I DON'T RECOGNISE FACES VERY WELL BUT PLACES ARE ANOTHER MATTER.

[Kandinskyesque]

I'm awful with faces, it's not how I remember people, I've been stopped in the supermarket by my own father after nearly walking by him. It's not that I'm in a dwam (great Scottish word a bit like....dwam....you'll need to look it up), I'm quite hyper vigilant when I'm out. I just don't pick up on faces outside of the context I know them.

It's voices and mannerisms, I remember. I'll even remember fine details about someone's life: for example somebody innocuously mentions their brother is an electrician as part of a larger conversation and I don't see the person for 30 years, I'll be able to instantly recall that detail but not the persons face.

Anyways, I've noticed in recent years my memory for places is surprisingly accurate. Watching movies seems to bring it out.
I first noticed it when watching "Cloud Atlas" years ago, even with CGI, I recognised several Scottish locations.
Films in Sydney, San Francisco, Dublin, London etc where I've pounded the streets, if I've been in that location, I'll spot it no matter if it's pretending to be somewhere else, like some kind of neural Google Street View.

Last night it was the movie "Mr Jones", the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who in the early 1930s had his reports of Stalin's forced famine in Ukraine suppressed.
There's a part where he returns to his hometown in Wales and I found myself shouting at the screen "That's not Wales! That's the East Neuk!" the East Neuk is a part of coastal Scotland which includes St Andrews.
In particular the film shoots were of Cellardyke and Pittenweem...

A few scenes that were supposed to be London, were instantly recognised as Edinburgh by me.

I'm aware this is not normal (or even helpful regarding faces).

Does anyone else have strange quirks of memory?

 

[memorex]

I never remember a name, but I always forget a face.

 

[Engine Swap]

I can’t recall the source (ironically) but I read a study that showed that the human mind is very good at recognizing places.

The subjects were shown 100 images of places, and then 6 months later shown the same images mixed with unfamiliar images mixed in.

When asked to pick the images images they had seen before, the success rate was well over 80%

Personally, I gone back to places I’ve only been once and still remember every building and bend in the road, even after decades.

 

[Powdog]

The condition where people don’t recognize faces is called prosopagnosia. You’ll be glad to know that Brad Pitt suffers from the same thing, which is another thing you have in common.

 

[brookdalebill]

I have a great memory for people and details, as they apply to my life.
You can ask me what I was doing at any year in my life, and I can tell you.
Not that I’m asked often, but I have lots of “signposts” in my memory.
I don’t always remember names, but if I want to, I just say their name (to myself) about 5 times after meeting someone.
Works like a charm.
I also remember songs, lyrics, chord changes and arrangement details well.
I have to, or the next guy gets the call (to gig).
Sometimes (here’s the kicker), when I’m somewhere I don’t often go, and I see someone I should know, I don’t always remember.
I saw a luthier/steel player friend performing in Dallas (I was there recording an album).
I very rarely play there.
He had a hat on (he doesn’t typically wear hats), and had his head down looking at his steel.
I listened to the band (right in front of him), and didn’t realize who he was.
Ironically, a few years later, the woman who I recorded that project with came to one of my pick-up gigs.
She was there with a new boyfriend, and I didn’t recognize her.
She changed her look a little, and the new squeeze kinda threw me off, too.
Semi-weird.