My memory of faces is… compressed. For example, if I’m close to a short white guy with large ears, a small nose and no facial hair, I’ll remember his face pretty well—but every time I meet someone matching the same description, I’ll remember him as having the first guy’s face. So I might not recognize him at all, because I’m comparing his face to a different one, and I certainly won’t tell the two apart. Same thing for voices and body shapes, only worse. I can remember particular items of clothing but not generalize to a style. What they talk about is useful, but not instantaneous.
My memory of faces is… compressed. For example, if I’m close to a short white guy with large ears, a small nose and no facial hair, I’ll remember his face pretty well—but every time I meet someone matching the same description, I’ll remember him as having the first guy’s face. So I might not recognize him at all, because I’m comparing his face to a different one, and I certainly won’t tell the two apart. Same thing for voices and body shapes, only worse. I can remember particular items of clothing but not generalize to a style. What they talk about is useful, but not instantaneous.