[brains] More ponderings

[wispfox]

I think I'm confused by the idea of me being face blind for a few reasons.

I _can_ get body language information from people's faces, although probably less than most people do, and I'm fairly sure it requires a fair bit more processing time/power. I did learn how to read body language by someone explaining it to me in high school, after all, and learned how to express my own better from that information, as well. I think the majority of the body language I can read isn't facial expressions, though, which might be why facial expressions and meanings fascinate me so much.

I can remember pieces of faces, if my attention is focused on them for whatever reason. Usually eyes and mouths, since they tend to be the most useful for body language purposes, as well as the fact that eyes just fascinate me. :)

Faces are not devoid of information for me, thus my difficulty with the idea of me having even mild face blindness. But so much of the things in that book were spot on, so I don't know what to think... I'll ponder some more. If nothing else, I certainly don't index by face (or name), and can't picture anyone's faces, ever.

Comments

[rosefox]

I'm face blind because I get so much information from faces that it completely overwhelms the faces themselves. It's like remembering that you had a conversation with someone but not remembering whether it was online or on the phone. The slowness in processing mostly stems from the huge quantities of data I'm working with, as far as I can tell. This actually applies to body language in general, but faces just have loads of it. And eyes are the worst--I can't look someone in the eye without shutting down parts of my processing centers and focusing on the other person's eyes as body parts rather than data conduits.

Another way to look at it is that in person, I never see the same face twice, because every conversation is different. So there's no repetition to help memory. I can visualize coworkers better than friends because conversations at work are about work--the same face over and over--and conversations with friends are about everything under the sun. The better I know someone and the more we talk, the less I remember expressive physical features.

Hey, I bet that's why I like legs and butts so much: they always look the same. *)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I'm face blind because I get so much information from faces that it completely overwhelms the faces themselves.

Huh. I can see that, really really really well. I don't really know what it is that I do, and I'm still not entirely sure if I am or am not face blind. But this is certainly something I can understand.

The excess of information is why I have to look away from people's faces if I need to concentrate on a conversation. To some people's disconcertion. (is that even a word?)

It's like remembering that you had a conversation with someone but not remembering whether it was online or on the phone.

Heh. I can't remember, sometimes, if a conversation was online (email or IM), on the phone, in-person... I am generally better at knowing if something was in-person vs being sure if something was not, because there tend to be other memory cues to trigger off of (location, textures, etc). Heck, sometimes I can't remember if something was real or a dream, so I suppose this isn't all that useful. ;)

in person, I never see the same face twice, because every conversation is different.

Ah... fascinating!

I _think_ that, once I have someone's face in my head as being them, I no longer have trouble recognizing them. Still can't pull their faces up in my head, mind you, but at least seeing them stops being startling.

I find that my filing system for people I don't know at all seems to not file them anywhere useful (if at all). People I know can refer to things that happened really early on, and unless it was mentioned often enough while getting to know each other, it won't be filed under them. It'll feel like some other person, a stranger, who I don't know. That's a strange feeling!