Good with faces? This test will tell you if you're a 'super-recognizer'

This is kind of fun:



Everyone is hard-wired to recognize faces, but only a select few meet the 'super-recognizer' criteria

If you have an uncanny knack for remembering people's faces, even if you've only met them briefly or seen them in passing, you might be what's known as a "super-recognizer."

Australian researchers say their online facial recognition test is the best way to confirm whether you fit the bill.

"We set out to make a more challenging test to measure the ability of super-recognizers," James Dunn, a cognitive psychologist at the University of New South Wales, told As It Happens host Carol Off.

Dunn and his colleagues have been using the test to learn about super-recognizers since 2017, and published their findings this week in the journal PLOS One.

They found that while everyone has some hard-wired ability to parse faces and facial expressions, there are a select few among us who are just naturally better at it.

"We have all this infrastructure in our head for recognizing people," Dunn said.

"Now, what we're finding is that just like other cognitive abilities, like intelligence or personality characteristics, face recognition also seems to be a skill that is passed on in your genes that varies ... from person to person as well."

[link to www.cbc.ca (secure)]