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During my twenties, I spotted my grandmother through the glass of a coffee house. I felt astonished – she had departed the year before. I looked intently for a short time, then remembered it was impossible to be her.

I'd encountered comparable occurrences during my life. From time to time, I "recognized" a person I didn't know. Occasionally I could rapidly determine who the unfamiliar person reminded me of – for instance my grandmother. In other instances, a countenance simply had a subtle recognition I couldn't recognize.

Exploring the Spectrum of Face Identification Experiences

Lately, I started wondering if different individuals have these odd experiences. When I inquired my friends, one said she often sees persons in random places who look recognizable. Others sometimes confuse a stranger or public figure for someone they know in real life. But some mentioned no such experiences – they could readily recognize people they'd met and people they hadn't.

I felt intrigued by this range of responses. Was it just longing that made me see my grandma 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 have inaccuracies sometimes? I was starting to understand that we can all see the same face but not interpret the same thing.

Grasping the Spectrum of Facial Recognition Abilities

Investigators have designed many assessments to quantify the ability to remember faces. There exists a extensive variety: at one end are super-recognizers, who remember faces they have seen only momentarily or a long time ago; at the other are people with prosopagnosia, who often struggle to recognize kin, intimate companions and even themselves.

Some tests also capture how good someone is at telling if they have not seen a face before. This is where I think I have limitations. But researchers "just haven't dug into this" as much as they've studied the ability to recall a face, according to brain researchers. It does seem that the two abilities use separate brain processes; for instance, there is indication that exceptional facial identifiers and prosopagnosics do about as well as each other at discerning new faces, despite their wildly different abilities to recall old faces.

Undergoing Facial Recognition Evaluations

I felt intrigued whether these tests would provide insight on why unknown people look known. Was I someone who constantly recalls a face? I often recall people more than they recognize me, and feel let down – a feeling that researchers say is typical for exceptional facial identifiers. But maybe I over-recognize faces – to the point that even some new faces look recognizable.

I received several facial recognition tests. I waded through them, feeling puzzled at times. In one, called the facial recall assessment, I had to look at grayscale photos of a face from different viewpoints, then find it in groups. During another test that instructed me to pick out public figures from a mix of photos, many of the faces felt at least recognizable, but I couldn't quite place them – reminiscent to my actual experience.

I felt doubtful about my results. But after assessment of my results, I had accurately recognized 96% of the famous person faces. The conclusion was that I qualified as a "borderline super-recognizer".

Comprehending Incorrect Identification Percentages

I also excelled in the old/new faces task, which was described as especially effective for measuring someone's memory for faces. The subject looks at a collection of 60 black-and-white photos, each of a different face. Then they review a sequence of 120 analogous photos – the initial collection plus 60 unknown visages – and specify which were in the first set. The super-recognizer benchmark is roughly 80%; I recalled 78% of the faces I'd seen. On the other extreme of the spectrum, people with prosopagnosia accurately identify an average of 57%.

I felt satisfied with my result, but also surprised. I recalled many of the previously seen countenances, but infrequently misidentified a unfamiliar countenance for one that I'd seen before. My result on this indicator, called the false alarm rate, was 18%. Normal recognizers, super-recognizers and prosopagnosics all have a mistaken recognition percentage of about 30% on average. So why was I confusing a unfamiliar individual's face for my grandma's?

Examining Potential Causes

It was proposed that I possibly possessed some exceptional facial identifier capabilities. Everyone has a catalogue of the faces we know in our recollection, but super-recognizers – and probably borderline straddlers like me – have a fairly substantial and detailed catalogue. We're also likely to individuate faces – that is, attribute traits to each face, such as approachability or impoliteness. Research suggests that the latter helps people to learn and commit faces to permanent recall. While differentiating may help me recognize people, it may also mislead me into seeing my grandmother in a woman who has a comparable demeanor.

In moreover, it was considered I might be "an engaged facial observer", meaning I pay a significant focus to faces. Others may have more incorrect identification moments, thinking they recognize someone they don't know. But because I tend to look attentively at faces, I am inclined to notice the unfamiliar individual who looks like my grandma. Indeed, one friend who said she doesn't make facial recognition mistakes admitted she doesn't really look at the people around her.

Investigating Excessive Recognition for Faces

These assessments helped me understand where I positioned on the continuum. But I wanted to understand more about what is happening in the brain when we "identify" strangers. Examining further, I read about a condition called excessive facial recognition (HFF), in which unfamiliar faces appear known. Initially, this sounded like it could pertain to me. But the few of recorded occurrences all took place after a physical event such as a convulsion or cerebral accident, unlike the idiosyncrasy that I've been experiencing my whole grown-up existence.

Through scientific platforms, experts have heard from about 24,000 those with facial agnosia, as well as people with all kinds of face identification difficulties, including sight abnormalities, like when faces appear to be dissolving. Researchers study many of these people, using tools like the known/unknown countenances task and the facial recall assessment.

Experts have heard from only a few of people with potential HFF in extended periods of investigation.

"The occurrence rate is quite low," one expert said of HFF. However, they theorized that there may be a continuum, with some people who think each countenance is recognizable, and others, like me, who only experience it a few times a month.

{Understanding