The development of tool use: Changing boundaries between organism and environment.

Abstract

001 use has evolved in humans at a scale that surpasses that of any T other species. It has reshaped and continues to reshape the environment in which children grow up, but it also alters the action potential of the human body. The potential of humans for perceiving and acting evolves with the evolution of implements for perceiving and acting. Both processes influence one another. This evolution concerns individuals and society as a whole, including the children who grow up in a particular society. In Western society implements are available for nearly every activity. These implements form an essential component of the skills and knowledge children obtain and should obtain with age. Tool use is the road for transmitting insights from older to younger generations and from experts to novices.The significant role tool use plays in the transmission of skills and knowledge among individuals makes the study of tool use highly relevant to anyone interested in development. Questions about how development takes place and what causes it warrant careful investigation of the fundamental role tool use plays in and among individuals. It is therefore remarkable that tool use was rarely studied by developmentalists. A major 301

Infant Manual Exploration of Objects, Surfaces, and Their Interrelations

“…Such object-surface behaviors are of interest for at least two important reasons. First many purposeful behaviors involving objects, including problem solving and tool use, require individuals to make objects interact with surfaces in ways that capitalize on the relation between the physical properties of the object and surface (Lockman, 2000;McCarty, Clifton, & Collard, 2001;Smitsman, 1997;Willatts, 1999). For instance, we place the flat edges of objects on flat surfaces so that objects will remain stable, we pound hard objects on rigid surfaces to produce noise, and we push round objects on continuous rather than discontinuous surfaces to permit objects to roll.…”

Spoon Handling in Two-to-Four-Year-Old Children

“…Studies TOOL USE IN YOUNG CHILDREN 115 predicated on the assumption that the implement and the environment constitute separate entities potentially turn the action of tool use into a cognitive means-end problem for the organism (e.g., Bates, Carlson-Luden, & Bretherton, 1980;Brown, 1990;Connolly & Dalgleish, 1989;Parker & Gibson, 1977;Piaget, 19%). Furthermore, from the ecological perspective, the demarcation between the organism and environment is not f i e d but is subject to shifts; detached objects from the environment can become part of the action system of the performer (e.g., Katz, 1925;Smitsman, 1996) thereby extending the capacity for perceiving and acting, namely, change the dynamics of the movement system (Van der Kamp, Steenbergen, & Smitsman, 1993).…”

“…The emphasis on the relation between the tool and the environment or target that is worked upon is emblematic of the ecological approach to perception and action (cf. Gibson, 197911986;Reed, 1988;Smitsman, 1996;Tamboer, 1989).…”

“…Thus defmed, tool use implies a shift in the boundary between organism and environment (cf. Smitsman, 1996). During object manipulation, an action is performed on a detached object from the environment, whereas in tool use, an action is performed with a detached object in the environment (i.e., a tool) on something else from the environment.…”

The womb and the skin as false boundaries in perception–action and development: A response

“…Schmuckler (2003) refers to these changes as the ''experiential-scaling'' of affordances. Experiential scaling has the potential to affect affordances in much the same way as body scaling (see Adolph, 1995Adolph, , 1997Konczak, Meeuwsen, & Cross, 1992;Schmuckler, 2003;Smitsman, 1997;Walker-Andrews, 2003;Warren, 1995).…”