6 ms·

How Many People Can You Remember?

kozukumi 11y ago
I hadn't really thought about this until my wife pointed it out to me a year or two ago but I apparently have "weirdly good" face and name recollection. My wife on the other hand isn't all that good at it. Not bad but not great. I would say about average. I am also a very sociable and chatty person. I can and do chat to everyone. On the tube. On a plain. Waiting in a queue (I am British after all!). You name it I will chat to you. My wife on the other hand is a person who doesn't like to chat with people she doesn't know. She gets nervous striking up a conversation whereas I just start it without giving it a second thought. I have wondered if these are related? I am naturally very observant. I remember car reg plates, addresses and telephone numbers with ease. I can't remember if I trained myself to do this or it is just a natural ability. I suspect it is a little bit of both. Remembering IP addresses and directory structures in my early years and teens no doubt helped strengthen those skills. A couple of months back I did this test [0] and apparently got the 'super recogniser' title with ease. If you think you are good at remember small details it is quite a fun test! [0] https://jfe.qualtrics.com/form/SV_e3xDuCccGAdgbfT https://jfe.qualtrics.com/form/SV_e3xDuCccGAdgbfT
- jstanley 11y ago
  Wow! I'm surprised the later ones are even possible to do. The faces are shown at a completely different angle and with aspect ratio distorted, I don't know where to begin. Scored 7/14. Enjoyed it a surprising amount anyway.
  - kozukumi 11y ago
    It is hard to explain but I can just understand the structure of the face and my brain can sort of automatically map that to a 3D model of their head. I don't even need to try and look for distinguishing marks. I just look at the face for a couple of seconds and that's it. Just retook the test, my results http://i.imgur.com/HwQs6XQ.png http://i.imgur.com/HwQs6XQ.png
    - Denzel 11y ago
      That's interesting, I feel the same way about faces. It just feels natural to me. I got a 13/14 on the first test you posted. Then I decided to take the extended test: - 37/40 (top 5%) upright face recognition - 27/32 (top 5%) inverted face recognition - 38/40 (top 25%) glasgow face matching - 32/40 (<top 50%) chair recognition test The results are very interesting. I don't know what to make of them. But these tests were fun nonetheless! Thanks kozukumi.
- martin-adams 11y ago
  I on the other hand am terrible at remembering names. Tell me your name and I'll forget it in 2 mins unless I make a conscious effort. Maybe that's laziness. For me, if I meet someone in the corridor who I am not too familiar with, I will not greet them by their name because I have no concrete way to validate I will be accurate that quickly. It's a valuable skill though. The more chatty and familiar you make yourself, the more people remember you.
- Nadya 11y ago
  That test was very interesting. I got 13/14 and I'm certain I know which one I got wrong, as I was torn between two options for only a single question. I've always been great with faces - but I'll forget someone's name in a matter of seconds. I'm not sociable at all and actively avoid all contact, going as far as to avoid dinner with my own mother. If that works as a data point against extrovert + facial recognition. I'd lean more towards observant - and it's something I actively trained myself in. Always remember small details, as they can often be the most important and distinguishing ones.
landmark2 11y ago
tl;dr 150
pingou 11y ago
"The average number of Christmas cards mailed was 68.2". I think it was the most impressing number for me in that article, although only based on data from 43 people. Do they spend their whole Christmas writing cards?
- bostonpete 11y ago
  Most Christmas cards I get are just photo cards with a collage of family pictures from the year and maybe a handwritten "Merry Christmas" or something on the back.
  - bshimmin 11y ago
    I have found over the years that the fewer Christmas cards I send (zero for quite some years now), the fewer I tend to receive. I'm quite happy with this situation.
codingdave 11y ago
I have noticed that people who move around a lot seem to remember and care about more people - they tend to have a group of people in their memory from each location they have lived, job they have worked, etc. Whereas people who have lived in one place their entire life tend to be more focused on those who also stayed in that place. My evidence is anecdotal, as I grew up in a small town, and all of us who left remember each other well, with many of us in touch with each other at least via social media. But our childhood acquaintances barely remember us. Or good friends do, but not those who were simply classmates, for example. And even those who do remember don't necessarily care. I'd be interested in seeing any actual research performed on that aspect of remembering people.
lordnacho 11y ago
Has Dunbar looked at how technology changes this? After all we now have a database of friends including their pictures and biographical data. And there's one of business connections as well. You can also keep relations up in a time-economical way now, both two-way (chat,email) and one-way (status update). You'd think this would make a big difference both to number and quality of connections.
- ttctciyf 11y ago
  Pretty interesting question - I don't know Dunbar's view, but I can see two ways of looking at it: one: that the functional social group is the primary thing to be measured, and people who you aren't physically around very often, and who you need a database to remind you who they are, wouldn't properly be part of that; two: that the notion of functional social group should now be expanded to include these very people, and that the relation Dunbar was interested in (proportionality between social group size and neocortex size, viz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) needs to be adjusted to regard databases of friends as an extension of the neocortex :)
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    > needs to be adjusted to regard databases of friends as an extension of the neocortex :) It's sometimes called an exocortex and I find it to be a very useful term. It implies that your tools are a part of you :).
andygcook 11y ago
I did a lot of research on learning techniques, especially spaced repetition, a few years ago. I also noticed I'm not great with names, so I wrote a piece of software called Nombre that tracked everyone I met and let me play a spaced repetition game so I could learn names. It basically died when LinkedIn shut down their APIs, but thought I'd share anyways - http://nombreapp.com http://nombreapp.com. Does anyone here use a personal CRM or contacts database? Would love to hear your thoughts on that type of software.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Could you share the results of learning those techniques, especially whether or not Nombre actually helped you?
  - andygcook 11y ago
    Sure - I'll do a write up all about it some point soon. The short of it is yes, Nombre helped me. When my startup was acquired by HubSpot and I went from a three person company to a 700 person one, Nombre was super helpful for remembering everyone's names in product + engineering. I basically memorized 75+ people in a week or so.
- Amorymeltzer 11y ago
  Hey this is cool! I'd be really interested in something like this, is it still worth it? I mean, without LinkedIn can I link Facebook or something? I suppose facebook profile pics are likely to be somewhat unhelpful, but, man, I'm horrible with names.
  - andygcook 11y ago
    I wanted to hook other services up to it but never got around to it. I also realized it needs to be a mobile app to be truly valuable, which I just didn't have the time to build on nights and weekends. The circumstances it is really helpful with is when you get thrown into situations where you're meeting lots of people - new jobs, new school, new relationship, etc. Ideally there'd just be a "human" API that had high-res headshots of everyone in the world, but that doesn't exist. The closest is LinkedIn but since they shut down their API's developers can't use it anymore.
deleted 11y ago
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deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

I hadn't really thought about this until my wife pointed it out to me a year or two ago but I apparently have "weirdly good" face and name recollection. My wife on the other hand isn't all that good at it. Not bad but not great. I would say about average. I am also a very sociable and chatty person. I can and do chat to everyone. On the tube. On a plain. Waiting in a queue (I am British after all!). You name it I will chat to you. My wife on the other hand is a person who doesn't like to chat with people she doesn't know. She gets nervous striking up a conversation whereas I just start it without giving it a second thought. I have wondered if these are related? I am naturally very observant. I remember car reg plates, addresses and telephone numbers with ease. I can't remember if I trained myself to do this or it is just a natural ability. I suspect it is a little bit of both. Remembering IP addresses and directory structures in my early years and teens no doubt helped strengthen those skills. A couple of months back I did this test [0] and apparently got the 'super recogniser' title with ease. If you think you are good at remember small details it is quite a fun test! [0] https://jfe.qualtrics.com/form/SV_e3xDuCccGAdgbfT https://jfe.qualtrics.com/form/SV_e3xDuCccGAdgbfT

jstanley 11y ago
Wow! I'm surprised the later ones are even possible to do. The faces are shown at a completely different angle and with aspect ratio distorted, I don't know where to begin. Scored 7/14. Enjoyed it a surprising amount anyway.
- kozukumi 11y ago
  It is hard to explain but I can just understand the structure of the face and my brain can sort of automatically map that to a 3D model of their head. I don't even need to try and look for distinguishing marks. I just look at the face for a couple of seconds and that's it. Just retook the test, my results http://i.imgur.com/HwQs6XQ.png http://i.imgur.com/HwQs6XQ.png
  - Denzel 11y ago
    That's interesting, I feel the same way about faces. It just feels natural to me. I got a 13/14 on the first test you posted. Then I decided to take the extended test: - 37/40 (top 5%) upright face recognition - 27/32 (top 5%) inverted face recognition - 38/40 (top 25%) glasgow face matching - 32/40 (<top 50%) chair recognition test The results are very interesting. I don't know what to make of them. But these tests were fun nonetheless! Thanks kozukumi.
martin-adams 11y ago
I on the other hand am terrible at remembering names. Tell me your name and I'll forget it in 2 mins unless I make a conscious effort. Maybe that's laziness. For me, if I meet someone in the corridor who I am not too familiar with, I will not greet them by their name because I have no concrete way to validate I will be accurate that quickly. It's a valuable skill though. The more chatty and familiar you make yourself, the more people remember you.
Nadya 11y ago
That test was very interesting. I got 13/14 and I'm certain I know which one I got wrong, as I was torn between two options for only a single question. I've always been great with faces - but I'll forget someone's name in a matter of seconds. I'm not sociable at all and actively avoid all contact, going as far as to avoid dinner with my own mother. If that works as a data point against extrovert + facial recognition. I'd lean more towards observant - and it's something I actively trained myself in. Always remember small details, as they can often be the most important and distinguishing ones.

landmark2 11y ago

tl;dr 150

pingou 11y ago

"The average number of Christmas cards mailed was 68.2". I think it was the most impressing number for me in that article, although only based on data from 43 people. Do they spend their whole Christmas writing cards?

bostonpete 11y ago
Most Christmas cards I get are just photo cards with a collage of family pictures from the year and maybe a handwritten "Merry Christmas" or something on the back.
- bshimmin 11y ago
  I have found over the years that the fewer Christmas cards I send (zero for quite some years now), the fewer I tend to receive. I'm quite happy with this situation.

codingdave 11y ago

I have noticed that people who move around a lot seem to remember and care about more people - they tend to have a group of people in their memory from each location they have lived, job they have worked, etc. Whereas people who have lived in one place their entire life tend to be more focused on those who also stayed in that place. My evidence is anecdotal, as I grew up in a small town, and all of us who left remember each other well, with many of us in touch with each other at least via social media. But our childhood acquaintances barely remember us. Or good friends do, but not those who were simply classmates, for example. And even those who do remember don't necessarily care. I'd be interested in seeing any actual research performed on that aspect of remembering people.

lordnacho 11y ago

Has Dunbar looked at how technology changes this? After all we now have a database of friends including their pictures and biographical data. And there's one of business connections as well. You can also keep relations up in a time-economical way now, both two-way (chat,email) and one-way (status update). You'd think this would make a big difference both to number and quality of connections.

ttctciyf 11y ago
Pretty interesting question - I don't know Dunbar's view, but I can see two ways of looking at it: one: that the functional social group is the primary thing to be measured, and people who you aren't physically around very often, and who you need a database to remind you who they are, wouldn't properly be part of that; two: that the notion of functional social group should now be expanded to include these very people, and that the relation Dunbar was interested in (proportionality between social group size and neocortex size, viz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) needs to be adjusted to regard databases of friends as an extension of the neocortex :)
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  > needs to be adjusted to regard databases of friends as an extension of the neocortex :) It's sometimes called an exocortex and I find it to be a very useful term. It implies that your tools are a part of you :).

andygcook 11y ago

I did a lot of research on learning techniques, especially spaced repetition, a few years ago. I also noticed I'm not great with names, so I wrote a piece of software called Nombre that tracked everyone I met and let me play a spaced repetition game so I could learn names. It basically died when LinkedIn shut down their APIs, but thought I'd share anyways - http://nombreapp.com http://nombreapp.com. Does anyone here use a personal CRM or contacts database? Would love to hear your thoughts on that type of software.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Could you share the results of learning those techniques, especially whether or not Nombre actually helped you?
- andygcook 11y ago
  Sure - I'll do a write up all about it some point soon. The short of it is yes, Nombre helped me. When my startup was acquired by HubSpot and I went from a three person company to a 700 person one, Nombre was super helpful for remembering everyone's names in product + engineering. I basically memorized 75+ people in a week or so.
Amorymeltzer 11y ago
Hey this is cool! I'd be really interested in something like this, is it still worth it? I mean, without LinkedIn can I link Facebook or something? I suppose facebook profile pics are likely to be somewhat unhelpful, but, man, I'm horrible with names.
- andygcook 11y ago
  I wanted to hook other services up to it but never got around to it. I also realized it needs to be a mobile app to be truly valuable, which I just didn't have the time to build on nights and weekends. The circumstances it is really helpful with is when you get thrown into situations where you're meeting lots of people - new jobs, new school, new relationship, etc. Ideally there'd just be a "human" API that had high-res headshots of everyone in the world, but that doesn't exist. The closest is LinkedIn but since they shut down their API's developers can't use it anymore.

deleted 11y ago

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deleted 11y ago

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