Memory and generativity in very high functioning autism: a firsthand account, and an interpretation.

JS is a highly able person with Asperger syndrome whose language and intellectual abilities are, and always have been, superior. The first part of this short article consists of JS's analytical account of his atypical memory abilities, and the strategies he uses for memorizing and learning. JS has also described specific difficulties with creative writing, which are outlined here. The second part of the article consists of an interpretation of the problems JS describes in terms of their implications for understanding the problems of generativity that contribute to the diagnostic impairments of imagination and creativity in autism.