Sj. Kelly et al., MENTAL CALCULATION IN AN AUTISTIC SAVANT - A CASE-STUDY, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section A, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 19(2), 1997, pp. 172-184
We present a detailed investigation of mental calculation in RH. an au
tistic savant. In Experiment 1 RH performed faster anti more accuratel
y than control subjects in mentally solving multi-digit multiplication
problems. However, we found no evidence that RH employed short-cut st
rategies to solve these problems. His response times were consistent w
ith application of a left-to-right computational procedure employed by
expert calculators. He also responded extremely quickly to 2-digit sq
uares, suggesting that he may have memorized the answers. In Experimen
t 2 we taught RH a new computational algorithm for converting temperat
ures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. RH was able to learn the new algorith
m. but required much assistance and made only slight gains with practi
ce. RH did not recognize an easy solution strategy based on inverting
steps in the conversion algorithm. We suggest that the inflexible natu
re of RH's performance may reflect his autistic tendencies coupled wit
h limited intelligence.