Brief Report: Error Pattern in an Autistic Savant Calendar Calculator

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 775 - 779
• Main Authors: Iavarone, Alessandro, Patruno, Maria, Galeone, Filomena, Chieffi, Sergio, Carlomagno, Sergio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 01.04.2007; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ability; Adolescent; Adult; Algorithms; Aptitude; Autism; Autistic Disorder - diagnosis; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Calculators; Child clinical studies; Cognitive Ability; Computation; Developmental disorders; Error Patterns; Errors; Examiners; Feedback (Response); Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Infantile autism; Intelligence; Intelligence Quotient; Interpersonal Relationship; Language Development Disorders - diagnosis; Language Development Disorders - psychology; Male; Males; Mathematics; Mathematics Skills; Measurement Techniques; Medical sciences; Memory; Mental Disorders; Mental Recall; Mental Retardation; Networks; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Obsessive Behavior - diagnosis; Obsessive Behavior - psychology; Parents; Pregnancy; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reaction Time; Response latency; Skills; Stereotyped Behavior; Time Perception; Visual Measures; Wechsler Scales; Case study; Human; Autism; Adolescent; Savant syndrome, Calendar calculator; Developmental disorder; Calculation
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-006-0190-2

Special ability in computing the day of the week from given dates was observed in a 18 years old male, L.E., suffering from autism. Neuropsychological testing revealed severe deficits in all cognitive domains and poor explicit knowledge of calendar structure. The subject scored well above the chance level on dates of the past and future decades. Error rate and response latency increased with temporal remoteness of dates. Most of errors were in indicating the weekday before or after that of date stimulus. The performance and error pattern suggest that L.E. used "encapsulated" computation algorithm(s) for the day of week task.