Near savant skills?

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Just a personal reflection on something I just noticed now.

I read about how people like jerry newport have savant mathmatical capabilites. For me it seems with a lot of things, for lack of better terms, I'm an "almost savant", or "near savant" in several areas. I can create stunning visuals in my mind, but would have no way to transfer them to canvas because of my poor fine motor coordination. When I listen to music, I can isolate and concentrate on individual instruments of effects that are playing, and can play them back in my head, but couldn't tell what key they would be in, or what notes would be involved. Also when I hear a song, if I've heard it before a couple of times, I can indentify what it is after the first few notes, even if I don't know the artist or song title. I can do this even if I can't hear the song very well at all, E.g. the music is coming from behind a wall, or it's off in the distance, or obscured by other sounds.

The last post I made brought my total up to 246. When the page with my new post refreshed, I sat there and starred at the number 246 for a while, A voice in my head told me that there was something special about the number 246, so I sat and thought about it for a bit. Then things suddenly started coming to me.

1.) 2, 4, and 6, are the first three sequental even numbers that are greater than zero

2.) 2 + 4 = 6, hence 246

3.) 246 / 2 = 123, with 246 being the first three sequental even numbers that are greater than zero, and 1, 2, and 3 being the first three numbers greater than zero.

4.) I tried to divide 246 by 3 in my head and got 82, I checked it on the calculator, I was right

5.) I tried dividing 246 / 6 in my head and I got 41, once again, double checking on the calculator proved myself right.

I always told myself I suck at math since I could never get algebra, and was generally behind the rest of my classmates in grade school, but maybe I'm on to something to here???

I always do calculations like that, because I can only remember numbers when they have some sort of "hidden pattern" to them. Somehow it is easier for me to remembers numbers and sums of their digits than numbers alone. (!) However, after I have learned of AS, I started experimenting with my memory and got unexpected results. Among other things, I invented a special "language" for numbers ("Numeranto"), which seems to work especially well with phone numbers. I don't write them down anymore, I just repeat them a couple of times in Numeranto and they stick. This amazes me to no end, because a couple of months ago I was not even able to recall my own phone number.

Returning to the subject of mental arithmetic, I can't say that I am bad at it. Obviously I can't compare to Rainman, but rather to Christopher from "The Curious Incident" (the example of mental arithmetic provided in that book exactly matches my way of doing it). Apparently my skills in this area are above average, especially multiplication. This is despite the fact that I was never able to fully memorize the multiplication table.

Arithmetic is not mathematics. Nevertheless, mental arithmetic is useful and nice, and provides good workout for brain cells. It is certainly something that is worth practicing.

Not if you're Dyscalculic

Debs

Have you considered computer rendering?

I have a similar problem, but I make most of my art on the computer to bypass this.

To be a savant you must have what is called a prodigious memory. Savant ability is all connected to that. What you have described does not sound like Savant Syndrome.

Actually, I've heard from a savant that memory savants and other kinds of savants are two different kinds of savants, and need to be studied separately so that they don't get confused with each other (they might be doing the same things but in two totally different ways).

My particular "near-savant" skill is probably the fact that I have detailed maps in my head of everywhere I've been since I was very young. I was thought to be a savant when younger, but I don't think I'm that extreme. Although I'm not sure there's a sharp dividing line the way some people make one, either, between highly uneven skills and savant skills.

I have never heard of a non-memory type of savant, but my companion is replying to this thread, since she knows much more about Savant Syndrome that I do, even though I myself am a savant.

My companion says there is no such thing as "near-savant." There are different types of savant skills. You storing maps of places in memory as you descibed is one very common savant skill that falls under what is known as "splinter skills." Most savants only have one particular skill. Your ability to store maps of places you have visited is memory related. If indeed you can still recall those maps you created in memory as a child then I would not hesitate to say that you have a savant splinter skill. Savants have been stereotyped in much the same way as autism itself. In reality there are very few savants that posess the extreme abilities that Hollywood has focused on (prodigious savants). It is believed that 10% of people with AS have some sort of savant ability.

Prodigious memory is the one thing that all savants have in common.

Although Michelle Dawson has done some research showing that savant skills are possibly merely the most extreme in a general pattern of unevenness of skills among autistic people. So I'd question the idea that there's just a massive split between savant and non-savant among people who have varying amounts of uneven skill development.

And yes, I can recall those maps (at times when I can recall anything -- sometimes I can't remember a few seconds ago, so at those times I usually can't recall maps either), which is why I don't get lost except when very sick or otherwise incapacitated.

Jerry Newport is the one who has talked about for instance, his instant-calculator savant skills being different from someone who has memorized a large amount of times tables, for instance, and how the second kind of person is a "memory savant" who is operating differently than he is. (I think there's brain research to show this, too, and he said it messes up the brain research to have both people who've memorized large numbers and people who can instant-calculate large numbers being regarded as doing the same thing because different areas of the brain are used.)

Oh yeah, and I also have absolute pitch, which is considered by some to be a very common skill of that sort. And have participated in research on it.

(Amusing story there was telling my dad precisely what frequency a high-pitched noise emitted by his bathroom air purifier was, and then him checking it with a meter to make sure I was right because not only didn't he know the frequency, but he couldn't even hear the frequency.)

DeepThought thought I would be able to post a better reply to this thread than he would.

"Almost Savant" or "Nearly Savant"...could be akin to "Almost Pregnant", which in reality, you either ARE or you AREN'T.

Savant Syndrome is a disorder in which individuals with neurological developmental delays in socialization and communication possess an amazing brilliance in a specific selective obsessively-focused activity that contradicts the otherwise over-all capacity of the person with the handicap. Savant abilities tend to be related to the five primary senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and taste. The abilities of a Savant are centered around an acute memory. The manifestation of the Savant's talent may be a form of the Savant's self-expression, due to the under- or non-development of the usual modes of self-expression.

Simply being able to isolate and concentrate on individual instruments or effects when listening to music, then hearing them play over again continuously in your head is not a sign of Savant Syndrome. What is unique to the Savant is the extreme drive with which they develop the skills necessary to perform or reproduce that which is playing over and over again in their head. It is common for people to recognize a song after only hearing a few notes.

The calculations that you did in your head are general math calculations that many people can also do in their head. DeepThought watches items as they are placed in the cart when shopping and remembers the prices in his head after only glancing at the price tag. Then, at the register he almost instantly recalls the prices in his head, adds them up, tax included, with basic math like what you described and gives the total before the cashier rings me up. The Savant part of this is the memorization of the cost of individual items in the cart and not the calculation of the total.

Neither absolute, or perfect pitch are isolated to Savant Syndrome, although they are common.

I'm again not sure about this. I know it's what the literature says, but if there is other literature saying that uneven abilities in autistic people (and certain autistic patterns of intelligence) are related to savant skills even if they're not as spectacular, then I would say the jury is still out.

For instance, she says:



i.e., savant-like skills in non-savant autistics. This would be newer research than what has made it into most literature on savant syndrome, since it's not research specifically about savant syndrome but about the skill patterns in all autistic people (including but not limited to savants).

I would say they're actually savant skills that happen to occur both in the autistic and non-autistic populations (although more common among autistic than non-autistic people as far as I know). Just as I would quite possibly characterize facial recognition as a non-autistic splinter skill.

As far as I know this is one of the most accurately informative sites on Savant Syndrome. Check it out.

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/faq.cfm

Just because someone has a unique ability does not mean that they have Savant Syndrome.

It's one of the most detailed probably that I've seen. I'm not sure it is the most accurate. I have heard things from both Michelle Dawson and Jerry Newport that are not covered on that page, for instance, but both have participated in very recent research (one as a researcher, one as a participant) on savant skills, so I assume they are more up on some of the latest developments than that page would be.