Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:06:13.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Perspective production in a savant autistic draughtsman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

L. Mottron  and
S. Belleville
L. Mottron*
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier Sainte Justine, Department of Psychiatry and Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal, Canada
S. Belleville
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier Sainte Justine, Department of Psychiatry and Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal, Canada
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr Laurent Mottron, Laboratoire de Psychophysiologie Cognitive et de Neuropsychiatrie, Centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier Sainte Justine, 3100 Ellendale, H3S 1W3, Montréal, Canada.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This study examines perspective construction in an autistic patient (E.C.) with quasi-normal intelligence who exhibits exceptional ability when performing three-dimensional drawings of inanimate objects. Examination of E.C.'s spontaneous graphic productions showed that although his drawings approximate the ‘linear perspective’ system, the subject does not use vanishing points in his productions. Nevertheless, a formal computational analysis of E.C.'s accuracy in an experimental task showed that he was able to draw objects rotated in three-dimensional space more accurately than over-trained controls. This accuracy was not modified by suppressing graphic cues that permitted the construction of a vanishing point. E.C. was also able to detect a perspective incongruency between an object and a landscape at a level superior to that of control subjects. Since E.C. does not construct vanishing points in his drawings, it is proposed that his production of a precise realistic perspective is reached without the use of explicit or implicit perspective rules. ‘Special abilities’ in perspective are examined in relation to existing theoretical models of the cognitive deficit in autism and are compared to other special abilities in autism.

Type
Case Report
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , May 1995 , pp. 639 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987). Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 3rd edn Revised. American Psychiatric Association: Washington DC.Google Scholar
Arnheim, R. (1967). Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye Faber and Faber: London.Google Scholar
Boucart, M. & Humphreys, G. W. (1992). Global shape cannot be attended without object identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance 18, 785–806.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farber, J. & Rosinski, R. R. (1978). Geometric transformations of pictured space. Perception 7, 269–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, N. H. (1980). Strategies of Representation in Young Children: Analysis of Spatial Skills and Drawing Processes. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Freeman, N. H. & Cox, M. V. (1985). Visual Order, the Nature and Development of Pictorial Representation. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Frith, U. (1989). Autism, Explaining the Enigma. Blackwell: Oxford.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton-Mifflin Company: Boston.Google Scholar
Gombrich, E. H. (1960). Art and Illusion. Phaidon Press: London.Google Scholar
Hagen, M. A. & Elliot, H. B. (1976). An investigation of the relationship between viewing condition and preference for true and modified linear perspective with adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance 2, 479–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helms, M. E. (1990). Perspective Drawing. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.Google Scholar
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1984). Idiot-savant calendrical calculators: maths or memory. Psychological Medicine 14, 801–806.Google Scholar
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1986). Idiot-savant calendrical calculators: rules or regularities. Psychological Medicine 16, 884–893.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1990 a). Art and accuracy: the drawing ability of idiot-savant. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 31, 217–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1990 b). Factors and primes: a specific numerical ability. Psychological Medicine 20, 163–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, M. (1989). When is an object not an object? The effect of meaning upon the copying of drawings. British Journal of Psychology 80, 15–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mottron, L. & Belleville, S. (1993). Study of perceptual analysis in a high level autistic subject with exceptional graphic abilities. Brain and Cognition 23, 279–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mottron, L. & Belleville, S. (1994). Apport de la neuropsychologie cognitive à l'étude de l'autisme. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 19, 95–102.Google Scholar
Mottron, L., Belleville, S., Stauder, H. & Robaey, P. (1994). A hypothesis of a deficit in the hierarchization of information in autistic subjects. In Autism on the Agenda (ed. Peacock, G.). National Autistic Society: LondonGoogle Scholar
Mottron, L., Belleville, S. & Stip, E. (1995 a) Proper name hypermensia in an autistic subject. Brain and Language (submitted).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mottron, L., Stauder, H., Robaey, P. & Burack, J. (1995 b). Hierarchization deficit in high-functioning autistic subjects. (In preparation.)Google Scholar
Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: the precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology 9, 353–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, N & Hermelin, B. (1987 a). Visual and graphic abilities of the idiot-savant artist. Psychological Medicine 17, 79–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1987 b). Visual memory and motor programmes: their use by idiot-savant artists and controls. British Journal of Psychology 78, 307–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1989). The memory structure of idiot-savants mnemonists. British Journal of Psychology 80, 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. (1990). The recognition failure and graphic success of idiot-savant artists. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 31, 203–215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rimland, B. & Fein, D. (1988). Special talents of autistic savants. In The Exceptional Brain (ed. Obler, L. K. and Fein, D.), pp. 474–492. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Robertson, L. C. & Lamb, M. R. (1991). Neuropsychological contributions to theories of part/whole organization. Cognitive Neuropsychology 23, 299–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selfe, L. (1977). Nadia. Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch: New York.Google Scholar
Selfe, L. (1983). Normal and Anomalous Representational Drawing Ability in Children. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Selfe, L. (1994). Nadia reconsidered. In Gifted Child Artists (ed. Golomb, C.). Erlbaum: London.Google Scholar
Sloboda, J. A., Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. (1985). An exceptional musical memory. Music Perception 3, 155–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steel, J. C.Gorman, R. & Flexman, J. E. (1984). Neuropsychiatric testing in a mathematical idiot-savant: evidence for a non-verbal abstract capacity. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 23, 704–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterhouse, L. (1988). Extraordinary visual memory and pattern recognition in an autistic boy. In The Exceptional Brain (ed. Obler, L. K. and Fein, D.), pp. 325–338. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Willats, J. (1977). How children do learn to draw realistic pictures. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 29, 367–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar