Tools and how we use them
I was able to briefly skim through the first three chapters of the book Cognition and Tool Use, Forms of engagement in human and animal use of tools by Christopher Baber. The very first quote in the beginning of the chapters sums up the purpose of the book, the quote is by Francis Bacon 1620, and it states, "neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can affect much, it is by instruments and aids that the work is done". Basically what it means is that the work is done using instruments or tools, just the hands alone or understanding of the functionality is not enough. The chapters explain the different uses of tools by humanbeings as well as animals. The book introduces us to ergonomics, laws that govern movement. My understanding is tool is an object which when used causes a change in the environment. For example, lets consider hammering of the nail in the wall, we need to consider a number of things, first how much force needs to be applied to push the nail in, second incase the hammer is not available, humans could use another tool to do the job, third the hammering process diverts the persons attention to the nail and not the hammer, only when the nail is not right pushed in, the person hammering focuses the attention towards the hammer and fourth the way the hammer is used to push the nail in, shows the different skill levels of the person hammering it, and it varies from expert to novice. Tools basically mediate our engagement with the environment, it affects the nail length, pressure of the wrist when hammering, the noise created, affect on the wall in the form of a hole etc the tools are acting as intermediaries between us and the object in the environment. Simply stating tools are objects that let us do things to the environment.
Vygotsky said humanbeings have the feature of internalizing tools, which means children auto develop the ability to use psychological tools to perform cognitive tasks, like using beads to make a braid, using beads to count, joining lego blocks to create a bridge and so on. But as the complexity is increased and the user becomes more proficient, they require more advanced tools to do the task, these could be calculators etc. Paper and pencil are tools, they are used to write something, fingers are tools used to count numbers, MS WORD has tools like spell checker , mail merge etc The writer further talks of the cognitive artifacts, for example buying or shopping list enables a person to not plan the list but also remember items that need to be bought, so the process requires both thinking and planning. Tools is derived from the old English word Tawian meaning to prepare for use, which means tools are objects used for a purpose, achieving a goal etc. The writer uses two terms vorhanden and zuhanden here, for example giving a physical description of a screw driver, mentioning the color, shape, describing its features handle, shaft etc is all vorhanden, zuhanden would mean looking at the relationship between the tool and what could be done using the tool, the relationship between the tool and the environment, using pictures, words, actions to describe the tool. So one must know the functions of the tools, as well as the ones own actions that can explicit the tools use.
Goodall emphasis that tools are used for a specific purpose, a chimpinzee using a stick to extract termites from a mound is using a tool, but adog carrying a stick in the fields is not a tool. Tools extend the number of activties that could performed, for example using podbean to create a podcast to share a childs learning experiences, extends the child abilities. Tools could enhance or modify your performance for example when eating with a fork or knife etc.
Moving towards cognition, cognition is about relating the new information with the old existing in the schema, interpreting and making new decisions. In simple words its about information processing. The writer explains 6 different forms of engagement, morphological means use of hands, claws, teeth to do some processing on an object , environmental engagement is all about stimulus and response, motor engagement is about manipulating objects, perceptual engagement is about interpreting feedback from the tool and cognitive engagement looks at the functions of the tools.
Chapter 2 looked at how different animals use tools, Charles Darwin talked about animals using tools, monkeys using stones to hammer nuts or elephants using the leaves to sway away flies are all uses of tools, but they direct towards something different, the bird uses a twig because its beak is weak, so the tool compensates for the deficiences in the biological functions.The responses by the animals whether innate or learned cannot be determined but there are examples that the tool use if context specific at times. So the animals combine the object and the environment and then tend to perform an action on them. The writer tries to answer three questions, one whether the ability of the creature to perform an action, role of the environment in the action and third question about the intentions. The writer explains the use of tools by the crows, they placed the fallen nuts on the road, then they waited on a pedestrian crossing for the cars to smash the nuts, and then they collected them. So it shows crow either know that walnuts could cracked this way, or that they know cars could break them. We can say the birds modify their responses. Similarly, egyptian vultures throw the eggs on the stones to break them. The writer talks about a TOTE Test Operate Test Exit model where the species checks the object being cracked open , there is a feedback and hits the object again and stops when the its broken. Elephants use branches for scratching themselves. They use the tool to reduce discomfort.
Chapter 3 then looks into the tool use by animals in the wild, like chimpanzees using tools. Some might use tools significantly while others may not.It cannot be a characteristics of all animals. The writer focuses on the objects and the goals. chimpanzees use objects for looking for food and in doing so they modify the objects they use for example the twigs are plucked from the branches. For example the chimpanzees hold the base of the stick in the teeth and foot, and the middle of the stick between the thumb and the index finger. They will use sticks for termite extraction based on certain principles. They select the stick based on the hole size. They might have a model of the stick in mind. This model could be learned in through trial and practice.But this cant be proved that they have models of sticks or objects.
Another interesting example is how the chimpanzees extract honey from the trees. They use 5 tools, a stick is used to break the nest , bang against the nest, then another stick is used to widen the gap, another stick to puncture the inside of the nest and finally another to dig into the nest and extract the honey. Another interesting example was the use of the stones to hammer the nuts. They carry nuts and place them ina particular direction, and they hammer it till it breaks apart. They tend to remember a particular location where the stones could be gathered. The nut cracking activity does reflect that it takes years to develop the skill of nut cracking. Other then chimpanzees, the animals use sticks to gather food and scare away the animals, they use sticks as weapons. While doing this they make errors, for example while opening a door which has a rock stuck in the middle, they might remove the door. The action is inappropriate but the action reflects how they tried to prevent the stone coming in the door. They saw a problem and found a solution to solve it. They could also modify the objects for example joining the sticks to form a larger stick.
Seymour Pappert explains tools as objects to think with and not only use with. For example children playing with gears to understand how they work. For piaget these were general objects for vygotsky they had links with the culture. For both animals and the children the goal of the administrator is crucial and important. Chimpanzees have a better understanding of the tools as compared to other animals. The modification of the objects, through play and exploration reflect the depth of cognitive engagement. But they do make mistakes while solving problems, it does reflect how they find solutions. The last element is the impact of culture, the chimpanzees mother could place the good hammer stones , leaving the hammer so that the child could play with it and so on. Its like an adult assisting a child in learning.
Vygotsky said humanbeings have the feature of internalizing tools, which means children auto develop the ability to use psychological tools to perform cognitive tasks, like using beads to make a braid, using beads to count, joining lego blocks to create a bridge and so on. But as the complexity is increased and the user becomes more proficient, they require more advanced tools to do the task, these could be calculators etc. Paper and pencil are tools, they are used to write something, fingers are tools used to count numbers, MS WORD has tools like spell checker , mail merge etc The writer further talks of the cognitive artifacts, for example buying or shopping list enables a person to not plan the list but also remember items that need to be bought, so the process requires both thinking and planning. Tools is derived from the old English word Tawian meaning to prepare for use, which means tools are objects used for a purpose, achieving a goal etc. The writer uses two terms vorhanden and zuhanden here, for example giving a physical description of a screw driver, mentioning the color, shape, describing its features handle, shaft etc is all vorhanden, zuhanden would mean looking at the relationship between the tool and what could be done using the tool, the relationship between the tool and the environment, using pictures, words, actions to describe the tool. So one must know the functions of the tools, as well as the ones own actions that can explicit the tools use.
Goodall emphasis that tools are used for a specific purpose, a chimpinzee using a stick to extract termites from a mound is using a tool, but adog carrying a stick in the fields is not a tool. Tools extend the number of activties that could performed, for example using podbean to create a podcast to share a childs learning experiences, extends the child abilities. Tools could enhance or modify your performance for example when eating with a fork or knife etc.
Moving towards cognition, cognition is about relating the new information with the old existing in the schema, interpreting and making new decisions. In simple words its about information processing. The writer explains 6 different forms of engagement, morphological means use of hands, claws, teeth to do some processing on an object , environmental engagement is all about stimulus and response, motor engagement is about manipulating objects, perceptual engagement is about interpreting feedback from the tool and cognitive engagement looks at the functions of the tools.
Chapter 2 looked at how different animals use tools, Charles Darwin talked about animals using tools, monkeys using stones to hammer nuts or elephants using the leaves to sway away flies are all uses of tools, but they direct towards something different, the bird uses a twig because its beak is weak, so the tool compensates for the deficiences in the biological functions.The responses by the animals whether innate or learned cannot be determined but there are examples that the tool use if context specific at times. So the animals combine the object and the environment and then tend to perform an action on them. The writer tries to answer three questions, one whether the ability of the creature to perform an action, role of the environment in the action and third question about the intentions. The writer explains the use of tools by the crows, they placed the fallen nuts on the road, then they waited on a pedestrian crossing for the cars to smash the nuts, and then they collected them. So it shows crow either know that walnuts could cracked this way, or that they know cars could break them. We can say the birds modify their responses. Similarly, egyptian vultures throw the eggs on the stones to break them. The writer talks about a TOTE Test Operate Test Exit model where the species checks the object being cracked open , there is a feedback and hits the object again and stops when the its broken. Elephants use branches for scratching themselves. They use the tool to reduce discomfort.
Chapter 3 then looks into the tool use by animals in the wild, like chimpanzees using tools. Some might use tools significantly while others may not.It cannot be a characteristics of all animals. The writer focuses on the objects and the goals. chimpanzees use objects for looking for food and in doing so they modify the objects they use for example the twigs are plucked from the branches. For example the chimpanzees hold the base of the stick in the teeth and foot, and the middle of the stick between the thumb and the index finger. They will use sticks for termite extraction based on certain principles. They select the stick based on the hole size. They might have a model of the stick in mind. This model could be learned in through trial and practice.But this cant be proved that they have models of sticks or objects.
Another interesting example is how the chimpanzees extract honey from the trees. They use 5 tools, a stick is used to break the nest , bang against the nest, then another stick is used to widen the gap, another stick to puncture the inside of the nest and finally another to dig into the nest and extract the honey. Another interesting example was the use of the stones to hammer the nuts. They carry nuts and place them ina particular direction, and they hammer it till it breaks apart. They tend to remember a particular location where the stones could be gathered. The nut cracking activity does reflect that it takes years to develop the skill of nut cracking. Other then chimpanzees, the animals use sticks to gather food and scare away the animals, they use sticks as weapons. While doing this they make errors, for example while opening a door which has a rock stuck in the middle, they might remove the door. The action is inappropriate but the action reflects how they tried to prevent the stone coming in the door. They saw a problem and found a solution to solve it. They could also modify the objects for example joining the sticks to form a larger stick.
Seymour Pappert explains tools as objects to think with and not only use with. For example children playing with gears to understand how they work. For piaget these were general objects for vygotsky they had links with the culture. For both animals and the children the goal of the administrator is crucial and important. Chimpanzees have a better understanding of the tools as compared to other animals. The modification of the objects, through play and exploration reflect the depth of cognitive engagement. But they do make mistakes while solving problems, it does reflect how they find solutions. The last element is the impact of culture, the chimpanzees mother could place the good hammer stones , leaving the hammer so that the child could play with it and so on. Its like an adult assisting a child in learning.
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