Remind me who you are again ...

For people like me, on the wrong side of 40 and hopeless at remembering faces, researchers at Harvard University and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have got bad news - things aren't likely to get any better as we get older. The researchers tested 44,000 volunteers, aged between 10 and 70, on a variety of skills, including the ability to recognise computer-generated faces. They found that skills at other mental tasks, such as remembering names, peaked at around 23-24. However, on the face-recognition task skill rose sharply from age 10 to 20, continued increasing slowly through people's 20s and reached a peak of 83% correct responses in people aged between 30 and 34. Perhaps those of us who are a bit older should start practising our bluffing techniques!