Can you "recognize" your own face? Question about face perception

io organic industrialism on 9/5/2008 at 15:16

First, if you don't know about "Face perception", go skim the Wiki...
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_perception)

Basically, our brains work a certain way to process information when we look at someone's face. It is why you get a certain "feeling" when you look at a face, opposed to an inanimate object.

I'm not a very visual person at all, so I find it difficult to visualize details about something's appearance in my mind. However, I am at least able to visualize a "concept of someone's face" even if I am not looking at them. I assume this comes from my memory in the special part of my brain that processes face recognition...

But, I've noticed that I am not able to "recall" what my own face looks like in my mind, like I can with anyone else's face. Almost like I've "forgotten what I look like"... Except I know what all my features are, I know how big my nose/eyebrows are, etc, I just can't get an "image" of my whole face in my mind.

So I'm wondering if this is specific to me, or if anyone else has this problem? Does that make any sense?

So, are you able to "recognize your own face"? Does what I'm saying even make any sense? I'm really curious to know if I have some kind of problem, or if this is a common occurence.

Thoughts please. :thumb:

gunsmoke on 9/5/2008 at 15:43

So, are you able to "recognize your own face"?

Definitely. I have always been able to do that. Probably stems from my having lots of obsessive thoughts.

henke on 9/5/2008 at 16:19

Yup.

narcissism ftw

AR Master on 9/5/2008 at 16:21

I just use a mirror

SD on 9/5/2008 at 16:27

I'm not sure exactly, but I know I look like a hobbit and/or care bear.

demagogue on 9/5/2008 at 16:39

As you can read on that wiki page, there's a very specific disorder where people lose the ability to discriminate faces called prosopagnosia. What I think your issue is ... is less that (since that usually involves brain damage and is a significant disorder) and more reading about it and being paranoid.

I think it's as simple as the fact that, like everybody else, you almost never see your face in a discriminatory-context, where you need to recognize it. I think it's true for most everybody (that's not a twin) that it's much harder to get an image of their own face than another person's. It is for me, too.

SubJeff on 9/5/2008 at 16:48

The other thing is that we "normalise" our own faces in the mirror. Remember that it's a mirror image. Seeing your face the right way around can be very odd because you lose the normalisation and quirks are much easier to identify. Take SD, for example - by now he thinks that dimple is just a dimple rather than uty cuty iddy widdy dimplypoos it really is :p

Nicker on 9/5/2008 at 19:47

There seems to be several layers of interpretation involved in recognition. There is a condition where people become convinced that loved ones have been replaced by cunning replicas. This can even extend to parts of their bodies.

They can easily identify what or who the replacement represents and they can even agree that their perception is unreasonable but they remain convinced that the fairies or the space brothers or the government have spirited away their child or spouse or their hand and put a perfect copy in its place.

nickie on 9/5/2008 at 21:01

I've never heard of that disorder before. Really very interesting. I do have a picture of my face in my mind, but as SE says, it's mainly from mirrors, so is a mirror image. I have 'even' features and a centre parting to my hair so a photo isn't that different from how I see myself in a mirror - which as you get on a bit, you tend to avoid as much as possible. :) But even so I can still see a photo of me and wonder who the hell that is. It feels like I'm looking at a stranger.

I find it interesting too that there are facial features that really don't change at all. I saw a telly programme not that long ago and recognised one of the actors as someone I hadn't seen for 46 years.

Rug Burn Junky on 9/5/2008 at 22:56

Quote Posted by demagogue

As you can read on that wiki page, there's a very specific disorder where people lose the ability to discriminate faces called prosopagnosia.

Supposedly, there's a high correlation between face blindness and having an impaired sense of direction.

Which means that there is a whole host of people out there that wouldn't recognize Peter North if he shot them in the face.