An interesting thing I heard

[Keith]

I heard some Aspergians have trouble remembering faces. I don't really have that issue. However, when I'm out shopping with my mom I do have trouble remembering what she was wearing.

 

[nowwhat]

I heard some Aspergians have trouble remembering faces. I don't really have that issue. However, when I'm out shopping with my mom I do have trouble remembering what she was wearing.

Yes, for one, I don't look people in the face much, so of course I might not recognize them later, cause I never really saw them. I'm especially bad if I see someone out of familiar contexts. I've just blew by people I dealt with quite a few times at work, when seeing them elsewhere, dressed differently. Their faces were the same, and they were justifiable offended. I just said,
"I'm somewhat autistic, and I really have a problem recognizing faces. This is a different context, and I didn't recognize you. Sorry if I've offended you."

 

[Andy R]

Faces I'm really good with. Better than most people in fact. However names...

 

[Keith]

That reminds me. I talk to people at random sometimes out of nowhere. Then, months or even years later, they recognize me but I don't recognize them. It's weird.

 

[Aspieistj]

Do you need to know what your mother is wearing so you can recognize her? I have prosopagnosia and I know there have been discussions on this forum about PA. Here is a quote from:

Prosopagnosia Information Page: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

What is Prosopagnosia?
Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. The term prosopagnosia comes from the Greek words for “face” and “lack of knowledge.” Depending upon the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, while still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object. Some people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities. Prosopagnosia is thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural systems that control facial perception and memory. Prosopagnosia can result from stroke, traumatic brain injury, or certain neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases it is a congenital disorder, present at birth in the absence of any brain damage. Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, and may be the cause of their impaired social development.

I can recognize some people: family members whom I see at least occasionally, myself in a mirror and photographs, 5 or 6 neighbors I see frequently, and when I worked, full time personnel who worked the same shift. All my life, people have recognized and spoken to me and I don't recognize them. I have become a master of "faking it."

 

[Keith]

I don't have that issue. I just forget what she was wearing sometimes. It only happens when we're shopping.

 

[nowwhat]

I don't have that issue. I just forget what she was wearing sometimes. It only happens when we're shopping.

Shopping with your lady will anesthetize any man. You're excused.

 

[sometimesunaware]

I definitely have this problem. I do not recognize people I see only on occasion unless we were very close and saw a lot of each other. When people change their hair I have trouble let knowing who they are as well. Mom and dad I don't have a problem recognizing but acquaintances and others I see rarely I do have problems recognizing. Tv actors in shows we watch weekly I have problems recognizing much of the time for at least a year of watching regularly. Even then if they wear their hair differently or change color or cut I don't recognize them. Names I'm terrible at as well. Voices I am better at knowing. Though hearing someone's voice on the phone is hard for me to recognize as well if I've only generally heard them in person. It can be very difficult for me.

 

[Keith]

I'm bad with names too. I'm trying identifiers myself.

 

[Archer36]

Can't remember faces here ... i mean .. to some extend ... i recognize my family and my co-workers. But its part because I always see them in the same environment. I doubt I'd recognize all of them if i bump into them lets say at the shopping mall or something.

 

[Chopstick]

If you have trouble recognizing what your mom was wearing at the mall you should take her picture with your phone before you leave home, and use this as a reference.

I can recognize most of the kids at school even when seen in a different environment. There are however a few kids who look so much alike to me that I cannot tell them apart. Other kids say they don’t look anything alike, but to me they look identical. I can only differentiate between them by the kids they are hanging out with, since they belong to different cliques. If I see them when they are alone and I am forced to acknowledge them, there is a 50% chance that I will do so incorrectly. So I tend to avoid them completely whenever possible. Another weird thing I have trouble with is when people change their hairstyle. It takes me about a week to adjust my perception and commit it to memory.

 

[sometimesunaware]

If you have trouble recognizing what your mom was wearing at the mall you should take her picture with your phone before you leave home, and use this as a reference.

I can recognize most of the kids at school even when seen in a different environment. There are however a few kids who look so much alike to me that I cannot tell them apart. Other kids say they don’t look anything alike, but to me they look identical. I can only differentiate between them by the kids they are hanging out with, since they belong to different cliques. If I see them when they are alone and I am forced to acknowledge them, there is a 50% chance that I will do so incorrectly. So I tend to avoid them completely whenever possible. Another weird thing I have trouble with is when people change their hairstyle. It takes me about a week to adjust my perception and commit it to memory.

Hairstyle to me seems to be a major way for me to identify someone. I won't recognize someone if they put their long hair up, or let it down. Or change color drastically, different haircut, etc. It does take me a while to remember who they are after a sudden change like that. I don't know how long, but a while. Could be a few hours, or a day or longer. I don't generally hang around many people outside of my mom and dad, so it's hard to say these days.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I have trouble remembering faces and names.

 

[rollerskate]

I don't recognize faces unless I see that person a lot over a prolonged period. Names are even harder for me. I usually find other ways of identifying them, hair, tattoos, anything else physically unique that catches my attention enough to remember it. What's really bad is when the only thing I can find to identify them by is their clothing. Then I have to keep memorizing what they wear when I'm around them, LOL.

 

[meff]

I used to think I was bad at faces, and I might have been, but now I'm pretty good at it, though sometimes I'll see someone who reminds me of an acquaintance and get worried that that's who it is and I'm forgetting their face. When I do see the person I kinda know, though, I'll immediately know it's them.
Names totally escape me unless I make a real point of remembering, and even then I'll slip up. I met someone named Vanessa once and wound up calling her Natasha the next day. Embarrassing!

 

[tlc]

I'm horrible at faces and names. Like others said, if somebody changes their hair drastically, I can't tell they are the same person. Like this girl at work who always had long hair and dressed so feminine went off to college and came back with a short cut and more masculine clothes. It still doesn't register in my mind that it was the same person. I'm better at seeing an overall form when saying somebody looks like somebody else, like if you stood back and couldn't see too clearly. And often when I say somebody looks like someody else, other people will totally disagree. But I know what I see. I remember this time when my ex's 2 year old ran away screaming when my dad came to the door,. My ex didn't see why but I did. The overall form of my dad looked so much like HIS dad who abused him and I saw the kid run the same way when his dad showed up once. My dad was 20 some years older, but the hairstyle and color, tinted glasses, shape of face and glasses, smile, clothes... yes I saw it. But looking at the detail like most people would, they look nothing alike.

 

[Autism]

I heard some Aspergians have trouble remembering faces. I don't really have that issue. However, when I'm out shopping with my mom I do have trouble remembering what she was wearing.

Well, now I do have that trouble too. But there is a very different reason behind that because I automatically do not remember people's faces that are simply not important to me, that I just see as a necessary nuisance, and the ones I know are trouble for sure. Why would I want to remember anyone's face after that? Already eliminated before they can even make an impression, it would only be a negative one anyways.

 

[epath13]

I have hard time remembering faces that don't have distinctive features. To me a lot of faces look very blank and I have to look long and hard to remember them.

 

[Mira]

I am the worst at remembering faces. I also have trouble with names so I have had many encounters where someone recognizes me and I have no idea who they are. It also spills over into my ability to find my way around. I have to be in an area several times before I recognize it and I can never remember street or highway names. My GPS has become my most prized possession.

 

[Vanilla]

I find that there are certain types of faces I remember better than others. People with pronounced features are of course easier, but then there are odd situations where I can remember people better if for example they have brown hair, as opposed to blonde, or I can remember people who are from overseas, rather than your typical Caucasian English-Australian; which I find odd.

Somehow I struggle to store their genetic facial features in my memory bank, and struggle to identify the subtle differences between people with those similar features, which for some reason I find difficult to remember.