Is there a medical reason why I can never remember peoples' faces?

Question

Some people are good at remembering faces, I am definitely not - is their a psychological / neurological reason for this?

Qualified people and good guessers only please.

Answer 1

Possibly. There are various different types of memory ability, for example visuo-spatial, verbal, autobiographical, etc. Also, human beings do differ in their ability to recognise and remember faces. There is a specific part of the brain that deals with recognition, and , it is now thought even a specific area of the brain in humans that deals with face recognition as opposed to recognition of other objects. At one extreme, there are people who have had a focal brain injury to that area of the brain( focal brain injury means an injury to a specific area of the brain ) who find they are unable to recognise even familiar faces. This difficulty is a recognised impairment, and it is called 'prosopagnosia'. People with prosopagnosia can learn to cope by paying attention to people's voices, clothes, style and characteristic gestures. But , coming back to you yourself - it depends on how poor you really are at this skill. Is it really that you can never remember faces? Or just that you are a bit weak? If you are just not very good at remembering or recognising faces - not really impaired - then there could be a number of reasons, not necessarily neurological. Sometimes a person's actual performance at a task doesn't match their potential, or ability, for a number of psychological reasons. You say you are 'definitely' not good, but who are you comparing yourself to? We humans often think we are poor at something and then find that most other people are around the same as we are at it. We often measure our performance against what we'd like to be like. But humans only remember a fraction of what they see , hear or experience. Memory is not perfect. It's affected by all sorts of influences, like how motivated or interested we are in whatever it is, our emotional state, how much else we've got on our minds etc etc. To answer your question, if you really think you are impaired in this way and it seems to be getting in the way of normal life, you could ask for an assessment by a neuro-psychologist at an NHS hospital. There are objective tests that assess various aspects of memory and recognition. For example, the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test and the Wechsler Memory Scale. Or you could pay privately for an assessment. Find a chartered psychologist in the British Psychological Society's register of chartered psychologists. Clinical psychologists can do this for you, and, in the UK, some occupational psychologists who have the specialist training in cognitive and memory testing. (These are UK terms - apologies if you are from outside the UK . If you're in America, the organization you need is the APA - American Psychological Association)

Answer 2

It is unlikely to be a medical or neurological reason unless you have wider memory problems.

However, it could be pyschological or psycho-social - you may not have needed to remember people's faces earlier in life, because you had a limited social circle, or you just were not interested in other people, and so now it's not natural for you.

You can learn this skill in later life but it won't come so easily as if you grow up with it. Firstly, take an interest in people, a real one. When you meet them, focus on them (not in a scary way!) and think about what makes their appearance distinctive and then associate that with something else about them that you find easier to remember, like what they do - eg the woman who sells me my sandwich lunch has a longish nose, so I could imagine her smelling the scent of fresh bread...
Visualise their family tree or imagine wedding or family group photos to help you remember their relationships.

I used to teach and had to memorise my class, I would mentally give them nicknames (like 'pale-faced Debbie' or 'curly Jo') to help me remember them. But be careful not to use the nicknames in speech!

It's easier to remember people if you are genuinely interested in them! So think about why you want to remember faces and that will help you do it.

Do you actually want to remember the faces or is it that your partner or someone else is annoyed that you don't? You may want to adopt some social techniques that put other people at ease even if you don't recall their face - smile, put out a hand and say "Hi I'm Steve". If they say "yes, we've met" or say "Yes, I know", grin & say "I know, but I never assume people remember me!" they will think you are friendly and charmingly modest....

Answer 3

Like all kind of memories, visual memory can be improved. Try to "play" with objects to recall, like the furniture of some friend's place (no kidding, no fraud!) try to remember the most of details, then take some pictures, maybe some paintings, portraits... look at them for a while, then make a list (a mental list) of details of color, textures, etc... Then you are ready to recall movie stars, and even your neighbors...
You'll need some time to get to be a qualified detective (a hell of an observer), but in the meantime you'll have a lot of fun, and you can even play games with other people.

Answer 4

I happen to think it's genetic. My friend is an attorney and he cannot for the life of him remember names and faces or names with faces, for that matter. I, on the other hand, have a photographic memory and can remember names and faces for over fifty years. Someone will pop back into my life after a long (and I do mean long) stretch, and presto! Name and face, instantly. I have no explanation for this except to tell you there seems to be nothing in the way of perfect recall. I think it is not due to any exceptional talents I have. I think it is in my DNA. I could not, for example, remember 1/10th of what my friend had to learn to get through college and become a member of the American Bar Association. My God, I would be shivering in my boots just thinking of trying to remember all that book stuff! But names and faces, no problem. He has said to me how upsetting it is to him he cannot remember names and faces. I tell him to "key them in" when he first meets someone. Make an association with their name or face so you will never forget it again. This takes practice, and you have to understand what it means in the first place. It is highly intuitive and it surely helps to love people generally (which i definitely do) in the first place. We are all given such amazing gifts. Every single one of us. Some of us have many gifts. If I try to prompt my friend to remember something, it only apparently drives the problem deeper. He says "Chris, I know you are trying to help, but it only makes it harder. Just don't say anything and later today it will surface all by itself, as if by magic." (Because the subconscious mind has been working all that interim, hauling page after page past your brain in order to get a match and to surprise the dickens out of you later.) Sent to you with good energies from Chris in South Portland, Maine, U.S.A. (I am 63 years old. My attorney friend is 85.)

Answer 5

I have seen documentaries on people who have this severely. They dont recognise their own family members.It definately is a medical reason, a neurological cause and seeing as I have a poor memory I cant remember what it is!

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Nope. Unfortunatly some people just can't. I imagine it has something to do with your memory process...I for one am a visual, so I can remember people's faces well. Names, on the other hand, are a different story. :D

Answer 8

could be... different parts of the brain are allocated to process and store different types of information... that's why some people are better at some thins more than others are.... the accessing pathways can be reinforced through cognitive therapy techniques..
I'm not very good at remembering names and words but I remember places and faces much better
its all to do with how we retrieve stored information

I'm not qualified.... its an informed recollection

Answer 9

Probably because there is no "unique" characteristics, both in apperance or the way they act, that impresses you enough to make you "want" to remember them by.

Something has to be really unique about a person, for me to remember them by, or, I will just treat them as everyone else that passes me by, on the street or where ever.

I would chalk it up to boredom...

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 10

I have the same problem. I am mildly autistic and find it impossible to make or maintain eye contact.
If you don't make eye contact, you will not remember faces.