So apparently I am NOT bad at recognizing faces.

[Chronos]

Quoth Emtar KronJonDerSohn:

I had a supervisor tell me

“When you meet a new person introduce yourself. When they introduce themselves in response say their name: Pleased to meet you, so- and- so! Then tell yourself a little story in your mind using their name as many times as possible. Oh, this is so- and- so, he likes to play mini golf. After so- and- so plays a round so- and- so goes on the bumper boats and then so-and- so rides the go karts. Then so- and- so gets a cotton candy and so- and- so goes home.”

I gave it a try and it worked a little… every new person I met for the next several months is “That’s…ah… that’s the guy with the golf… and boats and karts and cotton candy.”

That can work, when you’re meeting one person at a time. It’s a lot harder when you’re suddenly introduced to twenty people at once, and are expected to learn all of their names in the span of a half-hour.

What sometimes works for me is to have everyone stand in a circle, and go around the circle, one at a time, with everyone saying their own name and the names of all the people before them (optionally, you can have them add a food they like that starts with the same letter, or the like). So for instance, the first person might say “I’m John, and I like jellybeans”. Then the second person would say “I’m Matt, and I like marshmallows, and that’s John, who likes jellybeans”. Then the third would say “I’m Anne, and I like andouille sausage, Matt likes marshmallows, and John likes jellybeans”, and so on. I then go last, and recite all of them.

During the rest of the day, I’ll be constantly repeating the process in my head, standing at some random part of the room and trying to list them all off left-to-right as they appear in my field of view, so they’re not always in the same order.

[Enilno]

Hmm, somehow I managed a 94% on the Cambridge test. But the second experiment, if I only had the 20 seconds to memorize the 6 faces I’m sure I would have failed. I just picked the faces I remembered from the first set. But maybe that was the point? I’m not really sure. The last experiment, I was able to recognize a few, but yeah mostly guesses.

[dracoi]

@Emtar_KronJonDerSohn

I had a supervisor tell me

“When you meet a new person introduce yourself. When they introduce themselves in response say their name: Pleased to meet you, so- and- so! Then tell yourself a little story in your mind using their name as many times as possible. Oh, this is so- and- so, he likes to play mini golf. After so- and- so plays a round so- and- so goes on the bumper boats and then so-and- so rides the go karts. Then so- and- so gets a cotton candy and so- and- so goes home.”

I gave it a try and it worked a little… every new person I met for the next several months is “That’s…ah… that’s the guy with the golf… and boats and karts and cotton candy.”

This doesn’t work for me if it’s a fictional story.

My strategy is to either attach the name to a story I’ve already heard about them (works great when my wife had co-workers), or to get about five minutes of conversation with them and then say “Sorry, what was your name again?” Now that I’ve got some info, it helps.

Of course, part of my problem is vision. I don’t have time right now to finish the test in the original post, but I can already tell I’ll do well because I can see them on my computer screen in good light, with lots of time to look for distinguishing details.

I can’t do that in most real life situation. Imagine if I went up to someone at a party, scooted them into good light, turned them right and left a little, all the while intently squinting at their face.

[TriPolar]

56%. Not surprising.

[Leaffan]

At 89% I’m going to win this contest.

I always knew I was really good with faces, and with names. It’s been beneficial in my career.