I just happened to see SMT’s name on another thread, and it reminded me of a question I’ve long had.
We often say a person of limited intellectual ability is “slow”, but is it possible for a person to have slow mental machinery, as it were, but still be capable of highly intellectual work if he takes enough time to do it? I suspect the reverse is somewhat true in the persons of savants, who, usually, are cognitively deficient in all but one or a few areas. They seem very “fast” minded in such feats as remembering 100 years of weather reports, but otherwise may not be able to make change for small purchases, or perform similar everyday tasks.
So, slow mind but deep intellect: Do such people exist?
I’m certainly not the smartest guy, but I am capable of deep thoughts and abstract thinking. My mental machinery tends to work slow, but I think it is more out of laziness than anything. I am much better at articulating my thoughts in the written/typed medium, and tend to be a bit below average in the spoken word.
(more IMO type stuff, but don’t know enough about neurology or pyschology to answer in a more objective manner)
I think it’s fairly common in just about everyone to be slower at some things than others. I think there are some things for which we have an almost innate understanding of where we can process information and formulate solutions for at remarkable rates. On the other hand there are other topics which do not particularly interest us (but which we nevertheless may be familiar with) that might take a little longer to deal with because it is not something we use often enough that it just springs to mind, so we have to “dust off the equipment” as it were. I don’t think this has any direct relation to autistics/savants though.
That sort of thing is basically the definition of ADD. My oldest son, for example, has ADD - he’s very intelligent; he scores very high on intelligence tests, but his processing speed is exactly average.