Is anyone a super recogniser?

[TeethKicked]

I think that’s what they’re called. This fascinates me because I’m the complete opposite - I’ve been known to blank my own dc (unintentionally, just didn’t recognise them!)

If so, please can I ask:

1. How and when did you realise you had this ability?
2. What actually does it mean? Eg, does it mean you can see someone just once and then remember them when you see them again even if years have passed?
3. Can you/do you make use of your ability? Eg, work for the police?

Thank you :)

I did an online test years ago for this and was invited to apply for further testing from one of the police forces. I didn’t proceed as I had absolutely no interest but I can recognise people from the backs of their heads, and place them from having seen them for only a few seconds.

It’s really weird.

I met a parent at my child’s hobby. I’d never spoken to him previously, but was able to remember that he’d briefly been a trainee doctor at a hospital I’d briefly worked in as a teenager 20 years before. I got a few strange looks when I blurted that out…

Me too!

I'm the opposite but my DM is. She remembers people she met once, fifty-odd years ago and she knows exactly where she met them. She'll be walking down the street and see this woman and go oh, I delivered her baby boy (decades ago), weighed so much and wore this or that. She remembers her school classmates, how many siblings they had, what their mum did for a living, etc, and that was over 60 years ago.
Overall her memory is and always has been brilliant. If I go to the supermarket to buy 3 things, I'll forget one. My DM has a shopping list of 50 things in her head, will buy every single thing and when she goes in her pantry she remembers exactly what she bought a month ago, where and for how much.
It could be really akward but she hasn't changed much over the years so often people will remember her too, because they met her at a very important time (birthing a child).
She also remembers particular details about people, like she'll meet you on holiday today and she'll remember you if she sees you 15 years from now. She'll remember what your job is, where you're from and whether you have kids. She'll also remember the not so good details she's heard from people and she's very chatty so people love telling her stuff. People often like to lie to come across as better but she always remembers.
The only time I think being that good really helped her was when she started working in the ER, there would be these people who caused problem and she always remembered them, even years later (very handy for people with serious MH issues that aren't that visible).

I'm good at this. I could walk round my old town and recognise and name people from school 40 years on -

I have an absolutely brilliant memory and can remember not only faces but things people have said to me in precise detail, how it made me feel, if there was a song on in the background, probably sometimes even what rough date it was. Where it was. The downside is I am an extremely unforgiving person and hold a massive grudge to anyone who ever hurts my feelings. I was bullied by a teacher 30 years ago and I can still smell her perfume.

Ironically if I have so much as half a glass of wine... I can't remember anything.

You can recognise people from the back of their heads?! I am in awe!

There are people who can do something with gait aren’t there? My dd has a very distinctive walk - if she was heavily disguised I think I’d be able to pick her out because of the way she walks.

The face blindness thing is called prosopognosia - something like that anyway!

Yes, I am. I realised as I never forgot a face and saw a tv program about it. I can always put a name to a face, and a voice for that matter. I have quite a good memory for things in general line postcodes and addresses.

I took loads of the research tests for it since the initial one and tend to score highly.

I can see/meet someone once and recognize them months/years later. It depends on how long I saw them for. If I passed someone in the street for a matter of seconds, I don't think my brain would store it for as long or I might recognise their face much later but not exactly where I'd seen them.

I tend to play it down or not mention it as people find it weird. Plus, in my role I have to take people through data protection so either have to pretend I don't know who they are or say "I remember you but protocol means I have to ask..."

I'd love to use it and work for the police or something but generally just it day to day and test myself.

Forgot to say, like a pp with the back of the head, ears and noses are dead giveaways!

Our ears are much more unique than you'd think.

@GoodHearted ah this is me too! Any alcohol and I forget immediately. I wonder if it’s like ‘give your brain a wee rest’!

I had a patient who could do this! He also wrote really detailed diaries of everything that happened each day. So he could literally say things like I met this doctor in March 1975 on a sunny Wednesday afternoon and then tell you everything that happened that day. It was truly fascinating to witness, he definitely spooked a few people.
I regularly have people thinking I'm so rude because I really do struggle to remember them.

I'm definitely not a super recognizer, my brain does an annoying thing where is sorts people into 'types', so if two people look even vaguely familiar I WILL mix them up! The categorization isn't even logical, it could be two people with marginally similar noses or something.

I'm the exact opposite, no memory for faces at all. I often say we need "sub-names" on TV, as I get the characters muddled up.

However If I get chatting to someone, I'll remember all their details next time I meet am introduced to them.

I grew up in a very isolated situation, barely met anyone except immediate family until starting very small village school, and wonder if I just never learnt to use that part of my brain.

superrecognisersinternational.com/careers/

Not sure id label myself it but I definitely remember faces.

I very much keep it to myself as I think it would be mad weird to tell
someone we’d met 30 years ago

I can. I'm not sure if it's something I've always had or it's a result of the minor brain injury I sustained as a child, but I never forget a face or a name.

I remember faces and exactly what we've talked about previously (going back decades). I have to play it down as people think I'm a bit of a stalker/creep. I can't remember names at all though, even people I know well, and struggle to tell left from right.

I still recognise people i went to primary school with. I could tell you the names of my whole year 6 class and where they sat.

When i was younger i moved schools in mid year 1 and when i attended high school i recognised the faces and names, nobody remembered me. I recognise people from other year groups who went to school with me. They have no idea who i am. My dh finds it weird and ive freaked people out when i say, you worked at .... and i may have only seen them once. Many times ive not even spoken to them but I'll recognise them.

I dont think im as good as i once was though.

I think I am. Quite introverted but good memory for faces.

My brother has this. It's just jaw-dropping how he can remember people from 40 years earlier.

E.g. recently we were in the supermarket. My brother said to a stranger "how are the busses?" . The stranger gaped, and said something like "how did you know - I only worked on busses for a few months 40 years ago".

Or another time he recognised a guy who had been on a short night course with us, about 30 years earlier.
We've 100s of examples of how he never forgets a face.

Yes, I can do this. The name/face thing is a bit annoying when it's someone horrible and I want to pretend I haven't clocked them/don't know them 😄 I am also like @Glitterkitten24 's DH - remembering car reg plates and where/when I saw the car etc. Unfortunately this is not useful for my job!
I have ASD so maybe that's why. Some of us are good at things like this.

No, I am embarrassingly the opposite. I need to see someone regularly for a while for their face to register with me. I am also really bad at recognising and remembering people from several years ago, i.e. old work colleagues, neighbours etc. Dreadful with recognising actors too

I'm grateful for this post OP because it was something I was slightly worried about but it seems I'm not alone

hi Ariela
I can do this colour matching thing , too. It’s useful for buying clothes, I always used to choose my dh shirts and ties because I could match up or contrast shades of existing clothes without having them there.
The downside is that colours that are a bit off, in restaurants for example when they have not matched or co ordinated furnishings really annoy me.

I was actually a Super Recogniser in the Met. I used to sit and watch CCTV at big events, riots, protests etc.
Could name someone from their face having only seen their picture or met them once. Even years previously.

It's not just the face, it's their walk, build, gestures, even the back of their head. You know how you instantly recognise which family member is walking up the stairs, it's a bit like that.

I was always good at faces but didn't realise how good until I joined as a Constable. Just went from there.

I'm good at recognising people and remembering them from a long time ago, but the skill doesn't work so well, if they are wearing face masks. Equally, when at uni, men with beards confused my recognition, and I used to mix them up.

My imagination fills in what people look like under the mask, and I form a picture, and then I find I'm wrong, when they take off the mask. When my son was in hospital, the male nurses were surprised ( and a bit aghast) that I wouldn't be able to memorise the name of one of their colleagues, who has worked with my son before, but it was the concealment of their features by the mask which was throwing me and making it difficult for me to remember them.

I just find it so fascinating that people have this ability. For those of you that do, is your hand/eye co-ordination good too? I’m wondering if the same part of the brain governs recognition and co-ordination.