AFFORDANCES, PERCEPTUAL COMPLEXITY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOOL USE

Perceiving the affordance of a tool requires the integration of severa l complementary relationships among actor, tool, and target. Higher or der affordance structures are introduced to deal with these forms of c omplex action from an ecological-realist point of view. The complexity of the higher order affordance structure was used to predict the diff iculty of perceiving the tool function. Predictions were tested in 3 e xperiments involving children between 9 months and 4 years old. In a c lassical tool use task dating back to W. Kohler, a desirable target wa s obtained by using a hook as a tool. The relative positions of the ho ok and the target were systematically varied to obtain structures diff ering in complexity. The observed difficulty of the task was found ess entially in accordance with the theoretical complexity of the higher o rder affordance structures involved in perceiving the tool function.