Okay, remember that video I posted before?

[conuly]

Try this one.

Very unrelated, but it made me think of this. At the library there are (as near as I can tell, and possibly confusing various job titles) two main children's librarians and a number of random staff, many of whom are teens.

For whatever reason, I am unable to identify which librarian is which until they speak. It's like the whole faceblindness thing, but very selective (and incredibly weird). These two look nothing alike - different heights, weights, hair colors, one wears glasses and the other doesn't! - and they don't act that much alike, and I can tell the difference between them easily, but I can't slot them to their identities until they speak and I can hear their voices. I don't confuse them for anybody else or fail to recognize them entirely (though I place no money on my ability to say hi to them if I were to see them on the bus or something unexpectedly), but for whatever reason they conflate in my mind.

Is that a form of faceblindness, or something altogether different? I don't know. It's amusing, though - it never can be a hassle because any time it comes up I just have to wait for them to open their mouths and I know who I'm dealing with.

(Incidentally, the comments to that YouTube video were really useful for a change. Watch the *whole video* before you read on! Professor Simons, whom they interview after showing us the experiment, changes his shirt - dramatic color change! - midway through the interview.)

Here's another video on the same subject. For the record, Trinity Church is on Wall Street and Broadway, just off the 5 train. Pretty church, very historic, you should stop by if you visit the city, just to watch their preschoolers cavorting in the graveyard.

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I have no idea about your librarian issue! It's very weird, although I think I understand. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but in college I dated 2 guys that I worried about running into on campus because I wasn't sure if I'd recognize them if I saw them. One of them I actually broke up with BECAUSE of not being able to recognize him (or the fear that I wouldn't be able to). It's very odd.

I wonder if there is some feature that we look for in faces or other ways of identifying people, and some people are missing the feature that we specifically look for. I wonder if we could even ever discover the specific thing that is missing...