During high school and college, I worked at Kentucky Kingdom amusement park in Louisville, Ky. Besides battling racuous crowds and the blazing heat, one thing that was interesting to me was trying to keep track of the different people I was seeing throughout the day. As a games attendant (a.k.a. carnival barker), I would attempt to personally say things to people that I saw multiple times, whether at different games or at different parts of the park. This was mostly just a sales tactic, and I think the customers likely thought I was training to have my own magic show.
In college, like a lot of people, I would generally see the exact same people walking to and from class every day. I would then notice these people in different places, which would lead me to consider striking up a conversation with them (although this rarely occurred). When I did finally meet people organically, it didn't seem acceptable to mention that I had seen them the day before at 3 pm near Hovde Hall because why on earth would I even know that.
After college, there were times where I did attempt to keep track of groups of people at various places, but I just assumed that this was something everyone did. I also found it intriguing to try to remember the differences between twins at various times in my life. Sometimes this was really challenging, but as long as I was around both twins a couple of times, it usually wasn't a big deal.
At some point around 10 years ago, I came across a Super Recogniser test, out of the University of Greenwich. To be considered a Super Recogniser, one must take a 5-minute, 14-trial test. To date, around 7 million people have taken the test.
I was pleasantly surprised to score well enough on the test (I think I missed one question total) and be added to the database of Super Recognisers. Since then, I've taken a range of facial recognition tests, where I usually score slightly above the average of the others being tested. According to recent communication sent by Greenwich, there are around 40k Super Recognisers in the database, although not all are tested each time (and likely not all who are sent the link even take part). Occasionally I'll score in the top 10 percent, but as long as I'm not dragging the scores down, I feel as if I'm doing my part.
Anyway, I thought this would be an interesting thing to post about because I've been a part of it for so many years at this point. I don't consider this to be a superpower or anything of that nature, but I guess it does at least let me know that I do have some ability to recognize faces that maybe the general public doesn't entirely have. Freel free to take the test and report back if you make the cut!
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