(no subject)

[desoto_hia873]

Is there such a thing as facial-recognition dyslexia?

Some people say that they never forget a face. For me, it would be closer to the truth to say that I never remember one.

Which is an exaggeration, of course, but I do have a very difficult time remembering and recognizing people--even ones I've already met--unless there's something particularly unusual about them or until I've met them multiple times. I wouldn't exactly call it a handicap, but it's very inconvenient.

In 1989, I worked as a research assistant with a graduate student from Brazil. On my first day, I spent the eight straight hours more or less side-by-side with her in the field and in the lab. She had her hair up in a ponytail that day. On the second day, she came in with her hair down, and it took me many minutes before I was sure she was the same person I'd worked with the day before. I expect she wondered why I gave her so many peculiar looks before coming over to talk to her on that second day.

I myself was a grad student for about a hundred years, and I was often asked to invigilate exams for classes I had no connection with. It was commonplace for a student to have a question mid-exam, and I generally didn't know the answer, so I'd have to go and ask the professor who taught the course. The problem was that by the time I had the answer, I'd already forgotten the appearance of who asked the question. My general tactic was to wander down the row of desks that I hoped I'd just been in and scan faces until I saw someone looking at me expectantly.

When it comes to watching TV and movies--well, that's just a whole 'nother area of challenging. If they don't have familiar big-name stars, I'm kind of doomed. I think directors should make a point of having all their main characters have different hair colours or wildly different facial hair or something. I watched Steve McQueen's Bullit with my father years ago--what an evil movie! Not only did most of the main characters seem to be brunettes, but it had twins in it! Do you think I had a clue as to what was going on? I bombarded my father with so many "Who is that?" and "Is this the evil twin or the good one?" that I'm surprised he ever watched a movie with me again.

My cousin Stephanie introduced me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (S5), Angel (S2), and Nikita all in the same week many years ago. Could I tell Buffy, Darla, and Nikita (all long-haired blondes) and their male friends (all brunettes) apart, and therefore keep track of which series was which? Not a chance.

I bring this up because I watched the last six hours of Heroes Season 1 two weeks ago so I'd be ready for last night's premiere. I watched all of S1, I did. I even knew who I was looking at most of the time, really (thank you to the casting director who chose an Asian hero, a short blonde, a tall blonde, a tubby white guy, an Indian guy, a black guy, etc. etc.). I even figured out that Nathan had grown a beard.

But I did not know who was in that last scene until I read his identity on my flist today.

I don't know if there is such a thing as facial-recognition dyslexia, but if there is, I have it, and thank heavens for my LJ support group. :-)

Also? I need a Hiro icon.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Try bunny_icons

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Still haven't found one that I'm completely happy with, but will keep looking.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

I have a good friend, a brilliant artist, who has the same disonance. She's described it to me many times.

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Really, I thought that this was something peculiar to me. There were so many times when I worked as a teaching assistant that students would pass me in the hall and say hi, and I'd have absolutely no idea who they were. As I said, it's not exactly a handicap, but it does lead to embarrassing moments.

Still, as a 'cross to bear', it's not much of one. It's just one of the curiosities that is me.

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

Yep their is, I found this on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Wow, it has a name! I had no idea. I don't have any brain damage that I'm aware of, so it must just be my peculiar mix of genes. Thanks for the link!

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

Your welcome.

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has that problem! I like the name too. Now I can tell people I have facial dyslexia.

That will have to go along with my total lack of short-term memory, and my inability to remember numbers. I also find sequences that are unrelated to a story or that I can't fit into a "big picture." For instance, I can't remember to do a, b, c, d to complete a task at work unless I think through the reason for the process each time.

It's pretty surprising I've managed to survive this long, actually:)

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

I'm 43 and I still don't know left from right. :-) Every single time someone gives me left-right directions, I have the same conversation in my head:

"Turn right. Okay, I write with this hand, ::points to left one::, so that's left. Which means that's right--so turn that way."

It's all about the compensating.

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I was older than that when I realized that there are compensations for the compensating. One day, I found myself working on a plan to redesign a process and the software program used to administer it. I was thinking, as I often did, that if the PTB knew I had to check numbers and codes as often as I did, I'd be unmasked as a phony and fired.

Then it hit me. There were 40 other people who used this process, and I was the one redesigning it. Why? Because I was the only idiot who couldn't just work my way through steps I'd memorized, because I was incapable of memorizing. Every damn time I performed some action with that software, I had to think about what would logically come next and why. And after doing that time and time again, I'd come up with a list of ways that it could be done easier or better. All because I was so stupid.

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

I do have a very difficult time remembering and recognizing people--even ones I've already met--unless there's something particularly unusual about them or until I've met them multiple times.

Yeah I have that but I've always assumed it's on account of my raging narcissism the fact that people are so goddam dull.

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

I can be rather shy, so certainly that doesn't help much when I'm introduced to someone new. But you'd think that after a year of watching Peter on Heroes that I'd recognize him again the next season. But I didn't--I spent that scene trying to figure out if it was Sylar or not. It didn't even occur to me that it was Peter.