechanisms, and keeping my level of stress reasonably low means that it doesn't bother me much. It takes a lot of energy to listen to people speak, and my version of hell is an all-day meeting, but, you know, technology is a wonderful thing, in general. :)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Central Auditory Processing Disorder

Oh! You and the person who wrote the online book I was quoting from!

Now I just need to remember this when I (probably) see you Sunday. I have the horrible habit of talking _way_ too fast, especially when excited about something. So my speech can sound like gibberish to most people _anyway_.

(and randomly, I tend to not hear the first few words that someone says to me if I don't realize that they are talking to me. Means I say 'could you repeat the beginning of that, please?' rather frequently)

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

I bring faceblind to your attention, in case it hasn't been in your attention before and in case you care to have it in your attention.

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

*reads farther back*

doh!

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

*grin* Actually, IIRC it was from your userinfo page that I got to that community. :)

Of course, I completely don't remember why I was there at this point!

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

Very interesting reading this. Count me as another one who recognizes faces very quickly. In addition I have a very good visual memory. My recollection of faces often outlasts my internal connection to the rest of what I know about a person. I frequently will see someone in a social setting and recognize them, know that I know them, but take a few minutes and sometimes a conversation with them to recall why I know them. This usually only happens after a long time, several years, between interactions with someone.

Last year I met the son of the director of a summer camp I attended as a boy. I recognized him and knew I knew him. It had been 25 years since I'd seen him, and he'd been 9 or 10 at the time. It took a conversation to remember why I knew him.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I frequently will see someone in a social setting and recognize them, know that I know them, but take a few minutes and sometimes a conversation with them to recall why I know them.

I do this, too, sometimes, but am never entirely sure if I actually know the person unless they manage to confirm it. I do have false positives often enough.

[ian-gunn.livejournal.com]

I get occasional false positives too. Then it is just a good way to start a conversation. Nothing bad about that :)

Here's a thought

[eclectic-1.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about not recognizing someone out of context. I'm somewhat that way.

I wonder if face-blindness tracks with being an introvert. It seems logical to me.

Re: Here's a thought

[lightgatherer.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting thought. I'm most definitely an introvert. I've never heard of face blindness before today, but now that I have, I definitely recognize a mild degree of the trait in myself.

[regyt.livejournal.com]

eisa is faceblind; you may find it interesting to chat with her about this.

I am not faceblind, but I do have an awful memory for both faces and names... I think it may just be a difficulty with remembering most people. They don't stand out in my mind. Anything particularly unique, like interesting hair or some sort of anecdote, will help with this. I can't quickly bring up mental images of faces, though. I have trouble remembering whether people I've known for ages even have glasses or not, or what the skin color was of the store clerk, and things like that. Oh, and people are forever recognizing me, even if they haven't seen me for years, and I rarely have the slightest idea who they are.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Note: I'm still not sure I _am_ face blind. There were an awful lot of matches in the reading of what it's like for those who are, however...