One Function One Tool? A Review on Mutual Exclusivity in Tool Use Learning in Human and Non-human Species

The goal of this review is twofold: first to explore whether mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness overlap and what might be their respective specificities and second, to investigate whether mutual exclusivity as an inferential principle could be applied in other domains than language and whether it can be found in non-human species. In order to do that, we first give an overview of the representative studies of each phenomenon. We then analyze papers on tool use learning in children that studied or observed one of these phenomena. We argue that, despite their common principle -one tool one function- mutual exclusivity and functional fixedness are two distinct phenomena and need to be addressed separately in order to fully understand the mechanisms underlying social learning and cognition. In addition, mutual exclusivity appears to be applicable in other domains than language learning, namely tool use learning and is also found in non-human species when learning symbols and tools.

The Psychological Foundations of Ritual Learning

ritual is a universal feature of human culture. A decade of psychological research provides new insight into the early emerging propensity for ritual learning. Children learn the ritual practices and instrumental skills of their communities by observing and imitating trusted group members such as adults and peers. They use social and contextual cues to determine when an action is an instrumental skill versus a ritual, and they modify their behavior accordingly. When behavior is interpreted as a ritual, children imitate with higher fidelity, engage in less innovation, are more accurate when detecting differences, and display more functional fixedness than when behavior is interpreted as instrumental. Children and adults also transmit ritual behavior to others with higher fidelity than they do instrumental behavior. The authors propose that affiliation with social groups motivates imitative fidelity of ritual. Species-specific social learning mechanisms facilitate the transmission of instrumental skills as well as rituals intergenerationally and enable cumulative cultural learning.

How can I use it? The role of functional fixedness in the survival-processing paradigm

After imagining being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival material and rating objects with respect to their relevance in this situation, participants show superior memory performance for these objects compared to a control scenario. A possible mechanism responsible for this memory advantage is the richness and distinctiveness with which information is encoded in the survival-scenario condition. When confronted with the unusual task of thinking about how an object can be used in a life-threatening context, participants will most likely consider both common and uncommon (i.e., novel) functions of this object. These ideas about potential functions may later serve as powerful retrieval cues that boost memory performance. We argue that objects differ in their potential to be used as novel, creative survival tools. Some objects may be low in functional fixedness, meaning that it is possible to use them in many different ways. Other objects, in contrast, may be high in functional fixedness, meaning that the possibilities to use them in non-standard ways is limited. We tested experimentally whether functional fixedness of objects moderates the strength of the survival-processing advantage compared to a moving control scenario. As predicted, we observed an interaction of the functional fixedness level with scenario type: The survival-processing memory advantage was more pronounced for objects low in functional fixedness compared to those high in functional fixedness. These results are in line with the richness-of-encoding explanation of the survival-processing advantage.

Informing Design Defixation Using Interventions for Psychiatric Disorders

Design fixation has been extensively studied in the context of engineering design, leading to several interventions to reduce its negative effects. The concept of mental fixation has roots in diverse psychological contexts from Freudian psychoanalysis to Gestaltism and eating disorders. Although the underlying concepts are similar, the phenomenon has different names, including mental set, rumination, functional fixedness, obsession, etc. Mental fixation in its various forms is always a barrier to problem solving, whether the problem is a psychological disorder or an engineering-design task. The present paper explores the applicability to design fixation of cognitive therapy, a form of psychotherapy that relies on questioning to identify and modify inaccurate perceptions. Originally developed to treat depression, it is now used to treat a variety of psychiatric disorders. Specific interventions used in cognitive therapy are described in detail towards developing new means of overcoming design fixation. These interventions include cognitive restructuring and exposure response prevention. Also explored are links to other research results from psychology and cognitive science, including focused distraction, and the effects of music and physical exercise. In addition to developing new interventions, existing design-fixation interventions can also be supplemented using insights from these research results.