One prosaic reason why lots of people like Russell forget stuff is because they have lots they have to remember – they often forget about same percentage of material as everyone else but that turns out to be rather a lot in absolute terms.

I just wish I knew why…

1. The face is familiar but you can't put a name to it

2. The face is unfamiliar (looks like a stranger)

I get both. But I take your point that it might be influenced by the sheer number of things I'm processing a lot of the time.…

More random research findings: people's self-ratings of their face recognition abilities have no relationship to their actual performance on lab face recognition tasks.
Does this mean people who think they are good at face-recognition are actually not so good? Or people who think they are crap are…

most research shows that women are better at recognising women's faces than men but no better at recognising men's faces
How does that work? – please say more, Stephen

I don't think anyone really knows – I certainly haven't seen a convincing explanation in the literature. Some speculate…

Ah.
Philphilia

You have fullphiled all my expectations

I know someone who only goes out with guys called Phil for that very reason.

Ah.

Philphilia

So while I share the name-loss symptoms described by many above, I'm not actually on the Brown Syndrome Spectrum. I really am just a rude prick...

I'll forget the face, but I might remember an impressive rack.

Fnarr Fnarr
I got 65% on that test and I think I was guessing most of the time, hell, they all looked bald to me.

Allied to this: parenthood. I rang my oldest mate a few months after my daughter was born, we've known each other since before we could talk: his partner answered the phone and I'm having to say 'Is...umm... there?' Total brain freeze.

Yup – first 18 months of my youngest's existance…

I somewhat facetiously wrote good at faces and names but crap at putting them together. But on the unknown faces I got 67/72 and on the famous faces 12/30. I knew every one of the famous faces just could not find the name for…

Possibly a case of sustained substance use/abuse coming home to roost?

I blame several things in my own case, but not that (strongest thing I've ever taken was No Doz. The times on Wombat Weed I can count on...OK I'd probably get to the second set of toes but only…

To assuage my vanity, I'd like to able to infer that my 88% result in that test supported my original premise that I was good at facial recognition... Mebbe not?

I got the same score but have always thought I was hopeless at recognition... I'm not sure what to make…

Possibly a case of sustained substance use/abuse coming home to roost?

I can blaim a number of my failings on that... but name and face recognition is not one of them... I have always been crap at it. In fact I suspect I am getting slightly better as I get…

Oh say, what do you guys do when someone you don't know (or don't recognise perhaps) taps you on Facebook?

Oh you accept them (coz you don't want to appear like a complete arse if by chance you do know them), check out their profile, reliase you have no idea…

it doesn't explain the name disability that many of us seem to have.

Could I hazard the opinion that it may have something to do with the fact that many of the PAS community are, broadly speaking, social liberals and, ahem, not-so-young any more?

Possibly a case of sustained substance…

More random research findings: people's self-ratings of their face recognition abilities have no relationship to their actual performance on lab face recognition tasks.

Does this mean people who think they are good at face-recognition are actually not so good? Or people who think they are crap are actually…

Quite often I will recognise a face and rack

I'll forget the face, but I might remember an impressive rack.

1. The face is familiar but you can't put a name to it
2. The face is unfamiliar (looks like a stranger)

I'm absolutely the 1st. I often go to a pub quiz, and the other week they put up a photo of Rosa Parks and the date of her…

2. The face is unfamiliar (looks like a stranger)

That's me (not the stranger but the bad memory for faces thingy)
Quite often I will recognise a face and rack (sp?) my brain for a name only to discover that I…

What a skill to have if you are a leader trying to inspire followers.

Apparently Richard Seddon had an incredible memory for people. On his electioneering tours of the country, he'd see people he'd met once a year ago, and ask how their kids/business/whatever they'd talked about back then was…

Remembering number sequences used to be soooo easy... with the advent of cell phones I'm totally deprogrammed. Seriously, I used to have the photographic memory for phone numbers, whether they were spoken aloud or written down.

I know exactly what you mean. My solution is that the programmed in numbers…

Oh say, what do you guys do when someone you don't know (or don't recognise perhaps) taps you on Facebook?

Oh that one is easy. I don't have a Facebook account, or a MySpace or a Bebo or any 'social networking' site account. That helps a lot.

However I did…

I also recognise facial patterns (or what are patterns to me) seeing someone and thinking I know them, but later realising they've just got the same sort of face.

Also, I used to be in customer services (in a bank, actually) and I'd find myself at a…

i wish I worked in an area where people hand out business cards too. That would help I think.

One prosaic reason why lots of people like Russell forget stuff is because they have lots they have to remember – they often forget about same percentage of material as everyone else but that turns out to be rather a lot in absolute terms.

That rings true, and for me…

most research shows that women are better at recognising women's faces than men but no better at recognising men's faces

How does that work? – please say more, Stephen.

1. The face is familiar but you can't put a name to it
2. The face is unfamiliar (looks like a stranger)

Number 1 is…

She doesn't go out with more than one Phil at a time, guys. Jeez, you make her sound like a phil-popper

nice. u brought it all the way back around to 'she speeds'.

Sue Moroney, the…

I wonder if chicks' faces (ahem female) are any different for visual recollection?

Unfortunately, some part of my brain then learns a new rule "whenever you see the J person, your natural instinct for her name is wrong." So then I start to say the right name and then correct myself and clearly and confidently say the wrong…

Because unless you play for the Bulldogs or are a cop in the BoP in the 80s there should, usually, be only one other person in the room.

So what’s point? To give the indication there are hundreds of other people in the room, but you’ve chosen…

when I see someone write "Well, Josh, what I think is that..." online, my initial reaction is that they're being condescending, even though on a forum like this you often have to make it explicit who your comments are directed at.

Well, Josh, that's exactly what I do and I…

Things also get a bit weird when you can remember someone's screen name, but not real name. And following some murder…

So all three of us respond to Fred. Collectively we're "the Freds". So over the weekend you possibly could have heard…

I knew a guy whose substitute generic term was "rooter" for men and "chick" for women. e.g. "Gidday, rooter!"

Bob Clarkson?

I knew a guy whose substitute…

Most of the time if I'm contacted by someone I don't think I know on Facebook it's because…

"Hey there, Hitler!"

No, wait – not that last one.

If in doubt I always use "Rumpelstiltskin".

"Hey there, tiger!"

"Hey there, sport!"

"Hey there, champ!"

"Hey there, Hitler!"

No, wait – not that last one.

So now I have many conversations like this:

Person: Hi, Robyn!
Me: Hi.

Oh god, me too

Me three. Originally it was a covering mechanism, but these days I just find calling someone by their first name weird for some reason. Unless I actually need to call someone by their…

party host: "hi che"

person with Brown's Syndrome: "hey there tiger'

Or..
Party Host: Mate,
Brown Syndrome: Mate.

So now I have many conversations like this:

Person: Hi, Robyn!
Me: Hi.

Oh god, me too, even with people I should be able to greet by name. Although tend to go for "Hi!" rather than "Hi."

it could be the main marker of Brown's Syndrome.

party host: "hi che"

person with Brown's Syndrome: "hey there tiger'

Unfortunately, some part of my brain then learns a new rule "whenever you see…

Page 152 Gordon McLauchlan’s biography A Life’s Sentences.

“Most of the best writers have rich vocabularies, not the least that remarkable children’s writer Margaret Mahy. I was having breakfast with her…

So now I have many conversations like this:

Person: Hi, Robyn!
Me: Hi.

it's the spelling

What's the bet that the clerk who used to send incomprehensible Parliamentary Questions from the Office of Muriel Newman is now tasked with drafting the campaign billboards.

Mr Llewellyn will tell you that I called him Steve

I still get people calling me Alistair – I presume my old varsity mate Alistair Underwood still has people call him Andrew :)

PS – we (all the Mr Llewellyns who post here) have an uncle called Steve.

So WTF goes wrong with live people???

Pretty good with faces.

Really crap at connecting the correct name to the face.

But mostly I think the problem is I am not that worried about it, I don't mind looking like a dick because I have to ask someone's name – again.

Oh and…

i had a terrible time once when I would often be showing a new volunteer around the office and introducing them to people. I used to get to one particular person – Paul – and, for some reason, I would suddenly…

And the name-shame is even worse because most people I meet remember my name...it being a little unusual and all.

I asked, and then introduced him to the person I was with as John Kelcher.....It was in fact, John Collie...

A couple of tips:
1. go for first names only it reduces the chances of looking like a dickhead by 50%
2. Try something like "do you guys know each…

The only thing I am crap at remembering is jokes. I hear loads of good ones and am rubbish…

...sometimes I just make a dick of myself.

In the faceblind test I scored 88% on unknown faces and 97% on famous faces (Tony Blair threw me)

I got the same result on the famous faces. I wanted a back button to go back and look at it again, because it didn't look a bit like him. Maybe…

I've even forgotten what ACT stands for – ah, Association of C*ts and Tw*s – that's the one.

I tried to cover my difficulty with name recall by trying…

I just tell people when I don't recognise them for the third or fourth time to get an angle, you know, a hat or a lisp or something.

Brilliant! I think i'll try that 'technique'.

just tell people when I don't recognise them for the third or fourth time to get an angle, you know, a hat or a…

I drive my wife batty by recognising bit-part actors in movies and letting her know what other films they have also been bit-part actors in.

We must never allow our wives to meet & compare notes.

Be grateful,

Fortunately MY fiancée has a distinctive name (she's Polish) that makes it rather unforgettable

That would also quite handy if you had a particular condition where you found vowels hard to remember.

97% on famous faces (Tony Blair threw me)

Exactly the same for me. That didn't look at all like Tony Blair!

I drive my wife batty by recognising bit-part actors in movies and letting her know what other films they have also been bit-part actors in.

In some perverse act of nature, though I forget the names of actual people I meet, like Evan I can remember actors, directors, and film…

The XDCD cartoon Names always makes me smile in this regard:

http://xkcd.com/302/

Fortunately MY…

political correctioness

Excellent, tpying dslyexia strikes agin...

You store faces…

I'm terrible with names. I'm not sure I try properly – perhaps if we all did that American repeating-peoples names back as often as possible thing it would help.

Alternatively, we could pursue a technological fix. The Romans had one, in the form of a slave who had to remember…

Given how many fellow-sufferers are here, perhaps this condition is a trait of the sort of people who belong…

Is eradicating political correctioness going to help law and order in NZ in any way

You misunderstand. It's in the law and order policy because they mean to make it a criminal offence.

Really?

To my mind if it's not diagnosable it's just a personality.

I can admit a prejudice that every…

Do what I do, Russell...

"You introduce yourselves while I get the drinks" and then listen in.

Fortunately as a former waiter I don't tend…

I got thinking about this when…

National are promising 'ultra-fast' broadband, and apparently fibre to the home for lots of us.

But what is their definition of 'ultra-fast'?

100 Mbs?

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php

I got 50% on new faces, 80% on famous (therefore familiar) faces, which made a lot of sense (80% and over is "normal"). I still occasionally blank on familiar faces -…

Really?

yeah, but mostly i put it down to some type of unexplained connection. like maybe an unexplained propensity that can lead to ASD children.

i remember having a discussion with keith and david hayward where we couldn't work out how you're able to process information off the web as…

However I do seem to have vaguely mastered the act of introducing someone who's name I…

but i've always thought you to be somewhere on the spectrum there, mr. brown.

Really? Like every parent of ASD kids, I do think about it. But I have decidedly non-autistic traits too. "Neurodiverse" might be a better description.

There is a saying that we are all a bit autistic these days – although I imagine those on the spectrum would object to us all jumping on their bandwagon.

amen.

that said, i'm *completely useless* with remembering names. even members of my family. and i'm certain i'm not autistic,…

Russell, that facial recognition things sounds interestingly autistic.

I do wonder ... but ...

although I imagine those on the spectrum would object to us all jumping on their bandwagon.

Then I think about that.

There…