Authors: Julie JohnsonPynn Dorothy M Fragaszy
Publish Date: 2001/10/26
Volume: 4, Issue: 3-4, Pages: 315-324
Abstract
The ability to seriate nesting cups as a sensorimotor task has posed interesting questions for cognitive scientists Greenfield et al 1972 Cognit Psychol 3291–310 found parallels between children’s combinatorial activity with nesting cups and patterns of phonological and grammatical constructions The parallels suggested the possibility of a neurally based developmental homology between language and instrumental action Greenfield 1991 Behav Brain Sci 14531–595 Children who predominantly used subassembly a hierarchical method of combining cups succeeded at seriating nesting cups more often than those who did not Greenfield and others eg Piaget and Inhelder 1969 The psychology of the child Basic Books New York DeLoache et al 1985 Child Dev 56928–939 argued that success in seriation reflects the child’s growing recognition of a reversible relationship a particular element in a series is conceived of as being smaller than the previous element and larger than the subsequent element But is a concept of reversibility or a hierarchical form of object manipulation necessary to seriate cups In this article we review studies with very young children and nonhuman primates to determine how individuals that do not evidence conceptual reversibility manage the seriation task We argue that the development of skill in seriation is experientially rather than conceptually driven and that it may be unnecessary to link seriation with cognitive conceptions of reversibility or linguistic capacities Rather in ordering a set of objects by size perceptualmotor learning may enable contemplative refinement
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