Function and the Origins of the Design Stance

Abstract We report 2 experiments addressing children's developing understanding of design. Experiment 1 showed that although 5-year-old children judged an object's function according to its original design rather than a subsequent accidental activity, design was not preferred over a subsequent intentional use. Adults select the design function in both cases, suggesting that children's initial assignment of function is based on any intended goals for which the object is used. Experiment 2 compared assignment of function with object categorization, demonstrating that although 5-year-old children's assignment of object function is based on any goals associated with the object, their categorization is adult-like and based on the category intended by the object's creator (over a category assigned by another agent). We conclude that preschoolers appreciate the link between creators and categories before constructing a design stance supporting reasoning about artifact functions.