Idiots savants — Thinking about remembering: A response to White

Abstract

When we are presented with evidence of remarkable ability, as in the case of child prodigies for example, most of us are led to marvel at the gift of outstanding talent. When presented with evidence of extreme ability in individuals who are otherwise only marginally functional, as in the case of idiots savants, we may wonder whether nature has somehow been playing a cruel joke. What is the purpose or value of such ability? Does it do either the individual or the society any good ? Can the same processes which account for exceptional talent in intact individuals possibly also be operating in the case of the savant? The idiot savant represents a particularly odd packaging of talent one that should challenge commonly held notions of intelligence and ability. Yet there is something about the phenomenon of the savant which makes most of us uncomfortable. While it has received some attention in the literature on retardation and disability (Hill, 1974, 1975; Hoffman 8c Reeves, 1979; Horowitz, Kestenbaum, Person, & Jarvik, 1965; Morishima & Brown, 1977), it has been largely dismissed or ignored by those seeking to understand general intellectual functioning (but see Gardner, 1983). In his paper, “The structured representation of information in long-term memory: A possible explanation for the accomplishments of ‘idiots savants’,” White has taken the important step of seeking to fit the apparently anomalous skills of the savant into a framework designed to explain general cognitive functioning. While we would add some cautions, queries, and alternative paths to White’s proposed explanation, we believe that his effort to push general cognitive theory to account for a wider range of individuals and abilities is both provocative and important. White’s theoretical framework is an information-processing one: he seeks to understand savants’ abilities in terms of the idiosyncratic structuring of longterm memory stores. He details how two cases a pair of twins who displayed extreme numerical abilities, and an autistic artist might have organized large portions of long-term memory in the service of their unusual abilities.