英文妙録

associative memory is considered to have a function to memorize things as episodic memories.

This suggests that semantic memory works based on a different function from that of associative memory. Here we call semantic memory direct memory

                                              

In Asperger’s syndrome, when the patient is poorer at associative memory and more excellent in direct memory than usual, he/she exhibits prodigious memory, characteristic of Savant syndrome. Since associative memory is a function required for understanding of  abstract concepts and that direct memory is poor at generalization, a brain in which direct memory is dominant has difficulty in understanding the abstract.