When you look at someone
Can you tell what they are thinking?
Or feeling?
And does it matter?
YES!
Recognizing how others are reacting is the first big step in getting along with others.
And that matters, doesn’t it?
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of The University of Cambridge, has developed a way of testing your skill in understanding what facial expressions – based on just the eyes – are telling you.
This comes via an article in The New York Times
(The average score for this exercise is 22 – 30.)
Try it out!
There is no doubt that we differ in our ability to recognize faces. That may have a lot to do with how things are going in a small brain structure called the fusiform gyrus that dwells at the bottom of each of our two temporal lobes, according to a recent Journal of Neuroscience study by Stanford neurologist Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD. People with prosopagnosia simply cannot distinguish one face from another, although all other aspects of their vision and visual-information processing are normal.
And if you enjoyed doing this, have you exercised your short-term memory with Cat faces? (Note: This is Level 2. Try Level 1 if you haven’t done this exercise before).
I found that fascinating and managed to get 23 correct. The darker the shadows the more difficult it was to interpret
Well done! 23 is an excellent score. And you are correct that lighting and shadows do make interpretation much more difficult. In real life, too!
I also found that fascinating and was surprised at how many I got correct (strangely 23, the same as MaryJane). Almost all that were correct were in the early photos. The darkness was tricky and I wasn’t so focused.
23 is a fantastic score. Well done! Variations in light, angle, and context make such a difference in face recognition. No wonder there are so many differing accounts of the same incident in police interviews!
These 2 tests are most enjoyable!
I did the first one twice and found the yellow hair ruined my judgment both times!
I scored 27 for the second one which isn’t too bad I suppose.
I had to do the Driver’s Licence test again (I’m 84 now). This time I remembered 4 words (out of 10.). I’ve not managed more than 2 before! I’m quite chuffed. The words are read too fast for one to make associations etc. All one can do is pray beforehand.