A Guide Dog for the Face-Blind | Hacker News Reader

A Guide Dog for the Face-Blind

asimov.blog

32 pointsarto28 comments

Open articleView on HN

> The test shows famous people with these features removed

Article links to this test: https://www.testmybrain.org/face-blindness/face-blindness.ht...

But this isn't the "famous faces" test.

I think they meant to link to this one: https://v3.testmybrain.org/digitallab/?study=digitallab_s4_2...

That website does some funny stuff with sessions.

Crikey, you're right. Thanks for that.

> Stunned, I said, “Wait—tell me about this,” and he proceeded to explain prosopagnosia.

Tangentially related: As a nearsighted kid--and unaware of it--I would mentally catalogue what color clothes my friends were wearing in the morning so that I could improve my odds of finding them during outdoor recess.

Naturally, the first time I got glasses: "Holy Moly you mean everybody sees like this!?"

> "You scored higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test"

Oh no. This explains some things.

I'm right there with you.

I am and it sucks. Very limiting socially. I can’t even reliably differentiate my parents from similar looking people beyond 10ft or so.

For most people the only thing I can really use are things like distinctive hair or tattoos.

Context is also very important. Back when I still worked in a office I eventually learned the people I interacted with at work, but if I saw them in, say, a store dressed casually I probably wouldn’t recognize them, or at least not be sure enough it was them to approach.

(BTW, face blindness is another one of those things that tends to co-occur with autism. )

We ought to start a movement and push for a law requiring everyone to have their forehead barcoded. ;)

I had a flatmate with this at university. On campus he'd totally blank me (different departments), like I'd left something awful in the sink. At home Hey y'alright how's it going like nothing had happened. Bit weird, but you get used to it.

(Basically I just learnt to ignore him out of context too. It was only politeness that would otherwise incline me to acknowledge someone like that, so if they don't recognise me that just doesn't really apply, no need.)

I think prosapagnosia is more common than people think. I thought I was just kinda dumb/incompetent for years before I learned it was A Thing.

Once you understand it there are quite a few coping mechanisms. I recognize people by their gait, voice, and clothing in addition to the glasses, hair etc that the author mentions.

I do think mine is somehow improving. I still scored badly but tbh I'm not really into celebrities so about half of them I either haven't heard of or I know about but have seen very seldom.

Your score ....................... 23

Average score .................. 30.87

You scored higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test: >

> I'm not really into celebrities

I don't understand how that factors in. It said my score was 34/40 but really it was 34/35. The rest I didn't know and I selected that I didn't know them.

There was a different test for famous faces that was linked in a comment later (which had an average of 30.87). Based on your response and score you likely took the first test with the computer generated faces.

Your score ....................... 27 Average score .................. 30.87

You scored higher than two out of every ten people who took this test:

24 is good for tenth percentile, FWIW.

I do use hair, glasses, etc., but the flip side is that they are variable, whereas gait and voice are much harder to change. Good luck picking out Gary Oldman if you don't know he's in a movie; the man is a damned chameleon.

I knew most of the celebrities by name (there were a few complete whiffs and a few whose name I know but honestly have no idea what they look like - e.g., Cristiano Ronaldo). And most of the pairs looked nearly identical; in effect, my compensating technique was spotting the computer-generated image (which, based on my score, isn't all that effective).

>Anyone reading War and Peace will need at the very least a list of characters

Indeed, I almost gave up on it for that reason. Great story but does the character really need 6+ different ways to refer to them. "Too Like the Lightning" and its sequels are also great but Ada Palmer suffers from same of the same desires to refer to characters in far too many different ways to keep up with. That said, I also scored poorly on the face blindness test so maybe it's a cognitive inability keep up with too many names on my part.

Glad to see I wasn't the only one with that problem with the Terra Ignota series. I describe them to people as "my least favorite favorite books" since they're quite good, but infuriating to read.

Brandon Sanderson is another who has started to dip into this well and it's annoying there, too. Do I really have to remember that this character is named this amongst this group of people and named another thing amongst another group of people? Often, it's never even really explicitly stated that these two characters are the same and you end up having to refer to some wiki that probably has spoilers just because you find yourself wondering "am I supposed to know who this is?"

I think it's quite excusable in Russian novels, since that seems to be the natural way people address(ed?) each other in different contexts in Russian culture. A fantasy novel has little excuse though.

I'm looking at you, Tolkien.

I'm the author of the posted article, and I am currently reading Brian Sanderson's latest Stormlight novel and suffering from character/name overload (doesn't help that I read the previous book years ago).

I also spent many years in Russia, where I noticed that they have few names (just a dozen or so common ones for each sex) but a gazillion variations, depending on context (e.g. family, friends, work). My theory is that under Stalin, you didn't want to stick out, and a boring name like Natalya Ivanovna was less likely to be noticed and remembered. Your trusted friends could have some unique nickname for you, like Natulya. But I never read War & Peace--it sounds like the naming practice predates Stalin. My Russian daughter is currently reading the book, so I'll have to discuss it with her.

I scored 40/40 on the celebrities test. It was very easy for me and I never had a doubt.

My wife scored much lower.

Also, I have met and noticed many celebrities (including Tony Hawk, who is famously hard to differentiate.) Whereas my wife has met very few. It's surely related - she may have walked past just as many famous people as I have, but she wasn't aware of it.

Holy crap! I'd say that there is probably a job for you in policing or intelligence, but it will probably be replaced by AI.

BTW, last night I watched the 1953 film "From Here to Eternity", and had no idea it was starring Burt Lancaster.

I commented about my experiences of Prosopagnosia in this recent HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44484595#44487570

I'd probably be lying to claim actual face-blindness, but I just suck at establishing that face<>identity matchup in the 'remote work' world, and in highly sporadic social situations. For instance, I have attended probably 20 social occasions with my friend Greg in the past decade, and usually at least 8 of a cast of 15 of his circle are at each event. But these events are like 6 months apart and I never see any of these people any other time. To this day I only am confident I can properly put a name to face with 25% of those people, the ones who are especially distinctive looking to me.

It's embarrassing.

I've long felt that I am face blind. I took the face blindness test with my girlfriend.

I scored right in the middle, but she scored better than nine out of every ten people. How about that!

Sometimes we learn we’re just fortunate to be mediocre amongst remarkable people.

The actor Brad Pitt has openly talked about his prosopagnosia. I wonder if it helps him focus on facial expressions more easily? As in, most people might see "Margot Robbie is staring at me, holy shit" whereas Pitt sees "This woman is giving me FACS AU12 and AU6", which is easier to model and respond to.

Can anybody who has the condition chime in?

I'm subjectively terrible at recognizing faces but scored significantly better than the average test taker on the recognition test (https://www.testmybrain.org/face-blindness/face-blindness.ht...). There must be some selection effects among the test takers.

I scored worse than average on the celebrity faces test, but I chalk that up to be largely oblivious about pop culture.

Is it just me or this sounds like a solarpunk book title?

I didn't know that was a thing. ;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com