Publication details

Chápání funkce a účelu nástrojů

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Title in English Understanding function and purpose of tools
Authors

KRÁTKÝ Jan

Year of publication 2012
Type Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Description Article would like to introduce the theoretical framework related to the way we humans understand function and cooperation with material tools. Artefacts of our daily use often have a very well defined function and culturally restricted forms of use. Developmentally, this cultural knowledge evolves already in an early age of life. Infants and children up to three years of age understand presented tools on the basis of their surface and physical features (affordances). That sometimes leads to use objects possible but culturally unusual way. Rather well developed understanding of object's function already appears among the preschoolers. This culturally appropriated set of preferences usually comes as a sort of biases (functional fixedness). Research on this topic brings evidence that ability is independent of cultural context. That seems to be a crucial findings if we consider how striking differences these objects displays across different cultures. This article introduces reader to the experimental findings on the topic and then continues with the discussion on the topic of distribution and forms of knowledge.
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