> They allocate all their memory points to weird trivia and none to everyday common knowledge.
I think it's more complex than that - it's they way they are forming memories (i.e. what they remember) that is different to a normal person. In a normal person surprise/novelty (prediction failure) is the major learning signal that causes us to remember something - we're selective in what gets remembered (this is just mechanically how a normally operating brain works), whereas the savant appears to remember everything in certain modalities.
I don't think that "using up all their memory" is why savants are "idiots", but rather just a reflection of something more severe that is wrong.
I think it's more complex than that - it's they way they are forming memories (i.e. what they remember) that is different to a normal person. In a normal person surprise/novelty (prediction failure) is the major learning signal that causes us to remember something - we're selective in what gets remembered (this is just mechanically how a normally operating brain works), whereas the savant appears to remember everything in certain modalities.
I don't think that "using up all their memory" is why savants are "idiots", but rather just a reflection of something more severe that is wrong.