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Emily comments on How is your mind different from everyone else's? - Less Wrong Discussion

31 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 05 December 2011 08:38AM

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Comment author: Emily 05 December 2011 10:12:21PM 1 point [-]

This is what I was going to post about. I am terrible at recognising faces. People I know well are fine, but even a quite good acquaintance in the wrong context can easily throw me completely. There are a very small handful of celebrities I can recognise by their faces. I recognise most people below the level of fairly-good-acquaintance by their voice, not their face. There have been many occasions on which I haven't realised I know someone, or have seen an actor in something else, till they speak.

It's also not quite that I remember the features but can't synthesise them into a face, which I think some people with this difficulty find -- I have real trouble remembering features, too. Half the time, if you ask me whether friend-so-and-so has dark or light hair, or is tall or short, I'll struggle to say for sure.

I think I'm relatively bad at reading facial expressions, too.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 06 December 2011 12:33:16AM 0 points [-]

I have the same thing, with the added complication that I can't recognize voices either. I can remember people's hair color and approximate height, though.