On a related note, facial recognition works off a different set of regions in the brain compared to regular long-term memory. You can actually train yourself to memorize certain things using your brain's "facial recognition system".
Chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar learned (inadvertently, perhaps) from a very young age because of her father's training. She can easily recognize a board configuration just by glancing at it. Her brain recognizes various sub-configurations and she is able to duplicate the layout with very little effort. She can't perform the same task with a random configurations though, but chess at her level is rarely random.
Chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar learned (inadvertently, perhaps) from a very young age because of her father's training. She can easily recognize a board configuration just by glancing at it. Her brain recognizes various sub-configurations and she is able to duplicate the layout with very little effort. She can't perform the same task with a random configurations though, but chess at her level is rarely random.
http://www.tvthrong.co.uk/my-brilliant-brain/my-brilliant-br...