This is a really strange topic. I don’t understand it.
I can hardly recall faces of friends I see everyday. But I remember faces of people I met a long time ago or whom I just saw for a minute. For instance I can easily recall the face of a girl I saw in a club for a minute last week. And I can’t remember exactly what my friends I meet everyday look like. Only a couple of them who look in some way ‘special’.
Does the same happen to you? And why is it???
Just a little interesting bit of information that I read in my psych book:
It could be way, way worse for you. There’s a condition where the brain is damaged and the person can’t remember any faces at all. Not new ones, not old ones, none.
Oh, don’t scare me, heh.
No I just wonder why I can remember some faces better than others…
E.g. I once had a crush on someone. I saw her everyday and had loads of pictures of her, but I couldn’t see her face completly in my mind. Just some details, like haircolor, eyes etc.
You might have better long term memory than short term…
I have a very similar problem remembering faces. Unless I see a person very frequently, chances are I won’t recognize them should I bump into them on the street.
I always get a sinking feeling when someone who to me seems a complete stranger comes up to me and starts chatting as if they know me. I search the conversation for clues as to who they are, but a couple of times I’ve made people upset by misidentifying them.
Every so often I pass someone, and they greet me by name, and I say Hello, but I have no idea who they were. Sometimes after walking a bit I remember, but most of the time I never do. Even if I’m passing someone I do know and see pretty often, it’s usually them who do the initial greeting, though that’s probably because I’m really nearsighted and from far away they could be anybody. I really have to get a good look at someone to be able to recognize them.
I wish I could say that I’m better with names than faces, but I’m not very good with names either, probably worse…
I always wonder how it is that people are able to recognize anyone from a picture on a milk carton. I guess you have to have a certain kind of mind to see a picture on a milk carton one morning, and then at some point in the future see a kid in a crowd and actually realize that that’s the same face you saw on a milk carton. I couldn’t do it. It actually boggles my mind that anybody ever can. What do they do, study those things?? And then scan every face everywhere they go?
I’m glad I’m not the only one with this problem. I constantly have people come up and talk to me that I have no clue who they are, but they obviously know me. I just try to pretend I know who the heck they are.
I think I just don’t concentrate well enough when I meet people to pick out identifying features. I only pick up on the obvious, like hair color and length, that a million other people have, or I notice their clothes. When I see them in different clothes I don’t remember them.
Well, I tend to think that my memory storage capacity has been used up long ago. Therefore, if I have to learn something new, something old has to go. 
I will not remember your face until I’ve met you several times. Even then, unless you’re someone useful/important/scary/ or otherwise exceptional somehow, chances are I’ll still forget who you are. I’m so sorry.
And this is why I’m not in sales. I like people just fine, I just can’t remember them.
hehe… I have a way different problem… I recongnize faces of people I have seen only passing by or a long time ago. I sometimes stare a bit when I am trying to jog my memory to know WHERE I know them from.
So I have good face memory… but not name and situation.
I am SO with you. It blows my mind that (from the news and all those crime shows) detectives saunter into a 7-11, produce a picture of someone, and the clerk says something to the effect of “yeah, I saw him/her but she was wearing blue pants and white shirt and her hair was different.” And the milk carton is like the black belt in recognizing. I swear, if someone gave me a glossy 8 x 10 of someone and the person was my waiter the next day, I would not recognize him.
(I don’t have problems recognizing people, so I’m much better off than you guys. Phew) =)
What bothers me is that I can imagine the faces of many people. But of some I can’t, even if I’m totally into them. That’s so weird.
@ Sat on Cookie:
You have to consider that witnesses always have an imagination of the incident/person. What matters is how much it complies with the truth.
(E.g. in a car accident, everybody has seen something. But nearly all descriptions are different.)