Calendar calculating idiots savants and the smart unconscious

Abstract

The fact that there are individuals of very limited general intelligence who can perform exceptionally well in one or two isolated domains has always puzzled psychologists who must somehow account for this anomaly in their theories of human ability. It is generally agreed that understanding these idiots savants (here called mono-savants) will increase our understanding of the mind. In this paper calendar calculating over a very extensive time period is accounted for by invoking unconscious processes that act on material to which individuals are innately atrracted and predisposed, and which they study intensively. Support for this viewpoint is drawn from recent empirical evidence that finding and using redundancies, patterns, and algorithms can occur outside of conscious awareness and, to a large extent, irrespective of general intelligence.