Is it normal to not recognise people like this?

[Ilovechocolate87]

Today I saw two different people I know/should have recognised.
The first was my daughters midwife, who I got to know very well and last saw properly when she signed us off in late 2021 (I did actually see her sitting in her car a couple of weeks ago, but not properly) I wasn't expecting to see her where I did today, at the park, she wasn't in uniform, had her hair different etc....but it was embarrassing as my face must have looked blank for a few seconds because until she got closer and it clicked I had no idea who she was and she had to tell me, which was embarrassing!
Then, I took my daughter on a bike ride around the village and saw my friend's sister in law, who lives in the same village and helped cater at our daughter's christening last year.I knew she was someone familiar, but it was only after i saw her a second time on the way back that it clicked...now got to message my friend asking her to apologise to the SIL that I didn't recognise her 🙈🤷‍♀️
This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened....I've had it with colleagues at work, and a mum of a former friend who I used to know very well up until about 7 years ago, but saw at the cinema and again she had to tell me who she was.
I'm 35, can be abit scatterbrained/ disorganised in some ways, very organised in others, but no medical conditions I'm aware of....is what I'm describing normal for someone my age?!

Yes my daughter does struggle with it too...she is also six.With other children we don't see on a daily/weekly basis at most, she will often need to be reminded of their name.

No sorry, I meant asin my own midwife, who was my community midwife all through my pregnancy a couple of years ago, and for the month after my baby daughter's birth.

Yes I think the suprise of seeing them unexpectedly is what does it for me too!

Thanks for that- will take a look! 👍

I have this, albeit slightly differently.

I recognise nobody I have previously encountered until I've met them for the third or fourth time. Even if they say, spent the eve at my house as a mutual friend.

It's really embarrassing tbh.

I'm just very apologetic and upfront that I have some degree of face blindness.

It's also annoying as I'm only just getting my head around who everyone is halfway through a film, and if there's two main characters who look very similar It's longer...

Haha, this makes me feel better 😅

Yes- totally! Why oh why can't they just have one guy with a beard, one with glasses, one blind, one bald etc....

I am terrible like this. I'm a trainer and literally spent all day training someone one to one. He was an Italian gent of roughly 60 years of age. Came into the client lounge the second day to collect him. There were two Italian gents of roughly the same age and similar build. Couldn't pick out the one I'd been with the day before. Actual features just don't register.

My DH sent me an article about an actor who had died recently, with a photo. I asked who he was. He's the star of a tv series we've been watching. He was my favourite character and we are in series 4. But I didn't recognize him. He has a scar In The tv programme....

I only see key criteria (hair colour/ scar etc). Not features.

If my DH died his hair without telling me, he could totally walk past me in the street.

OK, that makes more sense. I can understand why you might expect to recognise her!

Its not a system I recogonise tho - I pretty much saw someone different each appointment. So completely alien to me to expect to recogonise any of them.

Saw a neighbour face to face in the street last week.no idea who she was until she was level with me and I saw the side of her face cos that's normally how I see her.

I had someone walk up to me in the supermarket, say hello, they knew my name and everything, told my friend they knew me. I still to this day can't remember who they were but they obviously knew me.

I sometimes wonder if I just don't look at people properly.

Swansea University are researching prosopagnosia/face blindness https://www.swansea.ac.uk/psychology/news/raisingawarenessofprosopagnosiaandunveilinganonlinetreatmentprogramme.php

Jeremy Vine interview
https://sites.gold.ac.uk/artlab/tag/neuropsych/

Apparently there is a small correlation with autism - if you're autistic you're more likely to have prosopagnosia (although most people with prosopagnosia have don't have autism).

About 3% of the population (I'm one- and so apparently are Stephen Fry and Brad Pitt!) have face recognition disorders serious enough to be described as 'developmental prosopagnosia' or more colloquially 'face blindness'.
Prosopagnosia (face blindness) - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Many others are relatively poor at face recognition, without being quite so extreme.

So it's not at all unknown.

Totally normal to think "where do I know them from" in the scenarios you describe.

I have this problem (also have ASD and aphantasia, which probably doesn't help me).

It's a standing joke with DD. We'll be at the supermarket, someone will chat with me. Once they've gone, DD will ask if I knew who they were. I'll tell her I have no idea. Which is exactly what she thought I'd say.

Prosppagnosia, I have it, sometimes don't recognise my closest friends out of context

I also have prosopagnosia (confirmed by a test at the university of Bournemouth who do research into it) and do a lot of smiling and nodding while wondering who on earth someone is. I have also started to explain to people when I introduce myself so they're not offended when I blank them next time.

Interestingly it's not so much that people with face blindness are worse at recognising faces than they are at other things, it's that the human norm is to be better at processing faces than other objects and we just don't have that extra ability. One of the classic tests for face blindness is to test your recognition of faces upside down and the right way up - most people score much better with right way up faces but I scored exactly the same right way up and wrong way up. Without this extra ability, which seems to relate to being able to process and memorise the face as a whole, those of us with face blindness have to add up lots of separate clues which are much harder to recall.

I find hair and other contextual features quite a useful; I once did a test of face recognition which gave me a very high score, but it was based on using the exact same photo of each person over and over again. I have pretty good recall for identical photos, but when comparing two different photos of the same person, the small changes of angle, hairstyle etc throw me off even if I have the photos in front of me to compare. I am mystified that people are able to recognise actors in different films despite their changing hairstyles etc - Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings just does not look like the same person. And don't get me started on inadvertent film plot twists...

I cannot recognise corpses either which is very disorientating.

@Charrington genuine apologies if this is insensitive but why would you be seeing multiple corpses in a context where you would need to recognise them, rather than already knowing whose corpse you are looking at?

Really not trying to be a knob, I just feel like I've missed your meaning in a confusing way

I have similar. I don't recognise people when I see them out of the situation I know them in. So bump in to next door neighbour of 10 years in the local pub. Won't recognise him. See work colleague in a shop no chance. Meeting a mum friend at soft play, first time I see her out side of playground will have to rely on dc greeting the child.

But once I've meet someone a few times on different situations my brain will seem to connect to who they are. But I have to see them regular. I spent a lot of time with my aunt as a child but less as an adult (maybe every 3/4 years) saw her in a shop, didn't recognise her had to piece together who it was through conversation.

But if I do face blindness tests on line I do well on them. I can recognise someone I saw seconds before so I don't think it's that.

I don't know if it's connected but I also can't see images in my head. It's just darkness.

As a teacher l havectaught children who, after a whole year, don't know the names of the other children in the class. They say things like " that girl" while sitting beside her for a month. Also if l meet them out of school they don't immediately recognise me. I mostly associate it it with children with autism.

I have the opposite problem and so has my dd. We never forget a face and it's awkward at times and we have to pretend not to remember people as they have no clue. We would have made good detectives!! I can remember whole classes of children l taught and once l realised that spooked people l keep it well hidden.

I work on checkouts in a shop in the middle of town and the amount of people who come up to me saying my name how are you etc and I don't know who they are. It's a daily occurrence

I am autistic and have prosopoagnosia. Just the other day I saw a nurse at the IVF clinic who I only knew I'd met before because...

'I remember you from your badge,' I said.

She looked bemused.

'It's got a rainbow on it :)'

I then had to explain that I don't remember faces 😂

I have this.
I once went out on a works night out. I was chatting to a woman who talked about her baby. I asked her if she intended returning to work. Yes she said. I then asked her when. She gave me a strange look and replied she was already back at work. Yes, we had been working together for weeks. I simply did not recognise her at all. This is one of many examples I could give.

I've got this. My own daughter had to walk up to me and say 'mum' before I recognised her at a train station. I have no idea how people on crime watch do it.

II'm very faceblind & it's a right pain.

there are numerous examples like seeing a lovely woman in the interval at the theatre & knowing I knew her & her children but having no idea who she was - luckily she spoke first so I realised she was my husband's best friend's wife who I've known well for 15 years.

I can't pick my own children out in photos unless I took the photo & can not find my DH in a photo if there's more than about 3 men 😂

conversely my DH is a super recogniser & remembers the builder doing work at the firm he consulted for twice 4 years ago when he sees him at the supermarket etc

I'm sure it's one of the reasons I find it hard to make friends because I don't respond like someone who remembers/likes the other person ☹️

Oddly I am amazing at recognising people from a great distance by how they move/walk (not very useful though!)