Are you good at recognizing faces?
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Are you good at recognizing faces? Can you recognize someone in a crowd months or years after you talked to someone for a brief period?
Are you one who never forgets a face? If so, you may be a super-recognizer.
Scientists have developed a test for you to find out.
I took the test, and alas, I am not a super-recognizer from my results. I scored 7 out 14.
What did you score? Are you gifted in recognizing faces? Do tell!
I scored a 12. I thought I might do okay because I’ve noticed lately I seem to have a knack for recognizing actors even ones I haven’t seen in awhile and even if their appearance has changed. My hubby will argue with me over it and most of the time ends up being disappointed he’s wrong lol.
I only got a 6 and I have a hard time recognizing actors that aren’t like Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise, the lesser known ones. My husband knows every actor in every show or movie we watch. Most of the time, I won’t have noticed that I’ve ever seen the person before and, even after he tells me who they are and what part they played, I just take his word for it and move on. I really hope I can convince him to try this.
I got a 10 which is much higher than I expected. I’m not bying it until I take the extended test.
I am horrible at faces in real life. I have 2 young native american nephews the same age. One is adopted, so there is no blood relationship. I can’t for the life of me tell them apart. I’ve studied their pictures, looking at noses and ears and hairline differences to no avail. That’s why I was surprised I got 10 on the test.
I wish they had one with black or asian faces, I’m sure I’d do much worse.
Thank you for your participation.
You scored 13 out of 14.
If you scored above 10 you may be a super recogniser, but you would need to do more tests to find this out.
If you would like to do the further tests NOW please click the link HERE. These will take about an hour to complete. Please note if you are under 16 you should ask permission of your parents/guardian to take part in these tests. Also, note that these tests will only work on a computer or a laptop, not on a tablet or phone. If you do go on to complete these tests now could you please leave your email address so we can match up your records with the tests you have just completed.
Alternatively, if you do not have time now you may do the tests later – please type in your e-mail address in the box and we will send you the link to the new tests.
Due to the high number of people currently taking this test it may take us a few days to get back to you at the moment.
I would not consider myself being a super recognizer! What the….
Take the hour long test! It’s fascinating.
9 out of 14 :-/
Thank you for your participation.
You scored 10 out of 14.
If you scored above 10 you may be a super recogniser, but you would need to do more tests to find this out.
If you would like to do the further tests NOW please click the link HERE. These will take about an hour to complete. Please note if you are under 16 you should ask permission of your parents/guardian to take part in these tests. Also, note that these tests will only work on a computer or a laptop, not on a tablet or phone. If you do go on to complete these tests now could you please leave your email address so we can match up your records with the tests you have just completed.
Alternatively, if you do not have time now you may do the tests later – please type in your e-mail address in the box and we will send you the link to the new tests.
Due to the high number of people currently taking this test it may take us a few days to get back to you at the moment.
I scored 10/14 on the preliminary. I then did the hour long test with the following results: 39/40 on Mooney’s test, 97/102 on Cambridge Face Memory Test, 29/40 on Guitar Test (I found this much more difficult than human faces), and 39/40 on Glasgow test, and 100% on the “sort the identities” test. I want to see if I can do more tests – how many more are needed to ” confirm” one is a super recognizer, I wonder?
I relate! When I see someone out of their normal context, if I can’t recall where I know them from fairly quickly, I start to worry and wonder why I know them!
scored 11/14 and got 88% on the main test
I scored a 13 out of 14. I thought I might do well at this, as I remember faces fairly well. The faster the test went, the trickier it got, but there are several ways to identify. It may sound funny, but I think I do well due to a scare I had growing up. There was a kidnapper spotted near our home, and he was leaving bodies of the kids he kidnapped in very public places, close to our home (15-30 minutes away). There was a sketch of him that was posted, along with his car, which I remember being a Blue Gremlin.It was all over the news over and over again. I was maybe 9 years old, but I remember memorizing that face, and the car, and when I would walk to school I would watch for cars that were similar. I can name any car I see, make and model, within 100 feet. This is such a strange thing, but I think because of this experience, I notice faces and cars a lot. In fact, in my neighborhood, I know exactly who drives what. I’m not proud of this, but if a car drives in our neighborhood, and it doesn’t belong, I know. It’s a very subconscious thing.
Sometimes the part of your brain that recognizes faces can be used to recognize other things as well (very rapidly). Judith Polgar the chess grandmaster uses that part of her brain in blitz and bullet games to instantly recognize chess board positions. I’ve also heard of people using that part to instantly recognize cars (and may be related to why we associate car front ends with faces)
Hey! I got 13/14. This is astonishing to me, as I had prosopagnosia-type problems well into my early 20s. That has improved a lot, but I’m still mostly unable to recognize an actor who goes undercover in a different role on a tv show.
On the other hand, all of the faces were white-looking, and I am a white person. So the task was a bit easier for me because it was within my racial group.
My technique was to mentally describe every search task face in some way: worried Ryan Gosling, chimp-looking, looks like my cousin’s son, a bit of Russell Crowe, etc.
***
I took the four follow-up tests. I didn’t do extremely well on those–around top 25% of their test-takers. (Although they point out that, due to recruitment bias, this is a better score than top 25% of the general population would indicate.) As I look at the tests and my results, it is clear to me that I am benefiting from my memory skills, not my facial recognition skills.
It is intensive work and takes an hour, but the last three tests are fun. (The first test has you look at 100+ screens, so it becomes tedious.)
I got a 14.
I scored 12 out of 14 with my kids distracting me. I’ve had several friends tell me I should work for the FBI because I never forget a face. Although I am white, I can do this with any race–I think it is because I grew up in a neighborhood and school with an extreme amount of racial diversity. In one blog I remember Renee saying when she meets someone she compares them to someone she already knows (sorry if I’m misquoting, that was the general idea I think)–I do this with faces. The most confusing part of this test for me was they used the same subjects over and over. I’ll try again when my kids are distracted and try the further tests also! Thank you for sharing this fun study!