week 10 Flashcards
What is a savant
prodigious and outstanding talent can co-occur with learning or developmental disabilities.
Although highly unusual some people can acquire savant abilities usually from brain trauma
Very rare not recognised by DSM-V
Kim Peek
IQ of 87
Remembered almost everything he read, memorising a vast array of subject
Damaged cerebellum meant poor motor skills. Agenesis of the corpus callosum so didn’t exist but other connections formed
Flo and Kay Lyman
only pair of savant twins
extraordinary memory abilities
Difficulties with social communication
Alonso Clemons
can sculpt incredibly accurate figurines of animals using his bare hands
Suffered a head injury as a toddler changed way he communicated
IQ 40-50
Stephan Wiltshire
extraordinary artistic memory. Can draw entire city landscapes with incredible accuracy from only one helicopter ride
Verbal IQ measured at 52
Derek Paravicini
Extraordinary musical abilities. An incredible musical repertoire entirely memorised
Can improvise any piece of music into any genre and any key.
What makes savant prodigious
Do savant develop skills through hours of practice because of traits associated with their learning difficulty
Do the unique skills of savants originate from the same cause of their learning difficulty
Are savant skills aided by fundamental cognitive and perceptual differences
Propensity relationship
personal traits may lead to behaviours that increase one’s ability to practice and master talents
Correlational relationships
the same biological/neurological cause underpins both skills and learning difficulty
Causal
Savant skills derive from cognitive and perceptual difference
Challenges of measurement
incredibly small sample
each talent is unique
each learning difficulty may also be unique
communication with savant may be difficult
it is hard to imagine something you can’t yourself do
Convergent thinking
a term used to describe the ability to use accuracy, logic and speed to develop a single well-established answer to problem
Will synthesise multiple points of information to derive an answer
Suited to deductive and factual endeavours
Divergent thinking
A term used to describe the ability to generate multiple possible solutions
Personality traits associated with divergent thinking include openness and extraversion
Suited to creative endeavours
Torrance test for creative thinking
test for fluency
Flexibility- the number of different categories of relevant responses
Originality- the statistical rarity of the responses
Elaboration- the amount of detail in the responses
Theoretical background of flow
aims to be a holistic understanding of attention and consciousness within and between people
flow states are optimal states of performance and wellbeing
What does flow involve
1) focus and concentration
2) a sense of ecstasy
3) greater inner clarity
4) knowing that activity is doable
5) a sense of serenity
6) timelessness
7) intrinsic motivation
How do we access flow
people tend to enter into flow more easily when a task has clear proximal goals and offers immediate informational feedback on one’s progress
For flow to be enjoyable it has to be voluntary
Flow is balance between task difficulty and level of ability. there are other states possible such as anxiety and apathy
Monotropism theory
a mind that focusses on a small number of interests and tends to miss things outside it’s attentional tunnel
Hyperfocus can make it hard to redirect attention
Criticisms of flow
It is correlational not causational, skills-challenge fit very cognitive. Flow cannot be induced in a lab so it has been hard to study it under controlled conditions
What about contextual variables abilities and task complexity can vary
is attention wholly controlled by conscious choices
current methodologies impact the course of flow
