I had an interesting case of momentary face blindness once. It was unnerving. I was elbowing my way through a very busy bar area (it was early and I had just started drinking) and eventually there was a person in front of me who started going to the left just when I went left, and vice versa, as often happens when you walk in a crowded place. After a few left/right attempts I suddenly realized that the person was, in fact, myself, and that I had reached a mirror that covered the entire end of the room. (The bar's bouncer was standing behind me and had watched the whole thing and was laughing very hard.)
The thing is, since I did not expect to see myself, I did not recognize myself. I believe that for one brief moment I truly saw myself as other people see me. We go through our lives being so psychologically connected to our outer selves, and being briefly disconnected feels very spooky.
This reminds of a fascinating book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks.
One of the most interesting stories is about a man who lost his ability to intuitively recognize things and needs to reason about their features to find out what they are.
This is my shoe, no?
No, it is not. That is your foot. There is your shoe.
Ah! I thought that was my foot.
Currently reading Hallucinations. His coverage of such bizarre conditions as Akinetopsia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akinetopsia) make his books great reads for the casually curious and really make it concrete how much of our reality is formed primarily in our heads.
I'm mildly face blind. Generally speaking it doesn't cause any problems - occasionally I spend the first 25 minutes of films wondering who is who and what's going on, and having missed the opening of The Departed I watched most of the film thinking Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg were the same person.
However, there have also been some excruciatingly embarrassing situations where I've re-introduced myself (or ignored) people I actually know, although typically I've only met them a couple of times. Bizarrely, I'm worst with caucasian blonde women.
I think I am a bit face-blind too, and it seems to be mostly with women as well. I'm almost completely thrown off when a woman does a complete makeover. I find myself flustered by actresses quite often, having almost no idea if I should know who this person in the film is or not.
I can usually tell the difference between the various actresses in the same film, but across films I definitely have trouble.
But I have had trouble with some films that have multiple young brunette male actors (in their 20s to early 30s). There's been more than one movie where I didn't realize two different characters were two characters until it was almost over (or one of them died and the other kept on kicking). A second watching usually gets me sorted out.
I frequently weirded out by people who can look at a random candid photo of a famous person in a disguise and know who it is. The folks who work at TMZ blow me away.
There's this "mirror test" [1] where they put animals in front of a mirror. If they recognize themselves, they are considered to be aware of themselves.
This woman is either not aware of herself or her condition is a strong indicator that the mirror test might not be such a good idea at all. Definitely an interesting implication.
I've always considered The Mirror Test a deeply flawed experiment because it relies on a number of assumptions that are difficult (in my non-expert opinion at least) to guarantee.
For examples, babies are tested with a sticker, it's assumed that a baby's lack of motivation to remove the aforementioned sticker is proof that they baby is not yet self aware. Yet that's assuming that the child isn't just curious about his or her own appearance (as at that age they might not be familiar with their own image) so that the sticker is inconsequential to them.
Honest question: These guys mention using the results for research. They must know they are skewing their results quite significantly by singling out anyone who is a) aware that the result of this test can be embarrasing b) not comfortable linking their name to such a test with?
I'd guess according to this test face blindness is far less common than previously assumed : )
I just got two out of 18 that I was familiar with, but I'm not sure whether I was supposed to spend time thinking about it. Sometimes I was sure that I recognised the face, but couldn't place it, and said that I didn't know without really trying.
There were a few that I got wrong after thinking I knew it, and one that I got wrong after rejecting the correct answer as a hypothesis.
V gubhtug Ovyy Pyvagba jnf Fgrira Frntny; Wvz Pneerl jnf gur thl sebz Gur Fuvavat; Tnauqv jnf Rvafgrva; naq V qrpvqrq Znetrerg Gungpure jnf cebonoyl abg Znetrerg Gungpure. Ohg V tbg Xrnah Errirf naq Trbetr Ohfu.
"The researchers, led by Ken Nakayama and Richard Russell at Harvard and Bradley Duchaine at University College London, have found evidence that prosopagnosia, once thought to be exceedingly rare, may affect up to 2 percent of the population – suggesting that millions of people may be face-blind."
I am not only mildly face blind, I sometimes just can't recall names. I had the face test and I just realized that I had forgotten the name of lead actor of Rocky (S. Stallone), Ex- President of USA, Saturday Night Live star, Taxi Driver's Lead actor and what not.
I remember being in a very interactive week-long seminar where one of the 30 participants was a white guy with a beard. A few days into it I realized he was two guys. Just before the end of the week I realized he was (at least) three guys.
There's a really good scifi short story about something called calliagnosia, by Ted Chiang. (Calliagnosia is a condition in which a person can not recognize beauty in a persons face. Not sure whether it was invented for the story or not.)
This post creeps me out just a little bit, because I watched "Faces in the Crowd" last night (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536410/), and I have never even heard of face blindness before. Waking up and checking HN to see this post is slightly spooky. That is all. Oh, and I personally wouldn't recommend the movie.
Stories like these leave me dwelling on what the majority of the population may fail to notice due to hard-wiring. For example: a small percentage of people see a wider range of color than average.
Does "situational blindness" or "system-level blindness" exist on a neurological level?
I wonder if it is possible to train people with such condition to successfully recognize faces.
I have some difficulties recognizing faces(not nearly as huge as describe in the article), and I think my ability improved during last couple of years.
It's a survivor behavior. Recognize weak and strong elements in the group. Recognize safe places and easy to hunt animals.
Recognizing things is the essence of good decision making. And decision making is the essence of life.
So, yes, the odd for recognizing anything from a gigantic bunch of proteins, water, and subtle mix of heterogeneous chemicals, are very little. But, considering billions of year of billions of dices running, probability was high, don't you think ?
[+] [-] lobster_johnson|13 years ago|reply
The thing is, since I did not expect to see myself, I did not recognize myself. I believe that for one brief moment I truly saw myself as other people see me. We go through our lives being so psychologically connected to our outer selves, and being briefly disconnected feels very spooky.
[+] [-] pbo|13 years ago|reply
One of the most interesting stories is about a man who lost his ability to intuitively recognize things and needs to reason about their features to find out what they are.
Whole excerpt here: http://www.odysseyeditions.com/EBooks/Oliver-Sacks/The-Man-W...[+] [-] ryanmolden|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lobster_johnson|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexholehouse|13 years ago|reply
However, there have also been some excruciatingly embarrassing situations where I've re-introduced myself (or ignored) people I actually know, although typically I've only met them a couple of times. Bizarrely, I'm worst with caucasian blonde women.
[+] [-] bane|13 years ago|reply
I can usually tell the difference between the various actresses in the same film, but across films I definitely have trouble.
But I have had trouble with some films that have multiple young brunette male actors (in their 20s to early 30s). There's been more than one movie where I didn't realize two different characters were two characters until it was almost over (or one of them died and the other kept on kicking). A second watching usually gets me sorted out.
I frequently weirded out by people who can look at a random candid photo of a famous person in a disguise and know who it is. The folks who work at TMZ blow me away.
[+] [-] WA|13 years ago|reply
This woman is either not aware of herself or her condition is a strong indicator that the mirror test might not be such a good idea at all. Definitely an interesting implication.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test
[+] [-] laumars|13 years ago|reply
For examples, babies are tested with a sticker, it's assumed that a baby's lack of motivation to remove the aforementioned sticker is proof that they baby is not yet self aware. Yet that's assuming that the child isn't just curious about his or her own appearance (as at that age they might not be familiar with their own image) so that the sticker is inconsequential to them.
[+] [-] kaybe|13 years ago|reply
http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/
[+] [-] eitland|13 years ago|reply
I'd guess according to this test face blindness is far less common than previously assumed : )
[+] [-] philh|13 years ago|reply
There were a few that I got wrong after thinking I knew it, and one that I got wrong after rejecting the correct answer as a hypothesis.
V gubhtug Ovyy Pyvagba jnf Fgrira Frntny; Wvz Pneerl jnf gur thl sebz Gur Fuvavat; Tnauqv jnf Rvafgrva; naq V qrpvqrq Znetrerg Gungpure jnf cebonoyl abg Znetrerg Gungpure. Ohg V tbg Xrnah Errirf naq Trbetr Ohfu.
[+] [-] shail|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gems|13 years ago|reply
How is that confusing? Not recognizing her own face is a special case.
[+] [-] terolacu|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JOfferijns|13 years ago|reply
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/06/face-blindness...
"Recently, a hereditary sub-type of congenital prosopagnosia with a very high prevalence rate of 2.5% has been identified."
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/174866407X231001/...
[+] [-] emiliobumachar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shubhamjain|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] auctiontheory|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] canadev|13 years ago|reply
Here is a crappy PDF of it: http://www.clarku.edu/welcome/placement/pdf/reading.pdf
I'd suggest picking an anthology with the story up if it interests you. I read it in "Best of Scifi 2002" or something like that.
[+] [-] dylanz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frankiejr|13 years ago|reply
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417242n
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417240n
[+] [-] thirdtruck|13 years ago|reply
Does "situational blindness" or "system-level blindness" exist on a neurological level?
[+] [-] ThomPete|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eatitraw|13 years ago|reply
I have some difficulties recognizing faces(not nearly as huge as describe in the article), and I think my ability improved during last couple of years.
[+] [-] DigitalTurk|13 years ago|reply
Witness how many people report being unable to distinguish people from ethnicities that they're not used to interacting with.
[+] [-] cristianpascu|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mackwic|13 years ago|reply
Recognizing things is the essence of good decision making. And decision making is the essence of life.
So, yes, the odd for recognizing anything from a gigantic bunch of proteins, water, and subtle mix of heterogeneous chemicals, are very little. But, considering billions of year of billions of dices running, probability was high, don't you think ?
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
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