I can remember names in real life when using memory techniques, but I have trouble in some situations where I see someone out of context after not seeing them for a while. Many faces look the same to me, unless something really stands out.
I’ve used these examples in another post – I can usually tell the difference if they are next to each other, but if I see only one of them, it’s difficult for me to tell the difference. (Just between the people on the same rows.) For a photograph, I could turn a hair curl into an alien tentacle, and some airbrushed cheeks into a painted t-shirt, but outside of certain contexts, it’s very difficult.
I previously experimented with a system to turn faces into named geometric shapes that would each have a mnemonic image, but I didn’t complete it. I used to practice that by glancing at faces as I walked down the street and then closing my eyes, trying to hold the impression in my mind for a few seconds while examining the shapes.
I’d still like to finish that idea. For example, create 3-10 types for each of these categories:
- Hair
- Forehead
- Eyebrows
- Eye shape
- Nose
- Cheeks
- Jawline
- Mouth
- Ears
- Complexion
Things like cheeks and jawline might be images based on geometric shapes. Ears might be a position (high, medium, low) and size (small, medium, large). Etc.
Even with a system like that, I’d probably still get similar people like the ones in the example image above confused on a regular basis. The shapes are very close…