Day 2 of Digest Super-week: meet a super-recogniser

For many years psychologists have studied people whose brain damage has impaired their ability to recognise faces. More recently it became clear that there is another group of individuals who are born with this deficit, or develop it early in childhood. Media coverage of this "developmental prosopagnosia" (also known as face-blindness) prompted yet another group of unusual individuals to come forward - they told researchers they didn't have trouble recognising faces, rather they were unusually skilled at it. These are the super-recognisers. Let me introduce you to one of them, Moira Jones: I am a super-recogniser  I have always known that I have the “never forgetting a face thing,” but never for a second thought it had a name, or that when I took one of the recognition tests, I would score the highest ever recorded. It was then, that I thought:  I really want, if possible, to do something with this thing that I had sometimes thought of as an affliction.  Every week I instantly and effortlessly identify people I know I have met a long time ago in a situation of which they have no recollection. I will usually remember instantly where I have seen them before and I often freak them out with this. I've had to learn to keep my recognitions to myself at times or risk coming across as odd. I worked in retail for many years and knew throughout that my ability to remember faces could certainly benefit me in my work. Customers greatly apprecia...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs