Thank you, especially coming from one who has personally sensed how
potentially wide the spectrum of interpretive experience may actually be.
Take some solace if your mind's ear works, as being able to listen to
favorite passages at will is quite handy at times.
Many days, the prosopagnosia doesn't bother me at all. A quick review
of the literature will reveal that many prosopagnosics are very good at
reading other contextual clues surrounding the face. As long as you see
people in expected situations, it is quite likely that you will
recognize them based largely on other than facial cues--and sometimes
even on facial clues if there is a distinctive feature (mole, crooked
nose, etc.).
This type of recognition, however occurs using different parts of the
brain than the super hi-def facial processing center used by the 98% of
the population with normal facial recognition skills. And it is not an
all-or-nothing thing, either, as some people appear to have greater
recognition deficits than others. I tend to be an optimist, and for the
record, I think I recognize most people most of the time.
But, I also fail to recognize them at a higher rate than normal.
~~~~~
A certain part of the brain “allows most people to recognize faces in
more detail than they do similarly complex inanimate objects. For those
with prosopagnosia, the method for recognizing faces depends on the less
sensitive object-recognition system.”
“Prosopagnosics often learn to use "piecemeal" or "feature-by-feature"
recognition strategies. This may involve secondary clues such as
clothing, gait, hair color, skin color, body shape, and voice.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia
~~~~~
“People with developmental prosopagnosia appear to make up the low end
of the distribution of face recognition abilities.”
These people “have never recognized faces normally so their impairment
is often not readily apparent to them. As a result, many developmental
prosopagnosics are unaware of their prosopagnosia even as adults.”
https://www.faceblind.org/research
~~~~~
An interesting sideshoot of learning about prosopagnosia is learning
that many people, even the so-called “liberal” ones tend to distrust the
science here. Some version of “You recognized me, so you can’t really
have it” may rear its head in some Mickey Mouse detectivistic “I gotcha”
kind of moment.
That simply tells me they haven’t grasped the difference between object
recognition and facial recognition. And it is certainly not politically
convenient for many contemporary liberals to acknowledge that a certain
percentage of the population is genetically predisposed to using body
features for identification purposes.
This is not a blanket condemnation of liberalism, BTW, but the
liberalism that initially attracted me back in the 1960s and 1970s
appeared to be much more open minded, and not merely dogma of a
different stripe.
Truly, I recognize people I haven't seen in years if conditions are
right. For example, I recognized an old friend at a grocery store in
Dover after not having seen her for 15 years, in the neighborhood I know
her from, from a passing side/rear view, based largely on her hair style
and eyeglasses, clothing style, and overall height and body shape--which
hadn't changed much in 15 years. That was just a few months into the
COVID thing, and she was wearing a paranoid person's face mask, from
below her chin right up to the base of her eyes.
I recognized another woman I hadn’t seen for 10 years in the same
grocery store, and she lives 40 miles away, but I also know she travels
this way periodically. She is also very tall with long, frizzy red
hair. Duh!
I recognized a professor from UNH walking down the street in Portsmouth,
from 25 feet away, based largely on her hair, gait, posture, and clothing.
I recognized another professor from UNH in a Walmart near her house,
from down the aisle 40 feet away, based largely on location, height, and
hair.
In short, I tend to recognize people more successfully when I see their
whole body, especially in motion, or in a specific familiar context.
This method of identification, however, is slower, nowhere near as
accurate, and is much more likely to fail in passing close-up
situations. It is the difference between object based recognition, and
specific facial based recognition activated in a specific part of the
brain. The latter is faster and more accurate.
Out of context, for example, I walked right by an ex-neighbor loading
his van outside of a shop in York. Walked right by him, looked right at
his face from 2-3 feet away, and the bulb didn’t come on. About 10 feet
past him, he said in a tone of disbelief, “Hey, Ed!” I turned and
looked, probably looking dumbfounded, but still not recognizing him,
until he finally said, “It’s *****.”
Another day, I had a 2 minute conversation with a customer (a different
ex-neighbor) at the L-shaped counter at a store in Biddeford, him on one
side, me on the other. I finished my purchase and started to walk out
of the store, and he said “See you later, Ed” when I passed by him. I
was so startled that he knew my name, I literally jumped, which startled
him, “What the hell are you jumping for?”
And don’t even get me started on how many times I have confused one
person for another. I can’t (or won’t) begin to explain the numerous
dicey situations this has caused, but on a fairly benign level . . .
A few months ago, I started a conversation with a regular delivery
person while was walking toward the vehicle, and was 3-4 sentences into
an ongoing dialogue when I realized this person looked quite puzzled.
In fact, it was not the same delivery person at all. In fact, it wasn't
even a woman, but a man of the same general build and hair color, who
had his hair pulled backed in a similar style ponytail. Oops!
And for every incident I have ever told anybody about, there are
probably 100 more I haven’t. In hindsight, it has likely been the root
of many of my social quirks over the years. I can trace it back to
about 1971.
A few years ago, I think I responded to somebody I once knew fairly well
(saw Pat Metheny with, in the old City Hall Auditorium in Portland) in
an unfamiliar place and didn't recognize him to give him a real friend's
greeting. I spoke to him more politely, like he was a total stranger.
I didn't figure this out until several days later. This person died of
natural causes shortly thereafter, and I never got to explain or
apologize. This one has been a festering oops for years, but I take
some solace in knowing this guy was so easy going that he likely
understood on some level that I was not being maliciously unfriendly.
But, still . . .
Sorry it took so long to respond, but engaging this newsgroup has become
so generally unpleasant in recent years that I actually have to force
myself to do it.
Be well!
Ed