An Exceptional Musical Memory

Sloboda, John A.; Hermelin, Beate; O’Connor, N.

doi:10.2307/40285330

Cited by 109 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In this paper, we use existing research to argue that some calendrical savants have skills that go beyond rote memory. They therefore challenge accounts of savant skills in terms of rote learning just as the originality of savant artists and the inventiveness of savant musicians do (Sloboda et al 1985;O'Connor & Hermelin 1987). Although we shall argue that the skills of several previously studied calendrical savants include date calculation, this does not imply that they calculate to answer every date question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Cowan

Frith

2009

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Calendrical savants can name the weekdays for dates from different years with remarkable speed and accuracy. Whether calculation rather than just memory is involved is disputed. Grounds for doubting whether they can calculate are reviewed and criteria for attributing date calculation skills to them are discussed. At least some calendrical savants possess date calculation skills. A behavioural characteristic observed in many calendrical savants is increased response time for questions about more remote years. This may be because more remote years require more calculation or because closer years are more practised. An experiment is reported that used functional magnetic resonance imaging to attempt to discriminate between these explanations. Only two savants could be scanned and excessive head movement corrupted one savant's mental arithmetic data. Nevertheless, there was increased parietal activation during both mental arithmetic and date questions and this region showed increased activity with more remote dates. These results suggest that the calendrical skills observed in savants result from intensive practice with calculations used in solving mental arithmetic problems. The mystery is not how they solve these problems, but why.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Cowan

Frith

2009

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…And, importantly, it could be argued that data acquired from a savant such as Derek are of limited value in understanding human musicality in a general sense, since he is, by definition, atypical (Ockelford, 2011, p. 282). However, researchers have in the past used savant data to consider the nature of neurotypical abilities: to test issues of modularity in intelligence, for example (see Smith & Tsimpli, 1995), and memory (Sloboda, Hermelin, & O'Connor, 1985). Moreover, as we have seen, Mazzeschi's doctoral studies (2014) suggest that musical savants and advanced music students use the same strategies to disaggregate chords.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Building on studies including and following the seminal paper by Sloboda, Hermelin and O'Connor (1985), Fragments of Genius is based on the premise that the analysis of the music that savants produce in response to musical stimuli can offer a unique insight into the "black box" of their mental processing (Ockelford, 2012a, p. 38).…”

Section: From Theory To Experimental Design: Issues and Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expectations Evoked on Hearing a Piece of Music for the First Time: Evidence from a Musical Savant

Grundy¹,

Ockelford

2014

EMR

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The purpose of this study is to investigate a hitherto unresearched feature of the "zygonic" model of implication and expectation in music: in particular, the projections that stem from recently appearing groups of notes (Ockelford, 2006). Using an innovative approach, data were gathered from a prodigious musical savant (Derek Paravicini), who attempted to reproduce a novel composition on the piano at the same time as hearing it. The piece was designed to minimise the impact of expectations that may arise from patterns within groups of notes and those that may be perceived as a consequence of tonality, whereby different pitch transitions are felt to occur with different probabilities according to their level of past exposure. The design of the study was informed by zygonic theory (Ockelford, 2009(Ockelford, , 2012b, which holds that expectation in music is attributable to the capacity of structural regularities to suggest future continuations, whose perceived likelihood of occurrence, it is believed, is proportional to the number of ways in which their existence is implied in what has gone before. Using this principle, a "strength of implication" factor was calculated for each note of the stimulus piece (following the first). It was hypothesised that the higher the implication factor, the more likely Derek would predict its occurrence (and therefore play it correctly at the appropriate point in time). Data gathered from Derek's performance support the underlying principles of the zygonic model, although they also suggest certain refinements.

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“…Miller, 1989;Hermelin et al, 1985; consists almost exclusively of pianist musical savants (an exception is Hermelin, O'Connor, Lee and Treffert's, 1987 study which contained a percussionist savant), our experiment provides a broader and more comprehensive view of melodic and pitch processing in musical savants and musicians in general, not just pianists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Savants are individuals of low general intelligence who exhibit above average or exceptional skills in specific and often restricted areas (Treffert, 1989;Sloboda, Hermelin and O'Connor, 1985;Heaton, Hermelin and Pring, 1998). Within the general population, savants number only one in 20,000 (Rimland, 1988) and only one in 2,000 of the mentally handicapped population (Pring, Hermelin & Heavey, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melody and Pitch Processing in Five Musical Savants with Congenital Blindness

2008

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Five musical savants with congenital blindness, seven musicians and seven non-musicians with good vision and normal intelligence took part in two experiments. In the first, participants reproduced note strings varying in length and key; in the second, participants learnt associations between four pitches and four objects using a non-verbal paradigm. In the first experiment, the savants and musicians performed statistically indistinguishably, both significantly outperforming the non-musicians. Within each independent variable, all participant groups exhibited similar error patterns. In the second experiment, all the savants performed without error. Low statistical power meant the savants were not statistically better than the musicians, although only the savants scored statistically higher than the non-musicians. The results are evidence for a musical module, separate from general intelligence; they also support the anecdotal reporting of absolute pitch in musical savants, which is thought to be necessary for the development of musical savant skill.3

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An Exceptional Musical Memory

Cited by 109 publications

References 13 publications

Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Do calendrical savants use calculation to answer date questions? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Expectations Evoked on Hearing a Piece of Music for the First Time: Evidence from a Musical Savant

Melody and Pitch Processing in Five Musical Savants with Congenital Blindness

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