Why do some people not remember faces? Remembering faces Why can't you remember the face of a loved one

Memory training
> How to remember faces and names
Memorizing faces

As a rule, we have to remember faces along with the names of their owners or some minimal information about them. The need to remember individual faces appears quite rarely, most often it is memorizing the people in the queue when you need to leave it, all other situations of the need to remember the faces of people without information about them, rather, can be attributed to the specifics of some professions (watchman, security guard etc.).

However, the ability to remember faces without any information about them can be useful to everyone. For example, if you became an unwitting witness to a crime or an accident (although this can already be called information). In any case, before moving on to examples of remembering faces (with and without names), get acquainted with some face characteristics, which you can (should) pay attention to when meeting each new person.

Naturally, the list of these characteristics is very large, and in a real situation, depending on the amount of time, you will be able to pay attention to only a part of the characteristics, to those that are most striking, that is, to the distinctive features of the face. However, for a more successful memorization of these features, you need to know the parameters by which one or another part of the face is described, as well as options for individual features.

Of course, the list below (or description scheme) does not contain all the characteristics of facial features, so you can add others to them. Even if you don't intend to get involved in the development of memory for faces, studying this list in detail will help you become more attentive to the features of human faces, which in itself will lead to more successful memorization of them.

So here is the list:

Head

Before moving on to the characteristics of individual facial features, look at what the head of a person as a whole is like.

To size:

By form:

And also in general, in general impression head can be:

Hair

Hair is not the best reference for remembering a person, because this is exactly what is easiest to change in your appearance - dye, cut, make a ponytail, put on a wig in the end. And a person can make changes of this kind at any time.

Often a change in hairstyle changes a person beyond recognition, which once again confirms the need for a more careful attitude to other characteristics of a person's appearance. However, the ability to characterize human hair, of course, will also come in handy. Only, perhaps, it is not necessary to give the primary role to remembering hair (as is often done), especially if you remember the appearance of a woman.

General impression:

By lenght:

By density:

Other Features:

Color:

Forehead

Brows

Eyelashes

Eyes

Eyes are a very important characteristic of a person's appearance. If you learn to differentiate and remember eyes well, then this may already be (almost) enough to recognize a person. No wonder the first thing that criminals and all sorts of secret agents try to hide is their eyes.

In each eye, but rather in the look, there is something completely unique and elusive, depending, probably, more on the personality of the person. Therefore, despite a fairly large list of possible parameters for describing the eyes, it may not be enough at all. Often, for accurate characterization and / or memorization, it is more important to catch something special and unique in the eyes and look.

And yet the eyes can have the following characteristics:

After describing the parameters of the analysis of the eyes, the list of looks (kind, soft, hard, aquiline, evil, cunning ... etc.) is asked, but I'm afraid that it can take more than a dozen pages and actually turn into in the list of personality traits, so I leave this fascinating and useful activity to your discretion.

Nose

The nostrils of the nose can be:

cheekbones

Ears

As a rule, people do not often pay attention to the structure of the ears, and, by the way, they can become a very, very characteristic feature, since they are very, very different. Of course, in some people they are covered with hair, but such people are still a minority. So, the ears are:

Mouth and lips

Chin

Cheeks

Skin on the face

A) perfectly smooth, slightly wrinkled or wrinkled,
b) with large or inconspicuous pores,
c) excessively dry (flaky), normal or oily (shine),
d) light or swarthy, reddish, pale, blush,
e) with pockmarks, scars, pimples.

additional characteristics

A person can wear GLASSES, while they can be of various shapes: round, square, rectangular, trapezoid, unusual shape. The frame can be plastic or metal (white or yellow metal). Glasses can be with tinted glasses. Frames can be of different colors.

In addition, women (and sometimes men) can wear in the ears (and not only in the ears) earrings. Earrings can be large, medium, small, with or without stones, made of white or yellow metal, plastic, wooden, exotic. There can be one in each ear and several, an earring can be in only one ear.

Men can wear mustache, sideburns, beard various shapes. You can successfully use them when memorizing faces, but do not forget that a person can change all these additional characteristics at any time.

*** Exercise 43.

Here are some photographs of people. Try to describe each person according to the above list of characteristics. It is better to perform the exercise in writing, using the same wording in the description as in the list. This exercise is not aimed at developing memory itself, but at developing the ability to more clearly notice facial features, to pronounce them, which naturally entails better memorization in combination with other methods.

You can record the characteristics of the face of the person shown in the first photo by looking directly at the plan (list of characteristics). When describing the second person, try to recall the parameters of the analysis of facial features on your own, only occasionally looking into the plan (you can change the sequence of the description, but the main thing is to indicate all the parameters in each paragraph) and referring to it.

Try to describe the third person in as much detail as possible, without looking into the plan. Then see what features of the face you forgot to describe (for example, you described the thickness of the eyebrows, but forgot to indicate the shape, etc.) Practice some more using photos of your friends.

*** Exercise 44.

In this exercise, you should try not only to describe the faces while looking at the photo, but also try to repeat the noted characteristics of the faces after a while. There are two photographs in front of you. Describe verbally or write down the characteristics of the faces of the people depicted on them. Then take a break, take a short break and, without going back to the photos and your notes, write down everything you remember about the faces of these people.

Could you name the most distinctive features of these faces? Would the characteristics you remember help you recognize these people in the future? Could someone else recognize these people (individually) among others if they used your last description?

*** Exercise 45.

Before you is a photograph of a man. Look at her for 2-3 minutes, trying to analyze his face during this time according to the scheme. Then cover the photo with a sheet of paper and try to answer the following questions (read the questions after the photo is closed): Tick the correct statements. The man had

Open the photo and check if your answers are correct.

You can perform the last three exercises as many times as you like, using photographs of acquaintances and relatives that you have, as well as photographs cut from magazines and newspapers.

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From children it is easy to understand. :) They are open and emotional, they run to meet with loud joy when I come home.
From my mother - it’s clear that she loves because she cares a lot, communicates respectfully, I’m glad when everything is good and lively with me (not on the record, on the machine, but always in a new way, in different ways and delves into in what I think and feel, and so on).
From a husband, love is manifested in his actions, decisions, in what he does in life and how he changes internally. Also in that he misses me. Hurry home. Strive to please and gets upset when I am hard or sad. .
From God, love is felt in constant miracles and in what changes take place in life. Tips, support, fulfillment of desires and aspirations. And also in what gives strength and opportunity.

probably not

Absolutely.

• I am a living objection to this. I achieved my goal all the same, it was not easy, however, we are together, and not a little time - 2 years.

  I am sure that at least 2 people adore me! Son and daughter! :) And as for the rest, the flag is in their hands :)

  nju ne skazu chto ljublju, no nravitsja!!!
  za chto nju vo mnogix pesnjax est "smisl (kone4no smisl est" ne tol "ko v repe)
  nravitsja takt, sound....
  a ljubimix trekov mnogo!!!

  It's about female psychology. The girl loves a young, or not very, man, but he does not reciprocate her. It clicks in the girl’s head - “YEAH! He doesn’t love me! I’m with him with all my heart, but oooh .... bastard!”
  CONCLUSION: Look for mutual love.

  neither for nor in spite of...

For as long as I can remember, I've always had trouble recognizing people. To remember a person, I need to communicate with him for a long time and regularly, otherwise I cannot remember him by sight. As a child, this did not bother me too much, and I did not know that other people were not like that. But in adulthood it became a serious problem. Now I am 35, I work in a large company (there are about 200 employees in the office).
I constantly get into difficult situations because of this particularity of mine, because. It's very hard to remember new people. If a new employee comes to our small department, then this is not so scary, because. I remember the place where this person is sitting, and gradually I begin to transfer this person to the category of memorized ones. It usually takes about a month to fully memorize. This is provided that I know exactly where the person is sitting, greet him in the morning and see him during the day in our department, but do not communicate at work. If I meet this person in the corridor, then, most likely, I simply will not recognize him. After about a month, I already begin to recognize a person by their gait, clothes, and even begin to remember the face. Then there comes a moment when I completely remember the person and can already easily recognize him in the corridor and even on the street. True, there is still no confidence on the street, especially if the person is dressed in something new and I will meet him far from work after hours.

With those whom I see every day, friends, close people, good acquaintances, there is no such problem. I can easily recognize everyone. Moreover, somewhere in the brain detailed data about each such “remembered” person (clothes, voice timbre, gait, facial expressions, gestures) is stored. I perfectly remember the details of conversations with this person, I can quote something that this person told me many years ago, I remember a bunch of little things like the color and style of sandals that my friend was wearing when we walked together along the embankment in 1993 .

But when it comes to new people ... The worst thing is when a new employee is hired and I have to work with him. Usually a person is taken to all departments, introduced. I forget his face and name as soon as the person is out of sight. I cannot describe it at all; the most maximum - something like "girl, beautiful, tall." Everything. I do not remember the face, color and length of the hair. I can remember clothes if it is something strange, ridiculous, unusual. But it must be something out of the ordinary. I really sympathize with unusual people who are easy to remember (overweight, with piercings, tattoos, scars, etc.). A year ago, the office was renovated and everyone was transferred to new places. I almost lost my mind, because there were several people whom I recognized only by their places (I knew where they were sitting), but I could not find them by their faces.

For the past three months, I have been constantly worrying about the fact that I just can’t remember the two new namesake lawyers. They work in the same office and from time to time one or the other calls me. Because I do not communicate with them for a long time, then I still can’t remember them. Sometimes I run into them in the hallway and I realize that this is one of them only when they start discussing legal issues with me. Several times there was a situation where I didn’t immediately understand that they were lawyers (there are other employees from other departments whom I can’t remember) and I had a hard time building a conversation so that it became clear who I was talking to at all. It was a very difficult situation for me when one of them asked me to bring her documents, I went into the office and did not know which table to go to (the tables are at opposite ends), because I didn’t remember which one I had talked to in the corridor before. I was lucky that one of them reacted to me, and I realized that it was she who was waiting for the documents. They would probably take me for a madwoman if they knew that I had been talking with them for three months and did not remember their faces.

And how hard it is when someone comes up to me in the corridor and asks me to send him something. I have to twist it - ask this person to send me a letter with a request first, so that I do not forget about his request.
It's hard to watch movies with a lot of characters. Sometimes you have to watch the beginning several times, because. I can't remember anyone at once. It helps a lot if I watch with my husband. He tells someone where.
By the way, my own face also seems very unmemorable to me. Before, I didn’t understand at all how my friends would recognize me. Once I was shocked that a stranger approached me on the street and said that he recognized me from a photograph that he saw in my classmate's photo album. A photograph showing a class of 40 people. 40, Carl! For me it's fantastic.

Why post in the community? I want to know if there are people with a similar problem. Maybe this is a common problem, but it's just not being discussed? How hurtful is it to tell a person that you cannot remember him, and that it will take time? At work, I told only one colleague about my problem, who helps me navigate when I once again cannot remember a person.

Hello dear friends! With you again Yuri Okunev.

Today we will discuss how to memorize people's faces. There are not so many lucky people in the world who can boast that they have a photographic memory for faces. Nevertheless, every person who is seriously engaged in personal and career growth should have the ability to quickly memorize, because sometimes forgetfulness can lead to the failure to sign an important contract or the loss of a significant client.

In fact, you can learn to memorize quite quickly. From this article, you will learn techniques that will help you, when you first meet a person, to reliably capture his face in memory and then remember it without difficulty.

Probably, you found yourself in this situation: you meet a person at a party or at a party, some time passes, and you meet him on the street. You are called by name, and you, blushing and trying to maintain at least some conversation, painfully remember the name of your interlocutor and what circumstances you owe to a new acquaintance. Well, if this happens once or twice in a lifetime. What if it's constant?

Many people have difficulty remembering new faces. This can be explained by the following reasons:

• Poor visual memory;
• Inability to recognize small details (if we have a representative of another nation, then we first of all pay attention to skin color and do not pay attention to eye color and nose size at all);
• Indifference to the interlocutor (“What difference does it make who is in front of me? All people have the same face”);
• Deep immersion in oneself (typical for people in creative professions or in the presence of psychological trauma).

The Tony Buzan Method

Based on the foregoing, we can assume that all the troubles come from our worldly inattention and lack of interest in the object of acquaintance. The English psychologist Tony Buzan once studied this problem. As a result, he created his famous "method of social etiquette". In his opinion, in order to remember a new person on the face, you just need:

• To be polite;
• Show genuine interest in a new interlocutor.

How to quickly remember appearance

Compliance with these rules, arising from the Buzan method, allows you to very quickly remember the appearance and face of the person you meet:

1. First of all, believe in yourself and set yourself up that remembering appearance is not so difficult;
2. Make it a rule for yourself: any person with whom you communicate is a whole universe with its own characteristics and remarkables. Show interest in the interlocutor;
3. If possible, try to keep the person's eyes in sight. Not so, of course, to look point-blank and not blinking. Nobody likes a direct look. Disperse your attention: look at the forehead, hair, eyebrows, occasionally returning to the eyes. It is the look of a person that is sometimes remembered the most;
4. Use associations to remember the image of a person (I will tell you how to create them below);
5. When meeting, many of us feel awkward and tend to hush everything up and say goodbye as soon as possible. Don't be too quick to do so. Follow the example of the Queen of England. She certainly maintained a conversation with every person who was introduced to her, exchanged a few phrases with him;
6. Don't try to remember everyone present. It is human nature to remember no more than three people in one meeting. However, for the purpose of memory training, you can apply the plus one rule. That is, with each subsequent publication, remember one more person.

association method

If the name and surname of a person can be written down in a notebook, and then, after reading, remember. You can’t take a person’s appearance and face in a nutshell under a pencil. A more radical way of remembering is needed.

Psychologists note that we usually remember not the external appearance of a person, but his internal image, that is, the character traits of this person are superimposed on the appearance. To understand what distinguishes this person from others, you need to talk with him, note for yourself:

• The manner of his conversation;
• How does this person say your name?
• Sight;
• Body movements, gestures.

1. Try to single out for yourself the most significant feature of the character of the person standing in front of you, which immediately catches your eye: arrogance, swagger, or, conversely, shyness, your interlocutor is open and sincere, or something keeps silent and keeps silent, etc.
2. Now let's take a closer look at the face. Each has its own characteristics that stand out very brightly. Find the most catchy of them. Someone has a large nose, another has expressive eyes of an oriental type, the third comically pulls his lip when talking;
3. Let's say we noticed thick, fused eyebrows. Think about what it's like. Maybe on the wings of a large bird of prey? As a portrait artist, how would you portray this trait? Exaggerate, find the most incredible images - such images-pictures will enter your memory for a long time, which means that the person will be well remembered;
4. Associate the image with the character trait that was noted earlier. Try to compare your interlocutor with some animal or bird? What is it associated with?

In the future, the image you created will be the key to recalling this person in memory. Remembering the soaring bird, you immediately remember the eyebrows, and at the same time the character traits of their owner.

Conclusion

This way you can improve your memory for faces.
You can shake up your memory in more detail by reading the article, and seriously work out the skill by passing Intensive Stanislav Matveev "Supermemory" .

That's all for today. I look forward to your comments on what other ways you know to remember faces.

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Goodbye. Sincerely, Yuri Okunev.

Separate long-term and short-term memory. Short-term memory is also called working memory, and with its help, sensory images are remembered for several hours or days. Long-term memory remembers for an indefinitely long time. Long-term memory is further subdivided into episodic and semantic. Developments and any personal experience are classified as episodic memory. Vocabulary, various phenomena, recognition of persons and objects, events are referred to the semantic part of memory.

If the memory of people, animals and things in their appearance, sound and smell is impaired, this phenomenon is called agnosia. There are sound and visual agnosia, tactile and taste. Visual agnosia is also called mental blindness, and this concept includes prosopagnosia, objective and, presumably, misrecognition of words and letters, called alexia. This also includes metamorphopsia, or distortion of the perception of objects, micro- and macropsia, namely a decrease or increase in the real volumes of an object.

prosopagnosia

If there are disturbances in the temporal parts of the brain, which is important - on both sides, then there is a distorted recognition of faces and objects, their misrecognition. If a person is not able to recognize faces, this is called prosopagnosia, and if he is confused in recognizing familiar things, this is object agnosia.

Some patients do not even recognize their own face in the mirror, but at the same time they retain the memory of all other signs, and as soon as something reminds him of the person standing opposite, he remembers everything he knows about this person. Previously, it was believed that the disorder is very rare, and is most often caused by traumatic brain injuries of a different nature. But in recent years, it turned out that at least 1 person in 50 has such an ailment of varying severity, although at the same time they have no history of injuries or deviations from the development standards, and such people are also doing well with vision. Difficulties in face recognition are now believed to begin in early childhood, and may be hereditary.

Some people may admit to their disease, but in general, prosopagnosia remains a very little understood disorder, because most healthy people cannot even imagine how it is possible not to recognize faces. Many sufferers have learned to live with the disease, but most feel guilty and anxious when they fail to recognize familiar faces. Some do not know that they suffer from this disease, but even those who do prefer not to talk about it either at work or among friends. This disease is poorly understood, and therefore patients are rightly afraid of getting fired instead of words of support.

Treatment

Any cognitive disorders are difficult to correct, and the search for drugs that could make life easier for patients is still ongoing. Most often, a variety of nootropics are prescribed, but the list of conditions that can be alleviated in this way is very small. Improvements occur with cerebral vascular insufficiency, with the consequences of a stroke and cerebral infarction, with depressive states, with asthenia and craniocerebral injuries.

In this disease, much more importance should be given to various memory training exercises. There are quite a few special exercises for this, most of them can be performed in. Memorization of poems, texts and melodies is used, drawing helps a lot. It is often easier for those suffering from this disease to assimilate information that is emotionally colored, has associations from tactile sensations or situational associations.