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In my mid-20s, I spotted my grandmother through the glass of a café. I felt astonished – she had departed the previous year. I stared for a brief period, then recalled it couldn't possibly be her.

I'd had similar experiences all through my life. Occasionally, I "recognized" an individual I didn't know. Occasionally I could promptly identify who the unknown individual reminded me of – such as my elderly relative. In other instances, a visage simply had a indistinct knowingness I couldn't identify.

Investigating the Variety of Face Identification Experiences

Lately, I began questioning if different individuals have these unusual experiences. When I inquired my acquaintances, one commented she often sees individuals in random places who look recognizable. Others sometimes confuse a unfamiliar individual or famous person for someone they know in real life. But some described completely different responses – they could easily recognize people they'd met and people they hadn't.

I felt curious by this spectrum of perceptions. Was it just longing that made me see my elderly relative that day – or some kind of mental glitch? Research has found we spend about a quarter-hour of every hour looking at faces – do we just make mistakes sometimes? I was beginning to realize that we can all see the same face but not perceive the same thing.

Understanding the Range of Face Identification Capacities

Researchers have developed many assessments to assess the ability to remember faces. There exists a extensive variety: at one side are super-recognizers, who recognize faces they have seen only momentarily or a distant past; at the other are people with prosopagnosia, who often have difficulty to recognize kin, dear acquaintances and even themselves.

Some assessments also assess how good someone is at telling if they have not seen a face before. This is where I think I fall short. But scientists "just haven't dug into this" as much as they've examined the ability to recall a face, according to brain researchers. It does seem that the two capabilities use separate brain processes; for example, there is proof that exceptional facial identifiers and prosopagnosics do about as well as each other at identifying new faces, despite their vastly dissimilar abilities to remember old faces.

Undergoing Face Identification Tests

I felt interested whether these assessments would offer understanding on why unfamiliar individuals look known. Was I someone who always remembers a face? I often recognize people more than they recognize me, and feel disappointed – a feeling that experts say is typical for superior face rememberers. But maybe I excessively identify faces – to the degree that even some new faces look known.

I obtained several person recognition tests. I completed them, feeling confused at times. In one, called the facial recall assessment, I had to look at monochrome photos of a face from multiple perspectives, then find it in lineups. During another test that directed me to pick out famous people from a mix of photos, many of the faces felt at least known, but I couldn't exactly identify them – comparable to my real-life experience.

I felt doubtful about my results. But after evaluation of my results, I had properly distinguished 96% of the famous person faces. The determination was that I qualified as a "borderline super-recognizer".

Grasping False Alarm Rates

I also excelled in the known/unknown countenances task, which was described as particularly good for evaluating someone's recall for faces. The participant looks at a series of 60 black-and-white photos, each of a different face. Then they examine a series of 120 analogous photos – the first group plus 60 unfamiliar countenances – and indicate which were in the original collection. The exceptional facial identifier benchmark is roughly 80%; I recalled 78% of the faces I'd seen. On the other side of the continuum, people with face blindness accurately identify an average of 57%.

I felt pleased with my performance, but also taken aback. I remembered many of the familiar visages, but infrequently mistook a new face for one that I'd seen before. My result on this indicator, called the incorrect identification frequency, was 18%. Average identifiers, superior face rememberers and face-blind individuals all have a false alarm rate of about 30% on average. So why was I mistaking a unknown person's face for my grandmother's?

Examining Potential Reasons

It was theorized that I likely possessed some super-recognizer abilities. Everyone has a database of the faces we know in our recollection, but exceptional facial identifiers – and possibly near-exceptional individuals like me – have a comparatively extensive and precise catalogue. We're also possibly to differentiate visages – that is, ascribe traits to each face, such as amiability or rudeness. Studies suggests that the later element helps people to learn and commit faces to permanent recall. While distinguishing may help me recognize people, it may also deceive me into seeing my elderly relative in a woman who has a analogous presence.

In addition, it was considered I might be "a attentive countenance examiner", meaning I pay a significant focus to faces. Others may have more incorrect identification moments, thinking they know someone they don't know. But because I tend to look carefully at faces, I am inclined to notice the unfamiliar individual who similar to my grandmother. Indeed, one acquaintance who said she doesn't make facial recognition mistakes confessed she doesn't really look at the people around her.

Researching Over-familiarity for Faces

These assessments helped me understand where I positioned on the range. But I wanted to understand more about what is happening in the brain when we "identify" unfamiliar individuals. Examining further, I read about a syndrome called over-familiarity with countenances (HFF), in which unknown faces appear known. Superficially, this sounded like it could pertain to me. But the few of recorded occurrences all took place after a health incident such as a epileptic episode or stroke, unlike the peculiarity that I've been observing my whole mature years.

Through research sites, experts have heard from about 24,000 prosopagnosics, as well as people with all kinds of person recognition problems, including sight abnormalities, like when faces appear to be dissolving. Researchers study many of these people, using tools like the previously seen/unfamiliar faces task and the memory for faces evaluation.

Experts have heard from only a handful of people with possible HFF in long durations of study.

"The occurrence rate is quite low," one expert said of HFF. However, they hypothesized that there may be a spectrum, with some people who think all visages is known, and others, like me, who only experience it a several occasions a month.

{Understanding