SMART NEWS

Test Just How Good You Are at Remembering Faces

In this 10 minute test, you’ll see 56 faces and names and try to remember as many as you can

Contributor

October 8, 2012

Quick, was your barista this morning wearing glasses? Don’t remember? It’s okay: you’re not alone. But if you want to know just how good (or bad) you are at remembering faces, try taking this test. In ten minutes, you’ll see 56 faces and names and will try to remember as many as you can.

Well, how did you do?

This isn’t just a fun game; it’s a survey designed by the psychology department at Washington University in St. Louis. Mary Pyc, one of the lead researchers, told LiveScience that “the hope is to learn more about how well people learn faces and names in the general population.” The opportunity to compete with others and find out how good you are at this daily task—that’s just “an added bonus.”

Some people are really good at remembering faces, while others, like Chuck Close and Oliver Sacks, are face blind. Literally, they can’t remember people’s faces at all. Here’s Radiolab on prosopagnosia.