Face Recognition Test [Archive]

Cath B

04 Mar 2009, 11:10 PM

I've long suspected I had very real problems with face recognition (a common trait of folk on the autistic spectrum).

And this test (http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/fgcfmt/fgcfmt_intro.php)
on the faceblind.org (http://www.faceblind.org/) website suggests I may be right.

Anyone else want to try it?

Results

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 37.
In other words, you got 51% correct.

On our previous version of this test, the average person with normal face recognition was able to recognize about 80% of the faces. If you correctly identified less than 65% of the faces, this may indicate face recognition difficulties.

Cath B

04 Mar 2009, 11:16 PM

One of the telltale signs of prosopagnosia is great reliance on non-facial information such as hair, gait, clothing, voice, and other information. Prosopagnosics also sometimes have difficulty imagining the facial appearance of acquaintances. One of the most common complaints of prosopagnosics is that they have trouble following the plot of television shows and movies, because they cannot keep track of the identity of the characters.

From the faceblind website.

Yes to all of these for me.

David B

04 Mar 2009, 11:22 PM

Will try it within the next few days.

Garnet

04 Mar 2009, 11:22 PM

Hmmm. I got 68%. I'm not sure is that speaks more to face recognition or memory problems.

Notta

04 Mar 2009, 11:24 PM

I got 76% correct, and it was much harder than I could have imagined. I don't think I got many correct in the pixleated ones.

I know I have face recognition problems. I constantly meet people who know me but I don't remember them at all. Once they tell me their names, though, I know who they are.

It's the same thing with my former students; I don't ever remember their faces, just their names.

Notta

04 Mar 2009, 11:25 PM

One of the telltale signs of prosopagnosia is great reliance on non-facial information such as hair, gait, clothing, voice, and other information. Prosopagnosics also sometimes have difficulty imagining the facial appearance of acquaintances. One of the most common complaints of prosopagnosics is that they have trouble following the plot of television shows and movies, because they cannot keep track of the identity of the characters.
Absolutely! When the pixelated ones removed facial hair styles, I was almost completely lost.

If I lose track of a TV movie, I can't remember who's who in it.

Garnet

04 Mar 2009, 11:36 PM

On the famous faces test, I scored 93%.

I think I have memory problems, not face recognition problems.

Garnet

04 Mar 2009, 11:37 PM

Uh oh...I found this site through a link:

http://www.testmybrain.org/

There goes my evening....

Christina

04 Mar 2009, 11:39 PM

I got 66 out of 72 right. This is probably weird but I matched most of them by recognizing the gut feeling I got from the looks in their eyes. That's probably not what it was trying to test.

Mediancat

05 Mar 2009, 12:39 AM

52/72. Not bad.

Rob

Lisa0315

05 Mar 2009, 12:59 AM

72/74

Goldie

05 Mar 2009, 01:04 AM

I guess I don't have a problem. On famous faces I got 100%

Goldie

05 Mar 2009, 01:21 AM

WOW! 100% on the memory one as well! :)

Gooch's Dad

05 Mar 2009, 01:48 AM

I got 93% of the faces.

Goldie

05 Mar 2009, 02:08 AM

Anne

05 Mar 2009, 02:58 AM

Good for you. Every advantage helps, if you can use it.

Results

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 53.
In other words, you got 74% correct.

On our previous version of this test, the average person with normal face recognition was able to recognize about 80% of the faces. If you correctly identified less than 65% of the faces, this may indicate face recognition difficulties.

Thalia Thinks

05 Mar 2009, 04:46 AM

I got 49 right, which is 68%.

I can't believe I did that well. They all looked the same to me.

Thalia Thinks

05 Mar 2009, 04:56 AM

73% on the famous face one.

Cath B

05 Mar 2009, 08:02 AM

I am friggin' amazed that I got 100% I thought the celeb one was more difficult than the memorizing the faces. I finished that with wicked speed. I thought it was easy.
Guess I finally found something I'm good at.
(Whoopty dee shit!) ;)

I'd have expected you to do well in this Goldie because you've struck me as someone with an instinct for relating to people.

I suspect this is relevant in some way.

David B

05 Mar 2009, 09:56 AM

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 56.
In other words, you got 78% correct.

On our previous version of this test, the average person with normal face recognition was able to recognize about 80% of the faces. If you correctly identified less than 65% of the faces, this may indicate face recognition difficulties.

David

nygreenguy

05 Mar 2009, 12:28 PM

93% for the faces.

Christina

05 Mar 2009, 10:18 PM

For those of you that also scored highly, what is it that you're doing as you try to memorize their faces so that you can recognize them? Are you breaking it down into facial features and components to look for or are you going from a general impression or doing something else?

I remembered most of them as "the angry guy', 'the mean guy', 'the guy with the look in his eyes like Applewhite from Heaven's Gate", 'the player type'. There was one I thought of as 'chipmunk cheeks" but I couldn't have described any other difference in facial features if I had to. I wasn't memorizing them as much as characterizing them from a personality trait that I attributed to them.

lpetrich

06 Mar 2009, 12:51 AM

I got 71% of the faces correct, lower than the average of 80% but higher than their face-recognition-difficulty threshold of 65%.

ETA: In the celebrity face-recognition test, I got 72% correct. This is lower than the average of 85% but higher than their face-recognition-difficulty of about 50%.

I was familiar with about 60% of those celebrities.

Christina

06 Mar 2009, 01:11 AM

I didn't bother with the celebrity ones. If it depends on my knowing who they are, I won't.

Goldie

06 Mar 2009, 01:24 AM

I'd have expected you to do well in this Goldie because you've struck me as someone with an instinct for relating to people.

I suspect this is relevant in some way.

I just tested again while my friend , Alicia, watched on and played. She was amazed by how fast I chose them and I got NONE wrong and I was as fast as I could possibly move. I thought I would get at least a couple wrong because I was going so fast, but no.
She couldn't believe it. She wasn't keeping up.

BWE

06 Mar 2009, 01:30 AM

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 63.
In other words, you got 88% correct.

Puck

06 Mar 2009, 03:06 AM

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 55.
In other words, you got 76% correct.

huh. I would have thought I'd have done worse.

Cath B

06 Mar 2009, 06:28 AM

Comparing my scores with the rest of you it seems as though I've been functioning like a colour blind person who doesn't realise it and has no allowance made for being colour blind. I didn't realise I was so far off the scales.

Maybe I'd have done better if I'd tried harder (I rushed through it rather, it was late at night and I was tired) but I appear to have little instinct for this.

I am however good at voice recognition and good at remembering conversations - though not always who they were with.

When the Christmas Cards arrive I usually know who they are from by the handwriting without thinking about it - this used to mystify my husband.

But I now suspect even more than I did that my problems with face recognition has had an impact on my sociability - and/or there is an association with another factor which affected both.

Thalia Thinks

06 Mar 2009, 06:28 PM

I didn't do good but much better than I thought I would.

What I did was compare a face to one I already knew. I think that is the only reason I scored as high as I did.

My hubby is great at voice recognition. You'd be surprised at how many voice overs on commercials are celebs. He will call it every time. I'll look it up and sure enough, he's right.

Cath B

06 Mar 2009, 07:41 PM

What I did was compare a face to one I already knew. I think that is the only reason I scored as high as I did.

That's impressive. But none of them reminded me of anyone I knew.

A couple of the faces had (to me) distinguishing features though but I had to consciously recall them.

One had a chubby lower cheeks and one had a delicate face and thick eyebrows.

Cath B

06 Mar 2009, 07:44 PM

Do Febble or Don Alhambra have any comments to make?

Christina

06 Mar 2009, 07:52 PM

Cath B

06 Mar 2009, 09:46 PM

There was one I thought of as 'chipmunk cheeks" but I couldn't have described any other difference in facial features if I had to.

I remember that one!

Though I didn't use the terminology.

melodious

06 Mar 2009, 11:09 PM

That was fun, I had a little trouble with the grainy ones.

Results

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 69.
In other words, you got 96% correct.

Goldie

06 Mar 2009, 11:47 PM

That is a good score, melodious. Maybe that's why we get along so well. ;)

Puck

07 Mar 2009, 01:04 AM

I wish they would. I want to know specifically what most people do to memorize facial features. So far Thalia is the closest to what sounds normal to me (sorry about that Thalia ;) ), but I'm not sure whether everyone else is focusing on individual features or getting a general impression that they remember.

I had about three of them that I mentally marked. Elfin guy, chubby jowls and one with heavy eyebrow ridges. The rest I just used 'gut instinct'.

BWE

07 Mar 2009, 06:13 AM

I did it as fast as I could type 123.

I draw. I think it helps.

Goldie

07 Mar 2009, 06:11 PM

I can draw faces... and nothing else.

I suppose that might be the reason why I could draw them.

It is the only thing that I can draw correctly, and I've had no training. i just love people's faces.
I am always saying bella faccia to Bumpy.

darjeeling

07 Mar 2009, 10:38 PM

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 69.
In other words, you got 96% correct.

:dunno:

LoneWolf

08 Mar 2009, 08:36 AM

I got 100% on the anonymous faces one but scored below average on the famous faces. That doesn't surprise me much. I have no problems remembering faces, it is placing them I have difficulties with.

Rie

14 Mar 2010, 10:37 PM

Oh blast! I have to go and wake up daughter who is suffering badly from depression and 'broken heart' syndrome so I can't do the test. I will when I come home.
But knowing myself in this area I 'never forget a face'. It's true.

Free in Freeport

15 Mar 2010, 12:18 AM

Glad you resurrected it. I got 65%.

Garnet

15 Mar 2010, 12:38 AM

It's funny looking at this again after a year. I took the test again and this time I got 72%. I notice that last year I was protesting it was a memory problem.

I no longer think so. I scored 65% on the celebrity test and what clinched it for me that I have a problem with face recognition is that I missed Barack Obama. YIKES!

darjeeling

15 Mar 2010, 02:45 AM

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 69.
In other words, you got 96% correct.

:dunno:

Out of 72 faces, you correctly identified 70.
In other words, you got 97% correct.

Basically the same.