I've got Sacks' new book on my wishlist! (thanks to the rec in the last post, from several people)
All I can recall is that there are several different recognition/cognition issues with faces, but I don't know the names for them -- I just recall reading various articles that talked about them. Inability to recognize faces (in part, after delay, at all) vs inability to read faces, of which the latter I find particularly interesting but I think it... uhm, not sure, but I seem to recall reading about it in connection with children who spend far too much time isolated in orphanages (when there's not enough staff to give very young children more than the barest amount of interaction). I think that's the situation where the children start to display, as they grow up, an inability to 'read' an expression and understand that it means 'anger' or 'happiness', and in turn the children themselves display unusual or inconsistent facial expressions as related to emotion. Hrm, my memory could be faulty, but I could've sworn that's one situation where there's a possible connection between early childhood/interaction and the visual 'cues' we learn.
As for my own facial recognition... I think I've realized (especially after the discussion on the last post) that maybe the best way to put it is that I rely very heavily on context, because that's where I root narratives. If I don't have context, then I can't dig out the narrative ("this person worked across the hall" or "this person was in my english class") and I can't place the person. Bleah. People should wear name-tags.
no subject
Date: 8 Dec 2010 03:17 am (UTC)All I can recall is that there are several different recognition/cognition issues with faces, but I don't know the names for them -- I just recall reading various articles that talked about them. Inability to recognize faces (in part, after delay, at all) vs inability to read faces, of which the latter I find particularly interesting but I think it... uhm, not sure, but I seem to recall reading about it in connection with children who spend far too much time isolated in orphanages (when there's not enough staff to give very young children more than the barest amount of interaction). I think that's the situation where the children start to display, as they grow up, an inability to 'read' an expression and understand that it means 'anger' or 'happiness', and in turn the children themselves display unusual or inconsistent facial expressions as related to emotion. Hrm, my memory could be faulty, but I could've sworn that's one situation where there's a possible connection between early childhood/interaction and the visual 'cues' we learn.
As for my own facial recognition... I think I've realized (especially after the discussion on the last post) that maybe the best way to put it is that I rely very heavily on context, because that's where I root narratives. If I don't have context, then I can't dig out the narrative ("this person worked across the hall" or "this person was in my english class") and I can't place the person. Bleah. People should wear name-tags.