Ever heard of this? Friend can't remember faces.

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

We've had this friend for about 15 years now. Well, he's DH's friend really, I probably see him every 6 months or so.

Aaaanyway, apparently he has trouble remembering faces. So much so, that if he hasn't seen DH for a few months, he has trouble recognising him. If he's expecting DH, say, in the pub, then it's fine, but if he bumps into DH in the street, it can really throw him.

Is there a name for it?

I'm just being nosey really.

72% so not too bad. I found it difficult towards the end so just had to go on my instinct, a bit of pot luck perhaps.

97% here. Usually hopeless at tests and so on!

I'm going to pass it onto my DH as I always maintain he is hopeless with faces. We argue a lot about actors/actresses in shows and films and he swears blind that Uma Thurman models for the Next catalogue...

94%, but notoriously blanked DH when he was on a course near where I was working. I just blanked him smiling at me from miles off until he was close enough to say "It's me you pillock"
But he was quite pleased that I seem to ignore strange men smiling at me!

I get this, especially with men (less identifiable features). I think it is mainly to do with contextual memory (I i.e. remembering things in a context) but in its most serious form it is called prosopagnosia (I know someone already said that but I just wanted to demonstrate my knowledge, after all my MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience has got to be worth something every now and again!).

Many people (like me) with Asperger Syndrome have that problem. I am generally not too bad, but the other week I never recognised my own son in the playground because a) I'd cut his hair, and b) not put him in his usual coat . I also fail to recognise people sometimes when they are out of context. For example, saw a lady from choir in tescos and (obviously) not in her choir robe. Didn't recognise her. Had an entire conversation with her, pretending I knew who she was (this is how I generally hide it). It was only later I realised!

75% , I'm generally better with mens faces /names than womens . Used to go to a tots group with 3 of us out of about 12 haveing same name, I think there were two sets of double naming as well. Still had problems with those who were named teh same as someone else.

65% so borderline I do have issues if i haven t seen someone for a while and Im often not sure if its someone till they speak. DIdint think it was a problem though.

53% which confirmed what I knew. I don't recognise people out of context and something like a new haircut can throw me. I know people regard me as being rude if i don't speak to them as I don't recognise them.

Got 78% on faces which was not a surprise but simply cannot remember a name at all.

I got 73% which I guess is okay. I found it quite hard though, a lot of guessing towards the end of that test!

90% and I know I hit the wrong button on one of them.

I am stunned. I never have any trouble with names but I've always thought I was appalling with faces.

85% - did better than I thought I was doing. Thought I was just guessing sometimes when it got harder. Interesting test though!

I did that test a while back and I can match photos fine, but show me another pic of the same person slightly rotated and their hair different and I'm stuffed. In person it's not too bad as I pick up on mannerisms and speech patterns but I'm terrible at photos or when people are sitting still and only say "Hello, how are you?"

Got very mixed up in my new job until I confided in one colleague who exsplained there really were 3 women of similar ages all with straight hair dyed red and with nose piercings... that's just not fair!

I got 70%, which is pretty good considering I guessed almost all of them on the second part of the test.

I'm quite variable with faces. A few people I find easy to remember even after only a couple of meetings, usually they have something very distinctive about them. Other people I find very difficult, which has occasionally caused a problem or two. I am quite good at covering it up mostly, and as others have said, I can recognise people at quite a distance by the way they walk or other body language.

I find good-looking people most difficult to remember, when their features are well-balanced and in proportion. I find I need a feature to lock on to, like unusual coloured eyes or a crooked mouth. For instance, when I worked there was a receptionist who I used to see when I went into the office twice a week. We were quite friendly and used to have little chats as I passed by during the day. But I failed to recognise her when I passed her on the street outside the office. I think she looked similar to Cheryl Cole (who is another person that I couldn't reliably pick out of a line-up).

69% I'm surprised I did that well tbh. Only last week I greeted the wrong person with great exuberance as I thought they were a friend coming to help. I've had to resort to imagining peoples features as the letters in their name when i meet people, or imagining a big tattoo on their head.

Interestingly I can remebmer phone numbers after a couple of uses so know all my friends numbers, school number etc. I also have to recognise cars, including our own by their registration plate.

i got 52%. I guessed, i coudn't remember any of them after the 6 faces. Scary. I ofen say hi to strangers thinking they are friends. I thought i was really just crap at remembering people.. Quite glad to see this thread actually.

I got 53%.

but I don't think it's a problem with "faces" per se - I just have a TERRIBLE memory, that could have been words, or even pieces of written music (I'm a musician) and I'd probably still have done badly .

I can remember faces if I've had "contact" with them - dialogue, been served by them etc, but not random faces. But I can't remember names either.

I got 99% but I'm plagued by an excellent memory for faces and an apalling memory for names & the context I know a person from. So I see familiar people all the time and can't place them.

i got 100% but i draw people for a living so it's just as bloody well. i'm the same shona- always remember a face but no idea where from.

i'm better at places voices actually.

I only got 69. I am usually good with faces, I often see people as looking like others when others dont see it. eg if someone looks very very slihtly like a sleb I will be able to pick out exactly why they look like them. So I often see peoples faces as being similar.

I got 63% (and I was slightly distracted). It is better than I thought I would do, because I have terrible problems with faces day to day. It is strange because apart from faces and directions, I have a very good memory (can remember phone numbers after dialling them once for example)

what a fascinating test i got 86% which surprised me somewhat, in general i have a poor memory, and i thought i was better at voices than faces (which i put down to listening to the radio a lot as a kid). i guess recognising it's someone you've seen before and actually placing the person are very different things.

very interesting that you got 100% blinks - did you categorise the faces on e.g. face shape, shape/position of features or was it a more holistic/instinctive thing?

78% which is better than I thought. I did have to mentally put "names" to those faces e.g I called one "scary eyes" and another "Morten Harkett".

i quite fancied the grumpy looking one