Posted on 01/15/2022 4:05:10 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Police employ them and scientists study them, but what is life like for the rare few who can never forget a face? Super-recogniser Yenny Seo didn’t think it was anything special
As a child, Yenny Seo often surprised her mother by pointing out a stranger in the grocery store, remarking it was the same person they passed on the street a few weeks earlier. Likewise, when they watched a movie together, Seo would often recognise “extras” who’d appeared fleetingly in other films.
Once, while working at a part-time job at a clothing store when she was at uni, Seo had cause to show her skill. Staff were shown grainy, hard-to-decipher CCTV footage of a habitual shoplifter; the next time this person entered the shop, Seo instantly recognised them, and alerted the security guard. “I knew I must have some kind of skill, but I still didn’t think it was anything special, because I just had so many instances like that happen.”
Because it’s such a rare phenomenon, in 2017 White and his colleagues at UNSW designed a publicly available online screening tool to try to unearth the world’s best super-recognisers. Seo, then in her mid-twenties, gave it a go – and her score was so high, White invited her to come to Sydney for more testing.
With more than 100,000 people now tested, Seo still ranks in the top 50.
“It made me realise: oh yeah, it’s not crazy – I must have been right the whole time. It’s not that I’m creepy, but my brain is just wired that way.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I think my dad remembered everyone he had ever met. I did not inherit the trait.
~Easy St, posting gifs of pedophiles
Kool.
AI b4 AI.
Wikipedia: "Henner has hyperthymesia or total recall memory; she can remember specific details of virtually every day of her life since she was a child.[6][7]"
Her ability sounds like something tgat would make for a good movie or Twilight Zone episode.
I’m pretty much face blind (Prosopagnosia). Everyone looks the same to me. On more than one occasion, I have seen my reflection in a store window and not known that it was me.
I was a flight attendant for over 25 years. I remembered passengers faces like crazy. One woman ordered a white wine and I told her we still had the red wine she enjoyed. It was over a year ago and I knew what seat she was in and what she was wearing. She was speechless and did go with the red wine.
I know a guy with the opposite issue, he can’t remember faces at all. At all. Like he knows a certain person wears a certain thing, somebody comes along wearing that thing, he assumes it’s them.
I am the opposite of this. I have a terrible facial memory. I can remember facts and figures that I read years ago, but can talk to someone for an hour and not recognize them an hour later.
“I think my dad remembered everyone he had ever met. I did not inherit the trait.”
It’s a curse. I remember faces but not always where from and then I spend too much time thinking about it.
“Suoer-Recogniser” are a rare breed.
Tastes like chicken.
Don’t casinos hire people like this to bounce cheats and card counters?
I often don’t recognize people if I meet them in a different setting, such as running into a coworker at a store. Embarrassing, sometimes.
Lately I’ve been thinking about developing the knowledge to place the time and locations of old photos. I think that would be a fun hobby.
My maternal grandfather was that way. He was an attorney and could recall practically everything that he did on cases many years later.
I’m pretty proud of my 93.5 memory retention rate. Cool, Huh?
How many people do you know that can brag of a 95.3 memory retention rate?
A former co-worker’s son has this gift. I met him one time for less than a minute when he was in high school and was emptying trash-cans at the office one Saturday. Six years later I was in a Home Depot in a different city and a young guy called out my name. I had no clue who he was until he introduced himself.
Later I told his mom about it and she said he never forgets a face.
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