Tim German: UCSB Psychology

The human ability to make tools and use them to solve problems may not be zoologically unique, but it is certainly extraordinary. Yet little is known about the conceptual machinery that makes humans so competent at making and using tools. Do adults and children have concepts specialized for understanding human-made artifacts? If so, are these concepts deployed in attempts to solve novel problems? In this talk I will review evidence from children’s insight problem solving tasks which suggests that there are changes in the way that artifact concepts organize knowledge in problem solving over the late preschool and early school age years. I characterize this as children beginning to take a ‘design stance’ with respect to their representation of artifact concepts. One effect of this change in artifact representation manifests as decreases in the flexibility with which tools are employed to solve novel problems. I will also present preliminary evidence for the possible effect of a ‘design stance’ on adult problem solving in a non technologically promiscuous culture.
http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/German_10-27-03.pdf