Table 8.

The Hallmark Symptoms of DP in Adulthood and Childhood.

Hallmark Symptom
Confusion regarding the characters when watching films, TV and/or plays
Inability to identify people in photographs (including famous people, a personally familiar person, or oneself)
Teachers and/or guardians suggest screening for an alternative developmental disorder, yet this seems inappropriate
Appearing “lost” in a crowded place/large gathering (e.g. in the playground, at a train station)
Severity of difficulties increases in groups where everyone shares a characteristic (e.g. same uniform, same age or gender)
When in conversations, asking generic questions and nothing personal until a clue to their identity is given
Consistently avoids using other people’s names
Never introduces themselves to someone else, or two people to each other
Relying on extrafacial information to identify someone and failing to recognise someone when this changes or is unavailable (e.g. hair style or colour; voice or accent; gait or walk; clothing style or uniform)
Describing people by using extrafacial information (e.g. “that’s Mr X with the motorbike helmet”)
Confusing individuals who have extrafacial features in common, but are facially dissimilar
An inability to identify an unexpectedly encountered familiar person
Walking past and accidentally ignoring familiar people when in public (i.e. that individual is out of context)
A relative ease in recognising people when they appear in expected contexts (e.g. a work colleague in the workplace)
Believing others to be extraordinarily good at face recognition and/or being amazed by others’ abilitiesa
Struggling to reconstruct or imagine a person’s face in one’s mind and/or being unable to describe that face

^aA symptom which is a personal belief, and not necessarily an outward behavioural characteristic. Thus, this symptom is more likely to be identified in oneself rather than in another person.