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2 results

  • 12 - Prodigies and Savants

  • from Part III - Intelligence and Group Differences
  • Edited by Robert J. Sternberg, Cornell University, New York
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence
    Published online:
    13 December 2019
    Print publication:
    16 January 2020, pp 258-290

  • Summary

    For about a century there has been a modest research effort to explain the nature of prodigies and savants. Savant research emerged out of the medical field and centered on deficit/remediation. Research with prodigies generally consists of case studies by psychologists with an interest in the manifestation and development of extreme talent, sometimes as part of the “gifted child” movement in the United States, more recently as anomalies in developmental psychology.

    Research into both phenomena evolved to incorporate new questions, including debates over the role of general versus specific intellectual abilities in talent development. This chapter summarizes and reviews research on prodigies and savants. It also reviews what, to date, has been found about the nature and interplay of general and specific intellectual strengths and weaknesses more generally, offering a possible role for both specific talent and general ability.

  • Chapter 20 - Working Memory and Intelligence

  • from Part V - Intelligence and Information Processing
  • Edited by Robert J. Sternberg, Oklahoma State University, Scott Barry Kaufman, New York University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    30 May 2011, pp 394-418

  • Summary

    Prodigies may be examples of extreme high intelligence, while savants may be examples of extreme low intelligence. There is relative consensus on how to define a savant but less agreement on the definition of a child prodigy. There have been a small number of more interpretive or theoretical efforts to comprehend and make sense of the prodigy phenomenon. With the availability of powerful imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and others, prodigy cases shed light on some of the enduring issues in the study of intelligence. There have been advances in two areas that bear directly on savants and intelligence. One of these is of general interest and deals with all savants; this work shows that assumed constraints on IQ and other capabilities do not always hold for savants, that there is more diversity and greater plasticity in savant development than was previously believed.