Gutheil Grant, Bloom Paul, Valderrama Nohemy, Freedman Rebecca
Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA.
Cognition. 2004 Feb;91(1):23-42. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00165-3.
It is commonly assumed that artifacts are named solely on the basis of properties they currently possess; in particular, their appearance and function. The experiments presented here explore the alternative proposal that the history of an artifact plays some role in how it is named. In three experiments, children between the ages of 4 and 9 years and adults were presented with familiar artifacts whose appearance and function were then radically altered. Participants were tested as to whether they believed that the modified objects were still members of the artifact kind. Results indicate that object history becomes increasingly important over the course of development.
人们通常认为，人工制品完全是根据它们当前所具有的属性来命名的；特别是它们的外观和功能。这里所呈现的实验探讨了另一种观点，即人工制品的历史在其命名方式中起到了一定作用。在三个实验中，向4至9岁的儿童和成年人展示了一些常见的人工制品，然后对其外观和功能进行了彻底改变。测试参与者是否认为这些经过修改的物体仍然属于该人工制品类别。结果表明，在发展过程中，物体的历史变得越来越重要。
