Acquiring an understanding of design: evidence from childrenʹs insight problem solving

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? Here we present new data, derived from problem-solving experiments, which support the following. (i) The structure of the childʹs concept of artifact function changes profoundly between ages 5 and 7. At age 5, the childʹs conceptual machinery defines the function of an artifact as any goal a user might have; by age 7, its function is defined by the artifactʹs typical or intended use. (ii) This conceptual shift has a striking effect on problem-solving performance, i.e. the childʹs concept of artifact function appears to be deployed in problem solving. (iii) This effect on problem solving is not caused by differences in the amount of knowledge that children have about the typical use of a particular tool; it is mediated by the structure of the childʹs artifact concept (which organizes and deploys the childʹs knowledge). In two studies, children between 5 and 7 years of age were matched for their knowledge of what a particular artifact “is for”, and then given a problem that can only be solved if that tool is used for an atypical purpose. All children performed well in a baseline condition. But when they were primed by a demonstration of the artifactʹs typical function, 5-year-old children solved the problem much faster than 6–7-year-old children. Because all children knew what the tools were for, differences in knowledge alone cannot explain the results. We argue that the older children were slower to solve the problem when the typical function was primed because (i) their artifact concept plays a role in problem solving, and (ii) intended purpose is central to their concept of artifact function, but not to that of the younger children.