1. How does Savant Syndrome help us understand the nature of intelligence?
Savant Syndrome is an exceedingly rare phenomenon in which people with disabilities have remarkable abilities and talents. The uniqueness of this disease has enabled us to better understand the nature of intelligence and cognition.
Savant syndrome helps us to better comprehend the specialization of the left and right hemispheres in our brain. Because savants are especially talented in areas such as numbers and mathematics, it had lead specialists to believe that this syndrome causes left-brain injury. This forces the right brain to compensate. This explains why most patients suffering from Savant’s Syndrome are especially gifted in areas involving mathematics, music, or artistic abilities.
Savant Syndrome has further helped us in understanding the makeup of intelligence because it has forced specialists to reconsider the g factor. Patients with Savant Syndrome are reported to have on average an IQ below 70. Because IQ is a measure of general intelligence, this number essentially states that all sufferers of Savant Syndrome are less intelligent than the average person. This statement is inaccurate. As we have seen in stories such as Rain Man, patients with Savant Syndrome have genius abilities. They have a wide range of skills, some lacking and some considerably strong. This observation has allowed specialists to see that intelligence is formed by a grouping of skills. It is more accurate to view people as a combination of multiple intelligences, rather than having a single general intelligence. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences supports this realization.
2. Do you think it is possible for a person of average intelligence to have a “little bit” of savant syndrome? Why or why not?
I do believe that it is possible for a person of average intelligence to have characteristics of savant syndrome. Intelligence is a combination of several abilities. It is therefore common for people to be stronger in certain mental abilities and weaker in others. Although a person may score an average IQ of 100, one must emphasize that it is the average. This means that the person could have scored a higher IQ in mathematics and a lower IQ on an area focussed on language, yet still average an IQ of 100.
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