Individual differences: savants and prodigious talent

Question 1

What is a savant?

Answer 1

• prodigious and outstanding talent can co-occur with learning/developmental disabilities
• can include people with autism but not all people with autism are savants
• can acquire savant abilities through brain trauma but this is highly unusual
• Very rare - not recognised by DSM-V - around 100 documented in the world

Question 2

What is the clinical definition of a savant (DSM-V)? (social)

Answer 2

persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts - social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communicative behaviours, developing, maintaining and understanding relationships

Question 3

What is the clinical definition of a savant (DSM-V)? (behaviour)

Answer 3

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities: stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, inflexible adherence to routines, fixed interests, hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input

Question 4

What is the clinical definition of a savant (DSM-V)? (symptom development)

Answer 4

Symptoms must be present in early development

Question 5

What is the clinical definition of a savant (DSM-V)? (functioning)

Answer 5

Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational functioning

Question 6

What is the clinical definition of a savant (DSM-V)? (explanation)

Answer 6

Disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability

Question 7

Who is Kim Peek?

Answer 7

• remembered almost everything he read, memorised a vast array of subjects including literature, geography, sports, music, dates
• measured iq of 87

Question 8

What brain abnormalities did Kim Peek have?

Answer 8

• Damaged cerebellum - poor motor skills
• Agenesis of corpus callosum - alternative connections formed between hemispheres

Question 9

Who are Flo and Kay Lyman?

Answer 9

World’s only known pair of savant twins
- extraordinary memory abilities - can tell what day of the week any date in their lives occurred along with the weather and what they ate that day
- difficulties with social communication typical of autism

Question 10

Who is Alonso Clemons?

Answer 10

Can sculpt incredibly accurate figurines of animals using bare hands (even in the dark)
- suffered a head injury as a child that changed behaviour and communication
- measured iq of 40-50

Question 11

Who is Stephen Wiltshire?

Answer 11

Extraordinary artistic memory
- can draw entire city landscapes with incredible accuracy only from a helicopter ride
- Verbal iq measured at 52

Question 12

Who is Derek Paravicini?

Answer 12

Extraordinary musical abilities
- large musical repertoire entirely memorised
- can improvise any piece of music into any genre and any key
- can take any notes an audience member suggests and make a new piece of music on the spot

Question 13

What is a propensity relationship theory for savants’ prodigious talent?

Answer 13

Do savants develop skills through hours of practice bc of traits associated with their learning difficulty?

Question 14

What is a correlational relationship theory for savants’ prodigious talent?

Answer 14

Do the unique skills of savants originate from the same cause of their learning difficulty?

Question 15

What is a causal relationship theory for savants’ prodigious talent?

Answer 15

Are savants skills aided by fundamental cognitive and perceptual differences?

Question 16

What are some challenges of measurement in savants?

Answer 16

• incredibly small sample
• each talent is unique
• each learning difficulty may also be unique
• communication with savants may be difficult
• it is hard to imagine something you cant do yourself

Question 17

What is convergent thinking?

Answer 17

The ability to use accuracy, logic and speed to develop a single well-established answer to a problem
- will synthesise multiple points of info to derive an answer
- suited to deductive and factual endeavours

Question 18

What is divergent thinking?

Answer 18

Ability to generate multiple possible outcomes
- personality traits associated include openness and extraversion
- suited to creative endeavours

Question 19

What are torrance tests for creative thinking?

Answer 19

Tests for fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration

Question 20

What is the theoretical background of flow states?

Answer 20

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Hungarian-American psychologist) - all civilisations created places of ecstacies such as temples and theatres where they can go to experience life in a more concentrated and organised form
- when we experience these, we have intense focus, loose awareness of time and space and find these experiences pleasurable
- flow aims to be a holistic understanding of attention and consciousness within and between people
- flow states are optimal states of performance and wellbeing

Question 21

what 7 things does flow involve?

Answer 21

• based on over 800 people
  1. focus and concentration
  2. sense of ecstacy
  3. greater inner clarity
  4. knowing that activity is doable
  5. sense of serenity
  6. timelessness
  7. intrinsic motivations

Question 22

How do we access flow?

Answer 22

• tend to enter flow more easily when task has clear proximal goals and offers immediate informational feedback on progress
• to be enjoyable, it has to be voluntary
• is a balance between task difficulty and level of ability

Question 23

What is the synergy between flow and research on neurodiveristy?

Answer 23

autistic people have been classified as having fixed interests and a focus on routine

Question 24

What is monotropism (Dinah Murray)

Answer 24

• A mind that focusses on a small number of interests and tends to miss things outside its attentional tunnel
• hyperfocus can make it hard to redirect attention (executive functioning) and can lead to stereotypes

Question 25

What are 5 criticisms fo flow research?

Answer 25

• correlation, not causation
• skills-challenge fit very cognitive
• flow cannot be induced in a lab - hard to study under control conditions
• abilities and complexity can vary (contextual variables)
• is attention wholly controlled by conscious choices?
• current methodologies impact the course of flow