Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T09:05:15.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Idiot savant calendrical calculators: rules and regularities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

B. Hermelin  and
N. O'Connor
B. Hermelin*
Affiliation:
MRC Developmental Psychology Project, Institute of Education, London
N. O'Connor
Affiliation:
MRC Developmental Psychology Project, Institute of Education, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr B. Hermelin, MRC Developmental Psychology Project, Institute of Education, 18 Woburn Square, London WC1H 0NS.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , November 1986 , pp. 885 - 893
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Binet, A. (1894). Psychologie des grandes calculateurs et de jouers d'échecs. Hachette: Paris.Google Scholar
Byrd, H. (1920). A case of phenomenal memorising in a feeble minded negro. Journal of Applied Psychology 4, 202–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Down, J. L. (1887). On some of the Mental Affections of Childhood and Youth. Churchill: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Duckett, J. M. (1976). Savants: super specialisations in mentally retarded persons. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation: University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1964). Crossmodal transfer in normal, subnormal and autistic children. Neuropsychologia 2, 229–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, A. L. (1975). An investigation of calendrical calculating by an idiot savant. American Journal of Psychiatry 132, 557–560.Google Scholar
Horwitz, W. A., Kestenbaum, C., Person, E. & Jarvik, L. (1965). Identical twins – ‘idiot savants’ – calendar calculators. American Journal of Psychiatry 121, 1075–1079.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karmiloff Smith, A. (1979). Micro- and macrodevelopmental changes in language acquisition and other representational systems. Cognitive Science 3, 91–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1982). Modifications in children's representational systems and levels of accessing knowledge. In Knowledge and Representation (ed. de Gelder, B.), pp. 65–79. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Mitchell, F. D. (1907). Mathematical prodigies. American Journal of Psychology 18, 61–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1962). Learning and recognition in imbeciles.In Proceedings at the London Conference for Scientific Study of Mental Deficiency, vol. 1, pp. 83–89. May and Baker: Dagenham.Google Scholar
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1984). Idiot savant calendrical calculators: maths or memory? Psychological Medicine 14,801–806.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rimland, B. (1978). The autistic savant. Psychology Today 08, 69–80.Google Scholar
Scheerer, M., Rothmann, E. & Goldstein, K. (1945). A case of ‘idiot Savant’: an experimental study of personality organization. Psychological Monographs 58, 1–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitz, H. H. & La Fontaine, L. (1973). The digit span of idiot savants. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 6, 757–759.Google Scholar