Neil O'Connor

Functional asymmetry in the reading of Braille

Abstract Difference between right and left handed reading was investigated in two experiments. In the first, summarised previously, children were found to be faster and more accurate when reading with fingers of the left than the right hand. In the second study, using adults, no difference in speed was found, but fewer mistakes were made when reading with the left than with the right middle finger. The findings are discussed in relation to training effects and cortical asymmetry.

Idiot savant calendrical calculators: Rules and regularities.

The three experiments described aimed to establish whether the achievements of idiot savant calendrical calculators were based solely on rote memory and arithmetical procedures, or whether these subjects also used rule-based strategies. It was found that, although different structural calendar regularities were tested by using differing experimental paradigms, all subjects could at least use some of the rules under investigation. The more cognitively able subjects could make use of all the three structural regularities of the calendar tested here. It was concluded that idiot savant calendrical calculators can use rule-based strategies to aid them in the calculation of the days on which past and future dates fall.

An Exceptional Musical Memory

This article reports a study on a musical idiot savant (NP) who is capable of memorizing large-scale pieces of piano music in three or four hearings. Attempts to memorize two contrasting pieces are documented, one a tonal composition by Grieg, the other an atonal piece by Bartok. The results are compared with those provided by a professional pianist. Transcription of the reproductions shows that NP9s ability is confined to tonal music and is structurally based. In this respect, it resembles the performance of high IQ memorizers and supports the view that general intelligence is not a prerequisite for structure-based skill.

Idiot savant calendrical calculators: maths or memory?

Eight idiot savant calendrical calculators were tested on dates in the years 1963, 1973, 1983, 1986 and 1993. The study was carried out in 1983. Speeds of correct response were minimal in 1983 and increased markedly into the past and the future. The response time increase was matched by an increase in errors. Speeds of response were uncorrelated with measured IQ, but the numbers were insufficient to justify any inference in terms of IQ-independence. Results are interpreted as showing that memory alone is inadequate to explain the calendrical calculating performance of the idiot savant subjects.

Intelligence and musical improvisation

We investigated whether somebody with a severe mental impairment could not only remember and reproduce music, but was also able to generate it. Musical improvisation requires the ability to recognize constraints and also demands inventiveness. Musical improvisations on a traditional, tonal and also on a whole tone scale composition were produced by a mentally handicapped and by a normal control musician. It was found that not only the control but also the handicapped subject could improvise appropriately within structural constraints, although with the tonal music the idiot-savant showed some stylistic latitude. It is concluded that cognitive processes such as musical input analysis, decision making, and output monitoring are independent of general intellectual status.

Visual and graphic abilities of the idiot savant artist

Five idiots savants whose artistic output was judged to be at art school entrance standard were matched for performance and verbal IQ with control subjects who had no special artistic talent. Each subject was given tests of reproductive skill with both concrete pictures and unfamiliar and unnameable geometric designs. They were also asked to draw a man, and a test of picture completion was given which involved constructive imagination. In all tests the idiots savants proved clearly superior to IQ-matched controls, indicating the presence of an IQ-independent talent. The results are interpreted in terms of a superior image memory and ready access to a picture lexicon. In addition, the existence of superior graphically directed motor programmes must be assumed.

Factors and primes : a specific numerical ability

An autistic young man and a normal control were asked to factorize numbers and to recognize and generate primes. Both subjects made a similar number of errors and employed similar strategies, but they differed markedly in the speeds at which the arithmetical operations were carried out.

Talents and preoccupations in idiots-savants

The question was asked whether a diagnosis of autism or a tendency to repetitive behaviour and preoccupation with a restricted area of interest, were crucial features of idiot-savant talents. Answers by caretakers to a questionnaire on these topics revealed that autistic and nonautistic savants resembled each other closely in preoccupation but differed from controls matched for IQ and diagnosis. In addition, the mentally handicapped showed fewer repetitive tendencies than did autistic controls. It is concluded that independent of diagnosis, preoccupations and repetitive behaviour appear to be closely associated with the manifestation of idiot-savant talents.

Musical inventiveness of five idiots-savants.

Accounts of musical ability in idiots-savants have up till now been confined to stressing the astounding musical memory which such persons may possess. The present study investigates compositional and improvisational skills in five idiots-savants. The findings interpreted as indicating that a representational system of musical rules and structures is accessible to persons of low general intelligence, and that such a system may underlie reproductive as well as generative musical capacity.

Neuropsychology and linguistic talent

Abstract We report on the unique case of a polyglot savant who is institutionalised because he is unable to look after himself, but who has knowledge of some fifteen to twenty languages. We provide details of his medical and psychometric background and then document his linguistic ability in detail. We argue that the case provides evidence for Fodors modularity hypothesis (though with some quasimodular structure needing to be attributed to the central system) and for the linguistic distinction between a functional and a conceptual lexicon. We also report on the results of an MRI scan carried out on the subject. While these may reveal some abnormalities of the cerebellum, there is no differential cortical development which could underlie his linguistic ability. We conclude that, while pathological studies are making our understanding of the links between the neural and the linguistic ever clearer, we are still largely ignorant of the nature of those links in cases of normal or enhanced ability.