When I Glance at a Stranger and Spot a Known Individual: Am I a Exceptional Facial Identifier?

Throughout my twenties, I spotted my grandma through the glass of a coffee house. I felt astonished – she had departed the prior year. I stared for a short time, then reminded myself it couldn't possibly be her.

I'd encountered comparable occurrences all through my life. Periodically, I "knew" a person I was unacquainted with. At times I could promptly determine who the stranger looked like – for instance my grandma. Other times, a visage simply had a vague familiarity I couldn't identify.

Exploring the Variety of Face Identification Abilities

Lately, I began questioning if different individuals have these peculiar situations. When I questioned my companions, one commented she often sees persons in random places who look recognizable. Others occasionally mistake a unfamiliar individual or famous person for someone they know in real life. But some described completely different responses – they could effortlessly distinguish people they'd met and people they hadn't.

I felt intrigued by this diversity of experiences. Was it just yearning that made me see my grandma that day – or some kind of cognitive error? Studies has found we spend about 14 minutes of every hour looking at faces – do we just err sometimes? I was beginning to realize that we can all see the same face but not experience the same thing.

Understanding the Range of Facial Recognition Capacities

Scientists have developed many tests to measure the ability to recognize faces. There exists a wide range: at one side are superior face rememberers, who recognize faces they have seen only momentarily or a long time ago; at the other are people with facial agnosia, who often have difficulty to recognize kin, dear acquaintances and even themselves.

Some evaluations also assess how proficient someone is at determining if they have not seen a face before. This is where I think I am deficient. But experts "haven't thoroughly investigated this" as much as they've looked at the skill to recall a face, according to brain researchers. It does seem that the two abilities use separate brain mechanisms; for example, there is proof that superior face rememberers and prosopagnosics do about as well as each other at discerning new faces, despite their vastly dissimilar abilities to recognize old faces.

Completing Face Identification Tests

I felt interested whether these tests would offer understanding on why strangers look known. Was I someone who always remembers a face? I often remember people more than they remember me, and feel let down – a sentiment that experts say is common for exceptional facial identifiers. But maybe I hyper-recognize faces – to the extent that even some new faces look known.

I obtained several facial recognition tests. I completed them, feeling stumped at times. In one, called the facial recall assessment, I had to look at monochrome photos of a face from different viewpoints, then find it in arrays. During another test that directed me to pick out famous people from a mix of photos, many of the faces felt at least familiar, but I couldn't precisely recognize them – comparable to my real-life experience.

I felt uncertain about my performance. But after assessment of my results, I had properly distinguished 96% of the public figure faces. The determination was that I qualified as a "near-exceptional facial identifier".

Grasping Incorrect Identification Frequencies

I also excelled in the known/unknown countenances task, which was described as particularly good for evaluating someone's recall for faces. The test-taker looks at a collection of 60 black-and-white photos, each of a separate face. Then they examine a series of 120 similar photos – the first group plus 60 new faces – and specify which were in the first set. The exceptional facial identifier threshold is roughly 80%; I recalled 78% of the faces I'd seen. On the other side of the range, people with facial agnosia accurately identify an average of 57%.

I felt pleased with my result, but also taken aback. I recalled many of the old faces, but infrequently mistook a unfamiliar countenance for one that I'd seen before. My result on this metric, called the incorrect identification frequency, was 18%. Typical rememberers, super-recognizers and those with facial agnosia all have a incorrect identification frequency of about 30% on average. So why was I mistaking a unfamiliar individual's face for my elderly relative's?

Investigating Possible Reasons

It was proposed that I probably possessed some exceptional facial identifier capacities. Everyone has a inventory of the faces we know in our recall, but superior face rememberers – and likely almost superior rememberers like me – have a fairly substantial and detailed catalogue. We're also probably to distinguish countenances – that is, ascribe traits to each face, such as approachability or rudeness. Studies suggests that the second aspect helps people to develop and commit faces to long-term memory. While differentiating may help me recognize people, it may also trick me into seeing my grandmother in a woman who has a similar air.

In moreover, it was believed I might be "an engaged facial observer", meaning I pay a significant focus to faces. Others may have more false alarm moments, thinking they recognize someone they don't know. But because I tend to look carefully at faces, I am prone to notice the unfamiliar individual who resembles my grandma. Indeed, one acquaintance who said she doesn't make face identification mistakes confessed she doesn't really look at the people around her.

Researching Excessive Recognition for Faces

These tests helped me understand where I positioned on the continuum. But I wanted to understand more about what is happening in the brain when we "identify" unknown people. Investigating further, I read about a disorder called excessive facial recognition (HFF), in which unrecognized faces appear recognizable. Superficially, this sounded like it could relate to me. But the few of recorded occurrences all happened after a medical episode such as a seizure or stroke, unlike the quirk that I've been experiencing my whole mature years.

Through investigative websites, experts have heard from about 24,000 those with facial agnosia, as well as people with all kinds of person recognition difficulties, including sight abnormalities, like when faces appear to be melting. Researchers study many of these people, using tools like the old/new faces task and the Cambridge Face Memory Test.

Experts have heard from only a few of people with possible HFF in extended periods of investigation.

"The occurrence rate is quite low," one expert said of HFF. However, they theorized that there may be a continuum, with some people who think all visages is familiar, and others, like me, who only encounter it a several occasions a month.

{Understanding