Daniel Tammet
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Daniel Tammet is the author of two books, Born on a Blue Day and Embracing the Wide Sky, which comes out this month. He’s also a linguist and holds the European record for reciting the first 22,514 decimal points of the mathematical constant Pi. Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer chats with Tammet about how his memory works, why the IQ test is overrated, and a possible explanation for extraordinary feats of creativity.
LEHRER: Your recent memoir, Born on a Blue Day, documented your life as an autistic savant. You describe, for example, how you are able to quickly learn new languages, and remember scenes from years earlier in cinematic detail. Are you ever surprised by your own abilities?
TAMMET: I have always thought of abstract information—numbers for example—in visual, dynamic form. Numbers assume complex, multi-dimensional shapes in my head that I manipulate to form the solution to sums, or compare when determining whether they are prime or not.
For languages, I do something similar in terms of thinking of words as belonging to clusters of meaning so that each piece of vocabulary makes sense according to its place in my mental architecture for that language. In this way I can easily discern relationships between words, which helps me to remember them.
In my mind, numbers and words are far more than squiggles of ink on a page. They have form, color, texture and so on. They come alive to me, which is why as a young child I thought of them as my “friends.” I think this is why my memory is very deep, because the information is not static. I say in my book that I do not crunch numbers (like a computer). Rather, I dance with them.
None of this is particularly surprising for me. I have always thought in this way so it seems entirely natural. What I do find surprising is that other people do not think in the same way. I find it hard to imagine a world where numbers and words are not how I experience them!
LEHRER: In Embracing the Wide Sky you criticize the IQ test as a vast oversimplification of intelligence. You write: "There is no such thing as proofs of intelligence, only intelligence." Could you explain what you mean by that?
TAMMET: When I was a child, my behavior was far from being what most people would label “intelligent.” It was often limited, repetitive and anti-social. I could not do many of the things that most people take for granted, such as looking someone in the eye or deciphering a person’s body language, and only acquired these skills with much effort over time. I also struggled to learn many of the techniques for spelling or doing sums taught in class because they did not match my own style of thinking.
I know from my own experience that there is much more to “intelligence” than an IQ number. In fact, I hesitate to believe that any system could really reflect the complexity and uniqueness of one person’s mind, or meaningfully describe the nature of his or her potential.
The bell curve distribution for IQ scores tells us that two thirds of the world’s population have an IQ somewhere between 85 and 115. This means that some four and a half billion people around the globe share just 31 numerical values (“He’s a 94,” “You’re a 110,” ”I’m a 103”), equivalent to 150 million people worldwide sharing the same IQ score. This sounds a lot to me like astrology, which lumps everyone into one of twelve signs of the zodiac.
Even if we cannot measure and assign precise values to it in any “scientific” way, I do very much think that “intelligence” exists and that it varies in the actions of each person. The concept is a useful and important one, for scientists and educators alike. My objection is to thinking that any ‘test’ of a person’s intelligence is up to the task. Rather we should focus on ensuring that the fundamentals (literacy, etc.) are well taught, and that each child’s diverse talents are encouraged and nourished.
LEHRER: You also describe some recent scientific studies on what happens inside the brain when we learn a second language. Do you think this recent research should change the way we teach languages?
TAMMET: Thanks to the advances in modern scanning technology we know more today than ever before just how what’s happening inside the brain when we’re learning a language. That we can speak at all is nothing less than an astonishing cognitive achievement.
Learning a second language, particularly when that language is not one that the person has to use on a regular basis, is an extremely difficult task. I think it is a mistake to underestimate the challenges of it. Students should be aware that the difficulties they will face are inherent in what they are doing, and not any failing on their part.
One of the most interesting scientific discoveries about how language works (and how it could be taught) is “phonaesthesia”—that certain sounds have a meaningful relationship to the things they describe. For example, in many languages the vowel sound “i” is associated with smallness—little, tiny, petit, niño, and so on—whereas the sound “a” or “o” is associated with largeness—grand, gross, gordo, etc. Such links have been found in many of the world’s languages. These findings strongly imply that learners would benefit from learning to draw on their own natural intuitions to help them understand and remember many of the foreign words that they come across.
Another finding, by cognitive psychologists Lera Boroditsky, Lauren A. Schmidt, and Webb Phillips, might also offer a useful insight into an important part of learning a second language. The researchers asked German and Spanish native speakers to think of adjectives to describe a range of objects, such as a key. The German speakers, for whom the word “key” is masculine, gave adjectives such as “hard,” “heavy,” “jagged,” and “metal,” whereas the Spanish speakers, for whom “key” is feminine, gave responses like : “golden,” “little,” ”lovely” and “shiny.” This result suggests that native speakers of languages that have gendered nouns remember the different categorization for each by attending to differing characteristics, depending on whether the noun is “male” or ”female.” It is plausible that second-language learners could learn to perceive various nouns in a similar way to help them remember the correct gender.
Regardless of how exactly a person learns a second language, we do know for sure that it is very good for your brain. There is good evidence that language learning helps individuals to abstract information, focus attention, and may even help ward off age-related declines in mental performance.
LEHRER: You advocate a theory of creativity defined by a cognitive property you call "hyper-connectivity." Could you explain?
TAMMET: I am unusually creative—from visualizing numerical landscapes composed of random strings of digits to the invention of my own words and concepts in numerous languages. Where does this creativity come from?
My brain has developed a little differently from most other people’s. Aside from my high-functioning autism, I also suffered from epileptic seizures as a young child. In my book, I propose a link between my brain’s functioning and my creative abilities based on the property of ‘hyper-connectivity’.
In most people, the brain’s major functions are performed separately and not allowed to interfere with one another. Scientists have found that in some brain disorders however, including autism and epilepsy, cross-communication can occur between normally distinct brain regions. My theory is that rare forms of creative imagination are the result of an extraordinary convergence of normally disconnected thoughts, memories, feelings and ideas. Indeed, such “hyper-connectivity” within the brain may well lie at the heart of all forms of exceptional creativity.
LEHRER: How were you able to recite from memory the first 22,514 numbers of Pi? And do you have advice for people looking to improve their own memory?
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31 Comments
Add CommentI saw this guy on the science channel. He's a frikin beast. His ability to see numbers as shapes and create "landscapes" from them is called synesthesia--the cooperation of two thinking processes that are typically separate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI read his book, and know someone with synesthesia. It is a very interesting thing indeed, seperate from the autism but perhaps triggered by epilepsy--that is, a brief disturbance in the electrical currents in the brain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTammet's experiences with language learning mirror mine (I speak German, Spanish and Russian, plus some knowledge of several others). I do not relate at all to the "dialog" method of learning languages that is so popular (indeed, largely mandated by educational theorists). I much prefer the structured approach once universally used in teaching Latin that, for me, enables me to visualize structure and relationships far more easily than repeating dialogues. I am intensely frustrated by the lack of language books organized that way. Right now I'm working on Arabic, which has a structure involving three-letter roots as the basis of words. You'd think all Arabic texts would present vocabulary organized that way, but try to find any. What a natural way to remember vocabulary by word associations, but it's largely neglected in texts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI speak arabic, french, and english. Arabic is my native language. I took french since I started school as a second language , I am from a francophonie country. Then when I moved to usa I learned english but I relied a lot on the french because i think they are similair somehow. I don't think it was a good idea but i had to do it because I started college and did not have time to study and learn english in the proper way. Tammet was right about the masculine and feminine thing, in arabic alot of masculine names are actually feminine in french or vice verca for example the moon is masculine in arabic and the sun is feminine but in french they are the opposite way. I always look at it as what is in arabic because this is how I feel it, it is really different how you feel about words with your native language then the second or third. thanks god in english I don't have to worry about masculin and feminin as the way in french, but at the same time I can't look at things as they are neutral I have to find them a genre.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeeing the world as a 'whole' or true psychic abilities are much the same way. You're shocked when you find out few other people see and think in this way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe can perform amazing mental feats, but I'm not sure how analytic his thinking is. I hear he believes in God.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe can perform amazing mental feats, but given that he's a strong believer in God I'm not sure how analytic his thinking is.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's just a mean-spirited thing to say! Shame on you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisa most extraordinary read; i thought that much of it was related to synaesthesia and i concurred with the others who thought that electrochemical surges etc. might help explain his talents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRE: What an excellent interview!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is a fascinating interview in which a humble savant (with mild autism) is trying to describe the mechanisms of his own mind -- whereas Jonah Lehrer had had not asked Daniel Tammet about his views on the Harvard linguist-turned psychologist Steven Pinker's theory of mind.
As you all might have known that Pinker's "modularity" theory of mind is purely formulated from the perspectives of an Anglophone-linguist trying to look (and theorize) into someone else's mind: a pursuit that often could lead and present more speculations than insights into a "universal" theory of mind -- please see his 1997 book "How the Mind Works" and compare that to my new hypothesis of mind that I presented in my 2006 seminal book "Gods, Genes, Conscience" Chapter 15: The Universal Theory of Mind (linked below).
Best wishes, Mong 1/12/9usct2:05p; author "Decoding Scientism" and "Consciousness & the Subconscious" (works in progress since July 2007), "Gods, Genes, Conscience" (2006: http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0595379907 ) and "Gods, Genes, Conscience: Global Dialogues Now" (blogging avidly since 2006: http://www2.blogger.com/profile/18303146609950569778 ).
I really dislike that he qualifies himself as immensely creative. I think that creativity is exemplified by actual creation, not by mere method of thought. I'm sure he's actually wholly uncreative, he just doesn't have the vibe to me of someone very in touch with aesthetics or the truth or such - he is just a memory machine. All of his feats of cognition are memory, including his calculation ability, which gets better and better through obsessive thought and memorization of various answers. He seems to be a memory expert, much as someone can be a master musician or mathematician rather than a creative as he calls himself. I believe that many people could develop his skill level if they were inclined to the sort of obsession with numbers and such that he was prone to in early age. If he is so creative, I would like to see him create some new mathematical theorems or something such. I have a feeling that he is not so much more able to do this than most people, excepting that his calculating ability may allow him to take peeks further than the rest of us when searching for possible truths.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBS"D
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ability to discern analogies between/among diverse (and even apparently unrelated) structures seems to be fundamental not only to creative thought, but to thinking in general--even on a subconscious level. The pioneer contributors to this "structuralist" idea were Giambattista Vico and Claude Levi-Strauss. Douglas Hofstadter made it the central theme of his great "Godel, Escher, Bach," in which, e.g., the remarkable Achilles/Tortoise dialogues propose to replicate musical structures taken from various Bach compositions. I employed similar (though less exacting) devices in my novel, "The Carnevalis of Eusebius Asch," in which both structural analogy and synesthesia play paramount roles. This book was favorably reviewed in "New Vico Studies" 17 (1999).
that's a pretty douche-bag statement to make, padkins. if you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, you'd know that you can't gain fluency by just memorizing vocab. he's far more than "just a memory machine". would you rather he had used "imaginative" instead of "creative"? you seem like someone afraid to admit that a high-functioning autistic person might be "smarter" than yourself...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHis creativity enables him to remember things so well. He creates associations for words of new languages and number problems so that he can remember them so well later on. The psychology term is called "chunking". He is a master at this which allows him to be creative as well a "memory machine" as you put it. I hope that helps.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe gentleman's understanding of IQ is like something from 1850. This is a good reminder that just because someone is smart does not mean they are informed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe gentleman's understanding of IQ is like something from 1850. This is a good reminder that just because someone is smart does not mean they are informed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe gentleman's grasp of IQ and psychometrics is like something from 1850. A good reminder that being smart doesn't mean being informed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisImagine a world in which highbrow web sites have intuitive comment systems, don't delete your emails and don't print multiples after the fact.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSound like science fiction? It's here, today, at just about every site on the internet.
FAIL
Very interesting indeed. I especially like the point - "For languages, I do something similar in terms of thinking of words as belonging to clusters of meaning so that each piece of vocabulary makes sense according to its place in my mental architecture for that language. " I champion a conceptual framework (Hodges model) which helps (lifelong) learners learn a new discipline. It provides a blank landscape upon which clusters of meaning can be placed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards, Peter Jones
Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
Very interesting indeed. I especially like the point - "For languages, I do something similar in terms of thinking of words as belonging to clusters of meaning so that each piece of vocabulary makes sense according to its place in my mental architecture for that language. " I champion a conceptual framework (Hodges model) which helps (lifelong) learners learn a new discipline. It provides a blank landscape upon which clusters of meaning can be placed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards, Peter Jones
Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
Very interesting indeed. I especially like the point - "For languages, I do something similar in terms of thinking of words as belonging to clusters of meaning so that each piece of vocabulary makes sense according to its place in my mental architecture for that language. " I champion a conceptual framework (Hodges model) which helps (lifelong) learners learn a new discipline. It provides a blank landscape upon which clusters of meaning can be placed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards, Peter Jones
Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/
I have never been a bright person. Father informed me I was as bright as a 20 watt light bulb, thought that was good, until I understood, that is not that bright. Would love someone would teach me to be intelligent and be able to analysis what a person says quickly so that I can respond and understand others quickly. We can dream.....
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat Mr Tammet says of phonaesthesia may mislead. Any connexion that helps a language learner is welcome. But the connexion between high front vowels and the meaning of smallness is not a scientific discovery about how language works.
A high front vowel is made with the tongue pushed toward the roof of the mouth and/or the upper teeth, as in the English words Six, Three.
Teensy-weensy, Itsy-bitsy, Wee, and Little are words whose accented syllable bears a high front vowel.
Similarly, French Petit, Italian Piccolo, and Portuguese Pequeno are words for Little whose accented syllables bear high front vowels.
Lowering and/or retracting the tongue makes a larger resonating space, as in the English words Four, Five, Eight.
English Large, Tall and Stout, French Grand, Italian Grande, and Portuguese Alto (Tall) and Forte (Stout) have low or back vowels in their accented syllables.
These are everyday words with meanings of largeness. Other everyday words give contrary examples.
Portuguese has Baixo (Short), and Delgado and Magro (both Thin). These words have low and back vowels in their accented syllables, yet have meanings of smallness.
Italian words with the meaning of smallness are Minore (Less) and Poco (Little, as adverbial/partitive). These have a back vowel -o- in their accented syllables.
French Magnifique (Great) has the same high front vowel as Petit.
French Court (Short), Etroit (Narrow), Gosse (Child), Mignon (Dainty) and Moindre (Less) have the meaning of smallness, yet have low or back vowels in their accented syllables.
Small has the same vowel as Tall, and Big the same vowel as Little.
- Chester Graham
tradux@cirruscomms.com.au
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat Mr Tammet says of phonaesthesia may mislead. Any connexion that helps a language learner is welcome. But the connexion between high front vowels and the meaning of smallness is not a scientific discovery about how language works.
A high front vowel is made with the tongue pushed toward the roof of the mouth and/or the upper teeth, as in the English words Six, Three.
Teensy-weensy, Itsy-bitsy, Wee, and Little are words whose accented syllable bears a high front vowel.
Similarly, French Petit, Italian Piccolo, and Portuguese Pequeno are words for Little whose accented syllables bear high front vowels.
Lowering and/or retracting the tongue makes a larger resonating space, as in the English words Four, Five, Eight.
English Large, Tall and Stout, French Grand, Italian Grande, and Portuguese Alto (Tall) and Forte (Stout) have low or back vowels in their accented syllables.
These are everyday words with meanings of largeness. Other everyday words give contrary examples.
Portuguese has Baixo (Short), and Delgado and Magro (both Thin). These words have low and back vowels in their accented syllables, yet have meanings of smallness.
Italian words with the meaning of smallness are Minore (Less) and Poco (Little, as adverbial/partitive). These have a back vowel -o- in their accented syllables.
French Magnifique (Great) has the same high front vowel as Petit.
French Court (Short), Etroit (Narrow), Gosse (Child), Mignon (Dainty) and Moindre (Less) have the meaning of smallness, yet have low or back vowels in their accented syllables.
Small has the same vowel as Tall, and Big the same vowel as Little.
- Chester Graham
tradux@cirruscomms.com.au
I am grateful for this article since it gives me a certain insight into my own thought processes about which I have always wondered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany years ago while working on a tissue fixative of my own design I had intended to titrate a potentially corrosive agent into the fixative solution to obtain one percent additive. I over titrated and the question arose should I go ahead and risk macerating the tissue or start over. I suddenly saw groups of black and white squares on a white field before my eyes and simultaneously felt muscle tensions throughout my torso and I KNEW it would be O.K. It was. When the director of a brain research institute asked me how I came up with the work I answered:"I had a tickling behind my ear" to which he replied: "We're all a little crazy". I'm neither autistic not nor epileptic, but I have always felt I had to "pass" to get along in society.
Hi. I'm interested in the method of learning a new language by visualizing or conceptualizing the structure and relationship. I am a person who learns by explaining the relationship to myself. that's what i do to understand and memorize scientic and mathematical concepts. I speak Mandarin and English. I want to learn French. Can you explain "the structured approach used in teaching Latin" in greater details for me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks a lot.
I agree, his interview seems highly stuck on himself and disingenuous. For instance the first 3 paragraphs he talks about how he thinks wildly different from everyone else and goes into detail about how different he thinks from everyone else then the next sentence is: "None of this is particularly surprising for me. I have always thought in this way so it seems entirely natural. What I do find surprising is that other people do not think in the same way. I find it hard to imagine a world where numbers and words are not how I experience them! "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOkay so apparently he does imagine a world where he's different than everyone else. and he also knows how everone else thinks but he just can't imagine it.
Herm.
I agree, his interview seems highly stuck on himself and disingenuous. For instance the first 3 paragraphs he talks about how he thinks wildly different from everyone else and goes into detail about how different he thinks from everyone else then the next sentence is: "None of this is particularly surprising for me. I have always thought in this way so it seems entirely natural. What I do find surprising is that other people do not think in the same way. I find it hard to imagine a world where numbers and words are not how I experience them! "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOkay so apparently he does imagine a world where he's different than everyone else. and he also knows how everone else thinks but he just can't imagine it.
Herm
i've always seen music like this - as articulating walls and flying images of colour/sound... trying to explain this to other musos has led to some very strange looks at times!... oh well!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI learned Spanish while living and working in the Dominican Republic. Your comment on the relationship of latin based words reminded me of my experience. I tend to see words from their roots. I quickly learnd and used the 'ion' 'y' and 'ive' association...associacion to augment my relatively...relativamente basic basicos vocabulary vocabulario.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also noted the connection conexion to arabic in this language..with words that begin with the letters a and al...like aceite, abra, alla, alli,I find it fascinating and helpful to form these historical associations. I'm sure I would see the same associations with the germanic side of English. Either way, the more I study, the more I see things that connect the various cultures than divide them.
In closing, I definitely think that the American style of learning - at least in my generation - which heavily relied on rote memory does little if any thing in the service of education.
I learned Spanish while living and working in the Dominican Republic. Your comment on the relationship of latin based words reminded me of my experience. I tend to see words from their roots. I quickly learnd and used the 'ion' 'y' and 'ive' association...associacion to augment my relatively...relativamente basic basicos vocabulary vocabulario.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also noted the connection conexion to arabic in this language..with words that begin with the letters a and al...like aceite, abra, alla, alli,I find it fascinating and helpful to form these historical associations. I'm sure I would see the same associations with the germanic side of English. Either way, the more I study, the more I see things that connect the various cultures than divide them.
In closing, I definitely think that the American style of learning - at least in my generation - which heavily relied on rote memory does little if any thing in the service of education.