Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

When I go to new places I see similar looking faces.

I never knew it had a name, nor that other people
share what has been a lifelong this problem/condition
…for I too suffer from the mild form as you describe.

my problem with this is seeing people out of the context I know them in. So if I see someone I know from the zoo in town I have trouble recognizing them. Like I don’t expect them to be anywhere but in the location from where I get to know them. I also have trouble recognizing my kids faces in their school group and have to rely on other cues like gait and shoes they are wearing.

I suspect an ap woulnd’t help me in this

I rarely recognised regular customers at Krispy. I usually remembered them by what they ordered. Unless they were my stalkers Singing Stalker, Karaoke King or Redcliffe Creepy Guy. I knew them by sight.

I don’t give a shit about people so I don’t suffer from this particular malaise.

sibeen said:

I don’t give a shit about people so I don’t suffer from this particular malaise.

never knew you were my husband…..

I have a very acute sense of facial recognition.

Brindabellas said:

sibeen said:

I don’t give a shit about people so I don’t suffer from this particular malaise.

never knew you were my husband…..

Nor recognising your husband does seem to be taking not recognising people you vaguely know to new extremes.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Brindabellas said:

sibeen said:

I don’t give a shit about people so I don’t suffer from this particular malaise.

never knew you were my husband…..

Nor recognising your husband does seem to be taking not recognising people you vaguely know to new extremes.

No facial recognition on this forum.

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

So, from responses above, adout 90% of forumites have exactly the same problem. The exception being Peak Warming Man. I do too.

For remembering names and faces, I did once go to a seminar by a memory expert. He was teaching memory techniques for an organisation called Mental Blank. He put names to faces of all 30 or so people he had only just met in the audience.

Imagine them in a situation that is memorable. An action and a place.
If you know someone of that name, associate the person you see with a strong quality of the person you know.
If someone is called Jack imagine them jumping.

In other words active imagination with an emotional connotation.

Then try not to call them fat-face or big ears or ugly dude or creepy number 5 or bad rug while they’re around.

mollwollfumble said:

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

So, from responses above, adout 90% of forumites have exactly the same problem. The exception being Peak Warming Man. I do too.

For remembering names and faces, I did once go to a seminar by a memory expert. He was teaching memory techniques for an organisation called Mental Blank. He put names to faces of all 30 or so people he had only just met in the audience.

Imagine them in a situation that is memorable. An action and a place.
If you know someone of that name, associate the person you see with a strong quality of the person you know.
If someone is called Jack imagine them jumping.

In other words active imagination with an emotional connotation.

Then try not to call them fat-face or big ears or ugly dude or creepy number 5 or bad rug while they’re around.

Fran from Black Books had insulting names for people (based on appearance or actions) when she worked in an office, she didn’t actually know their real names

I don’t have trouble remembering faces, I even spot them on TV across different ads. Names as well so long as I can repeat them a few times. Though one of the staff at the Alfred I had been calling by the wrong name for years, I had transposed it with another staff members name, probably from when we direct introduced, I heard some one else call her by a name and said “oh crap, all this time I have been calling you Merrel” and she said I know so I apologised.

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

YASM.

mollwollfumble said:

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

So, from responses above, adout 90% of forumites have exactly the same problem. The exception being Peak Warming Man. I do too.

By my count, 2 people other than PWM have confirmed that they have the same problem, with Arts and DA alluding to a similar — though not identical — condition, and roughbarked commenting that he sees familiar faces in new places. Where did you get the figure of 90% having “exactly the same problem”?

btm said:

mollwollfumble said:

Rule 303 said:

Dr. Karl has spoken publicly often about his Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces) and I suspect I have a mild version of it. I often don’t recognise people until I’ve met them several times, don’t remember their name until I’ve spent a few hours with them, don’t recognise people I’ve known for a long time after not seeing them for a while…. I’m sure you get the picture. That part of my brain doesn’t work very well.

This causes problems…

My question is, has anybody got a strategy for dealing with it? It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

So, from responses above, adout 90% of forumites have exactly the same problem. The exception being Peak Warming Man. I do too.

By my count, 2 people other than PWM have confirmed that they have the same problem, with Arts and DA alluding to a similar — though not identical — condition, and roughbarked commenting that he sees familiar faces in new places. Where did you get the figure of 90% having “exactly the same problem”?

Some of it could come down to not caring either, if you generally find people annoying you might not put the effort it

Cymek said:

btm said:

mollwollfumble said:

So, from responses above, adout 90% of forumites have exactly the same problem. The exception being Peak Warming Man. I do too.

By my count, 2 people other than PWM have confirmed that they have the same problem, with Arts and DA alluding to a similar — though not identical — condition, and roughbarked commenting that he sees familiar faces in new places. Where did you get the figure of 90% having “exactly the same problem”?

Some of it could come down to not caring either, if you generally find people annoying you might not put the effort it

You know we’re living in a society!!!

> It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

I’m old school, so I’d literally paste photos into a notebook made of real paper.

Next step up from that would be a spreadsheet like Excel. Each workbook page is a place. Expand cell sizes to take photographs and write names and comments beside each.

Next step up from that would be database software. But I’m not familiar with these. Let’s look.

There are heaps of address book apps. But do they take photos and are they searchable?

You may care to try Full Contact Address Book. It does include photos, but I’m far from sure whether you can add your own photos or if they are limited to facebook photo thumbnails. Limited to 1000 people.

The address book app Caller ID, holds large photos. You could give that a try.

Lifehacker recommends Smartr address book software for both Android and Apple. Smartr allows you to display multiple photos on one page.

I’ve absolutely not the slightest idea how good these are. My address book is an actual physical book.

btm said:

Where did you get the figure of 90% having “exactly the same problem”?

PWM is the only person of the ten people who replied to this thread who doesn’t have difficlty recognising faces.

Is this the sort of thing that you’re looking for?

This is Smartr.

This is Full Contact Address Book.

This is Caller ID. I suspect that’s not the app you’re looking for.

Arts said:

my problem with this is seeing people out of the context I know them in. So if I see someone I know from the zoo in town I have trouble recognizing them. Like I don’t expect them to be anywhere but in the location from where I get to know them. I also have trouble recognizing my kids faces in their school group and have to rely on other cues like gait and shoes they are wearing.

I suspect an ap woulnd’t help me in this

Context-dependence is part of the same condition.

mollwollfumble said:

> It’s occurred to me that I could use a phone app that associated people with places, that displays a list with names and faces when I arrive there. I know there are strategies for ASD people and software for Customer Relationship Management, but haven’t heard of anything that directly addresses this.

I’m old school, so I’d literally paste photos into a notebook made of real paper.

Next step up from that would be a spreadsheet like Excel. Each workbook page is a place. Expand cell sizes to take photographs and write names and comments beside each.

Next step up from that would be database software. But I’m not familiar with these. Let’s look.

There are heaps of address book apps. But do they take photos and are they searchable?

You may care to try Full Contact Address Book. It does include photos, but I’m far from sure whether you can add your own photos or if they are limited to facebook photo thumbnails. Limited to 1000 people.

The address book app Caller ID, holds large photos. You could give that a try.

Lifehacker recommends Smartr address book software for both Android and Apple. Smartr allows you to display multiple photos on one page.

I’ve absolutely not the slightest idea how good these are. My address book is an actual physical book.

Thank you, Moll. Will look at them.

I think I might be able to use the standard ‘Contaxcts’ section of the phone, but with some tweeking to make it spit out the right results when searched.

If anyone’s curious about the Neurology of the thing, it seems to live in the Right Fusiform Gyrus and can include things like difficulty processing colours, synaesthesia, Dyslexia, and is a common feature in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Arts said:

my problem with this is seeing people out of the context I know them in. So if I see someone I know from the zoo in town I have trouble recognizing them. Like I don’t expect them to be anywhere but in the location from where I get to know them. I also have trouble recognizing my kids faces in their school group and have to rely on other cues like gait and shoes they are wearing.

I suspect an ap woulnd’t help me in this

It would if you were wearing Smart Glasses that processed the faces of people you see and tagged them with their name.

It’s gunna happen, man – I’ve seen ‘Black Mirror’….

Rule 303 said:

Arts said:

my problem with this is seeing people out of the context I know them in. So if I see someone I know from the zoo in town I have trouble recognizing them. Like I don’t expect them to be anywhere but in the location from where I get to know them. I also have trouble recognizing my kids faces in their school group and have to rely on other cues like gait and shoes they are wearing.

I suspect an ap woulnd’t help me in this

It would if you were wearing Smart Glasses that processed the faces of people you see and tagged them with their name.

It’s gunna happen, man – I’ve seen ‘Black Mirror’….

Quite likely I imagine, “Your clothes give them to me”

I don’t have facial recognition problems, accept when people wave to me from cars. Because I can’t see them properly because they’re in a moving car, and like most pedestrians I see cars as cars, not containers of people. And I have no idea what kind of car this or that person I vaguely know happens to drive.

Rule 303 said:

If anyone’s curious about the Neurology of the thing, it seems to live in the Right Fusiform Gyrus and can include things like difficulty processing colours, synaesthesia, Dyslexia, and is a common feature in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

ASD – that’d explain 90% of the forum ;)

poikilotherm said:

Rule 303 said:

If anyone’s curious about the Neurology of the thing, it seems to live in the Right Fusiform Gyrus and can include things like difficulty processing colours, synaesthesia, Dyslexia, and is a common feature in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

ASD – that’d explain 90% of the forum ;)

But they’re so high-functioning!

I recognize faces. I will usually know that I have seen someone before, but I have never been able to make names stick. In the early days of my practice I decided it was ridiculous and I tried all sorts of “methods”. It sticks better if I am the one that writes out the record card – but in the days of computers this won’t be helpful. I do still use cardboard record cards. I gave up years ago trying to remember. I rationalize it into having probably 5000 patients and mostly seeing them once every two or three years for 20 minutes to half an hour. I just say to people, “Sorry, I can’t remember your name” They are mostly pretty good about it and those I’ve been seeing for 30 odd years know I don’t remember. A couple of them over the years developed the strategy of coming in and announcing their name to me. And the context thing is difficult for me too. I am hailed in the street and the supermarket by people who sometimes even think I might remember what is going on with their eyes. Nup. I see you for half an hour, I write my notes about you, and I clear my mind for the next person. I can’t afford to muddle you up with other people in the records. When I was fitting contact lenses the names stuck better because there is a period of intensive visits in the fitting part of the process.

Having said that, names do stick in my mind. I can look at the death notices and know (often) which ones are my people. But if I saw them in the street I’d not be able to call them by name. It’s a disconnect for me.

Mr buffy is very good at names. When he worked at Nestle many years ago he used to boast that he knew all 300 employees by name quite quickly. And he seemed to remember his patient’s names too. But then again, he didn’t see 8 to 12 patients a shift.

buffy said:

I recognize faces. I will usually know that I have seen someone before, but I have never been able to make names stick. In the early days of my practice I decided it was ridiculous and I tried all sorts of “methods”. It sticks better if I am the one that writes out the record card – but in the days of computers this won’t be helpful. I do still use cardboard record cards. I gave up years ago trying to remember. I rationalize it into having probably 5000 patients and mostly seeing them once every two or three years for 20 minutes to half an hour. I just say to people, “Sorry, I can’t remember your name” They are mostly pretty good about it and those I’ve been seeing for 30 odd years know I don’t remember. A couple of them over the years developed the strategy of coming in and announcing their name to me. And the context thing is difficult for me too. I am hailed in the street and the supermarket by people who sometimes even think I might remember what is going on with their eyes. Nup. I see you for half an hour, I write my notes about you, and I clear my mind for the next person. I can’t afford to muddle you up with other people in the records. When I was fitting contact lenses the names stuck better because there is a period of intensive visits in the fitting part of the process.

Having said that, names do stick in my mind. I can look at the death notices and know (often) which ones are my people. But if I saw them in the street I’d not be able to call them by name. It’s a disconnect for me.

Mr buffy is very good at names. When he worked at Nestle many years ago he used to boast that he knew all 300 employees by name quite quickly. And he seemed to remember his patient’s names too. But then again, he didn’t see 8 to 12 patients a shift.

People’s names slip by if unused. Faces I know but cannot always remember their name.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18350413

Enhancement of face recognition learning in patients with brain injury using three cognitive training procedures.
Powell J1, Letson S, Davidoff J, Valentine T, Greenwood R.
Author information
Abstract

Twenty patients with impairments of face recognition, in the context of a broader pattern of cognitive deficits, were administered three new training procedures derived from contemporary theories of face processing to enhance their learning of new faces: semantic association (being given additional verbal information about the to-be-learned faces); caricaturing (presentation of caricatured versions of the faces during training and veridical versions at recognition testing); and part recognition (focusing patients on distinctive features during the training phase). Using a within-subjects design, each training procedure was applied to a different set of 10 previously unfamiliar faces and entailed six presentations of each face. In a “simple exposure” control procedure (SE), participants were given six presentations of another set of faces using the same basic protocol but with no further elaboration. Order of the four procedures was counterbalanced, and each condition was administered on a different day. A control group of 12 patients with similar levels of face recognition impairment were trained on all four sets of faces under SE conditions. Compared to the SE condition, all three training procedures resulted in more accurate discrimination between the 10 studied faces and 10 distractor faces in a post-training recognition test. This did not reflect any intrinsic lesser memorability of the faces used in the SE condition, as evidenced by the comparable performance across face sets by the control group. At the group level, the three experimental procedures were of similar efficacy, and associated cognitive deficits did not predict which technique would be most beneficial to individual patients; however, there was limited power to detect such associations. Interestingly, a pure prosopagnosic patient who was tested separately showed benefit only from the part recognition technique. Possible mechanisms for the observed effects, and implications for rehabilitation, are discussed.

monkey skipper said:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18350413

Enhancement of face recognition learning in patients with brain injury using three cognitive training procedures.
Powell J1, Letson S, Davidoff J, Valentine T, Greenwood R.
Author information
Abstract

Twenty patients with impairments of face recognition, in the context of a broader pattern of cognitive deficits, were administered three new training procedures derived from contemporary theories of face processing to enhance their learning of new faces: semantic association (being given additional verbal information about the to-be-learned faces); caricaturing (presentation of caricatured versions of the faces during training and veridical versions at recognition testing); and part recognition (focusing patients on distinctive features during the training phase). Using a within-subjects design, each training procedure was applied to a different set of 10 previously unfamiliar faces and entailed six presentations of each face. In a “simple exposure” control procedure (SE), participants were given six presentations of another set of faces using the same basic protocol but with no further elaboration. Order of the four procedures was counterbalanced, and each condition was administered on a different day. A control group of 12 patients with similar levels of face recognition impairment were trained on all four sets of faces under SE conditions. Compared to the SE condition, all three training procedures resulted in more accurate discrimination between the 10 studied faces and 10 distractor faces in a post-training recognition test. This did not reflect any intrinsic lesser memorability of the faces used in the SE condition, as evidenced by the comparable performance across face sets by the control group. At the group level, the three experimental procedures were of similar efficacy, and associated cognitive deficits did not predict which technique would be most beneficial to individual patients; however, there was limited power to detect such associations. Interestingly, a pure prosopagnosic patient who was tested separately showed benefit only from the part recognition technique. Possible mechanisms for the observed effects, and implications for rehabilitation, are discussed.

If i was considering structuring a program for children for example.

I would start with a mirror and the child having a face expression to match to their own face in a mirror.

This would surely use the visual cortex of the brain for face recognition.

You could then ask the child over time to match two pictures of themselves with a story about emotions.

Then have a card game where there are sets of the same faces placed face down and then child turns two cards over at a time until they match the two same faces until all pairs are found.

Starting with their own face and matching expressions would be important , I imagine as there is a cognitive need to recognize details etc etc.

monkey skipper said:

If i was considering structuring a program for children for example.

I would start with a mirror and the child having a face expression to match to their own face in a mirror.

This would surely use the visual cortex of the brain for face recognition.

You could then ask the child over time to match two pictures of themselves with a story about emotions.

Then have a card game where there are sets of the same faces placed face down and then child turns two cards over at a time until they match the two same faces until all pairs are found.

Starting with their own face and matching expressions would be important , I imagine as there is a cognitive need to recognize details etc etc.

You are good.

monkey skipper said:

If i was considering structuring a program for children for example.

I would start with a mirror and the child having a face expression to match to their own face in a mirror.

This would surely use the visual cortex of the brain for face recognition.

You could then ask the child over time to match two pictures of themselves with a story about emotions.

Then have a card game where there are sets of the same faces placed face down and then child turns two cards over at a time until they match the two same faces until all pairs are found.

Starting with their own face and matching expressions would be important , I imagine as there is a cognitive need to recognize details etc etc.

This sounds like it would be worth testing.

I don’t know what the ‘disconnect’ is. I think putting names to faces requires a large set of processes (I am imagining writing code for a computer to perform the task – There would be a lot of it) and any fault at any point would cause a failure.

I am going to try adding more details to the ‘Contacts’ on my phone (job title, place of work, names of partners/kids etc) because it’s easy to search – and checking it before walking in. There is the capacity to add photos to the profiles – I’ll try that if the first strategy doesn’t work.

Well Australia got beaten by 242 runs in the cricket last night but apparently they looked good in the field.

rubs hands