Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:49:56.189Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A savant poet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

A. Dowker ,
B. Hermelin  and
L. Pring
A. Dowker
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oxford; and Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
B. Hermelin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oxford; and Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
L. Pring
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oxford; and Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Beate Hermelin Department of PsychologyUniversity of LondonGoldsmiths CollegeNew CrossLondon SE14 6NW.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Poems by an individual with a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome were analysed and compared with those of a comparison poet. Though the savant poet performed less efficiently on formal language tests supposed to tap creativity, there were few differences between the two poets in regard to the poems' content and the use of various structural devices. The poems by the savant referred more often to aspects of self-analysis, while descriptions of people not related to the self were less frequent. Both poets made use of similes and metaphors. The results are discussed in terms of different modular domains within the language system.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 5 , September 1996 , pp. 913 - 924
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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

Aimard, P. (1977). Les jeux de mots de l'enfant. Simep-Editions: Villcurbanne.Google Scholar
Asperger, H. (1991). ‘Autistic psychopathy’ in childhood. In Autism and Asperger Syndrome (ed. Frith, U.). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U., Marks, S., Bihrle, A. & Sabo, H. (1988). Dissociation between language and cognitive functions in Williams syndrome. In Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances (ed. Bishop, D. and Mogford, K.). Churchill Livingstone: London.Google Scholar
Carraher, T. N., Carraher, D. W. & Schliemann, A. D. (1985). Mathematics in the streets and schools. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 3, 21–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cazden, C. B. (1974). Play with language and metalinguistic awareness: one dimension of language experience. Urban Review 7, 28–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1980). On cognitive structures and their development; a reply to Piaget. In Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Naom Chomsky (ed. Piatelli-Palmerini, M.). Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Chukovsky, K. (1968). From Two to Five. University of California Press: Berkeley. (Translation of 1959 edition; first Russian edition published in 1925.)Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1978). Awareness of language: some evidence from what children say and do. In The Child's Conception of Language (ed. Sinclair, A., Jarvella, R. J. and Levelt, W. J. M.), pp. 17–44. Springer-Verlag: Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cromer, R. (1991). Language and Cognition in Normal and Handicapped Children. Basil Blackwell: Oxford.Google Scholar
Cromer, R. (1994). A case study of dissociations between language and cognition. In Constraints on Language Acquisition: Studies of Atypical Children (ed. Tager-Flusberg, H.), pp. 141–154. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Dowker, A. (1989). Rhyme and alliteration in poems elicited from young children. Journal of Child Language 16, 181–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowker, A. (1991). Modified repetition in poems elicited from young children. Journal of Child Language 18, 625–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowker, A. (1993). A song that no one knows: the spontaneous poems of very young children. British Psychological Society Developmental Section Newsletter 34, 8–13.Google Scholar
Dowker, A. & Pinto, G. (1993). Phonological devices in poems by English and Italian children. Journal of Child Language 20, 697–706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fodor, J. A. (1983). The Modularity of Mind. MIT Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Blackwell: London.Google Scholar
Getzels, J. W. & Jackson, P. W. (1962). Creativity and Intelligence: Explorations with Gifted Students. Wiley & Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. W. (1994). The Poetics of Mind. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gombert, J. E. (1992). Metalinguistic Development. Harvester Wheatsheaf: London.Google Scholar
Grandin, T. (1992). An inside view of autism. In High-functioning Individuals with Autism (ed. Schopler, E. and Mesibov, G. B.), pp. 105–128. Plenum Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadenius, A.-M., Hagberg, B., Hyttinas-Bensch, K. & Sjogren, I. (1962). The natural prognosis of infantile hydrocephalus. Acta Paediatrica 51, 117–118.Google Scholar
Happé, F. G. E. (1991). The autobiographical writings of three Asperger Syndrome adults: problems of interpretation and implications for theory. In Autism and Asperger's Syndrome (ed. Frith, U.), pp. 207–242. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1986). Idiot savant calendrical calculators: rules and regularities. Psychological Medicine 16, 885–893.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1990 a). Factors and primes: a specific numerical ability. Psychological Medicine 20, 163–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1990 b). Art and accuracy: the drawing ability of idiots savants. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 31, 217–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B., O'Connor, N. & Lee, S. (1987). Musical inventiveness of five idiot-savants. Psychological Medicine 17, 685–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B., O'Connor, N. & Treffert, D. A. (1989). Intelligence and musical improvisation. Psychological Medicine 19, 447–457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holbrook, D. (1968). English for the Rejected. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hunt, N. (1966). The World of Nigel Hunt. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. (1960). Linguistics and poetics. In Style in Language (ed. Sebeok, T. A.). Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lave, J., Murtaugh, M. & De la Rocha, O. (1984). The dialectic of arithmetic in grocery shopping. In Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context (ed. Rogoff, B. and Lave, J.). Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Lukens, H. T. (1894). Preliminary report on the learning of language. Pedagogical Seminary 3, 424–460.Google Scholar
Lundberg, I. (1978). Aspects of linguistic awareness related to reading. In The Child's Conception of Language (ed. Sinclair, A., Jarvella, R. J. and Levelt, W. J. M.), pp. 83–96. Springer-Verlag: Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, L. K. (1989). Musical Savants: Exceptional Skill in the Mentally Retarded. Lawrence Erlbaum: London.Google Scholar
Money, J. & Alexander, D. (1966). Turner's syndrome: further evidence of the presence of special cognitional deficiencies. Journal of Medical Genetics 3, 47–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morais, J. (1988). Constraints on the development of phonemic awareness.Paper presented in the Symposium on Phonological Processing in Literacy, to honour the research of Isabelle Y. Liberman, 39th Annual Conference of the Orton Society,Tampa, FL.Google Scholar
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1989). The memory structure of autistic idiot-savant mnemonists. British Journal of Psychology 80, 97–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1991). A specific linguistic ability. American Journal of Mental Retardation 95, 673–680.Google ScholarPubMed
Piatelli-Palmerini, M. (ed.) (1980). Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Pring, L. & Hermelin, B. (1993). Bottle, tulip and wineglass: semantic and structural picture processing by savant artists. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 34, 1365–1385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pring, L., Hermelin, B. & Heavey, L. (1995). Savants, segments, art and autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 36, 1065–1076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhodes, N. (1993). Linguistic features and subject matter in psychotics' poetry. Unpublished undergraduate research project, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Roazzi, A., Dowker, A. & Bryant, P. E. (1993). Phonological abilities of Brazilian street poets. Applied Psycholinguistics 14, 535–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, T. (1979). Those First Affections: An Anthology of Poems Composed Between the Ages of Two and Eight. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Rondal, J. A. (1994). Exceptional cases of language development in mental retardation: The relative autonomy of language as a cognitive system. In Constraints on Language Acquisition: Studies of Atypical Children (ed. Tager-Flusberg, H.), pp. 155–174. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. (1992). Bridging the gaps: an inside-out view of autism (or, do you know what I don't know?). In High-functioning Individuals with Autism (ed. Schopler, E. and Mesibov, G. B.), pp. 294–301. Plenum Press: New York.Google Scholar
Smith, N. & Tsimpli, M. (1991). Linguistic modularity? A case study of a savant linguist. Language 84, 315–351.Google Scholar
Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D. A. & Cicchetti, D. V. (1984). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. (A revision of the Vineland Social Maturity Scale by E. A. Doll.) American Guidance Service Inc.: Circle Pines, Minnesota.Google Scholar
Spearman, C. (1927). The Abilities of Man. Macmillan: New York.Google Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1994). Dissociations in form and function in the acquisition of language by autistic children. In Constraints on Language Acquisition: Studies of Atypical Children (ed. Tager-Flusberg, H.), pp. 175–194. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Treffert, D. A. (1989). Extraordinary People. Bantam Press: New York.Google Scholar
Trettien, A. W. (1904). Psychology of the language interest of children. Pedagogical Seminary 9, 113–177.Google Scholar
Wing, L. & Gould, J. (1973). Systematic recording of behaviors and skills of retarded and psychotic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia 8, 79–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamada, J. & Curtiss, S. (1981). The relation between language and cognition in a case of Turner's Syndrome. Cognitive Linguistics 3, 93–114.Google Scholar