The role of information about “convention,” “design,” and “goal” in representing artificial kinds

Developmental changes in information central to artifact representation: evidence from ‘functional fluency’ tasks

“…Mounting research in cognitive science has focused on how knowledge about artifacts and their functions is represented, how it is acquired, and whether these representations undergo change across development (e.g. German, Truxaw & Defeyter, 2007; chapters in Laurence & Margolis, in press). Adult reasoning about artifacts appears to be guided by the assumption that original intentions of the designer are a critical determinant of an artifact's category and/or function (Dennett, 1987; Bloom, 1996; Kelemen, 1999; Rips, 1989; Matan & Carey, 2001).…”

Children's Use of Social Cues When Learning Conventions

“…We turn next to consider one particular domain in which children must navigate social conventions, namely learning how to use artifacts. Although the purpose of a particular tool is constrained by its materials and properties, these constraints are underdetermined (e.g., Bloom, 1996;German et al, 2007). A fork affords the ability to pick up food off a plate but it also affords the ability to comb your hair.…”

Figuring out function: Children’s and adults’ use of ownership information in judgments of artifact function.

“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Defeyter & German, 2003;Defeyter et al, 2009;German & Johnson, 2002;German et al, 2007;Kelemen, 1999;Kelemen & Carey, 2007;Matan & Carey, 2001;Truxaw et al, 2006). Further, it is clear that with age, children increasingly attend to information about original design when reasoning about artifact functions, and adults also do so reliably (Bloom, 1996(Bloom, , 2000Kelemen, 1999;Kelemen & Carey, 2007;German & Johnson, 2002;Matan & Carey, 2001; see also Hall, 1995;Rips, 1989).…”

“…what it was originally made for, what it is currently being used to do, and by whom (although certain types of information, such as an artifact's original intended function, may generally be less readily available than other types of information, such as an artifact's current use; Defeyter & German, 2003;German et al, 2007). In contrast to previous studies that have primarily attempted to identify what type of information children and adults attend to in making function judgments (e.g., design or convention information), with the tacit and sometimes explicit assumption that it must be one or the other, we focus instead on how they prioritize various sources of function-relevant information when they are simultaneously available to them.…”