In this editorial I introduce the possible as an emerging field of inquiry in psychology and related disciplines Over the past decades, significant advances have been made in connected areas – counterfactual thinking, anticipation, prospection, imagination and creativity, etc – and several calls have been formulated in the social sciences to study human beings and societies as systems that are open to possibility and to the future However, engaging with the possible, in the sense of both becoming aware of it and actively exploring it, represents a subject in need of further theoretical elaboration In this paper, I review several existing approaches to the possible before briefly outlining a new, sociocultural account While the former are focused on cognitive processes and uphold the old dichotomy between the possible and the actual or real, the latter grows out of a social ontology grounded in notions of difference, positions, perspectives, reflexivity, and dialogue In the end, I argue that a better understanding of the possible can help us cultivate it in both mind and society

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Constraints of Agency

The Possible as a Field of Inquiry.

Concept formation is a crucial milestone for cognitive development In the last 40 years, empirical evidence obtained in laboratory settings suggested that babies have a rich conceptual system that expresses in responses to stimuli However, very little is still known about how concepts develop in every day, ecological contexts This is due to a lack of studies addressing (i) the intersubjective contexts of activity in which concepts develop and (ii) the meanings that objects that are part of those contexts acquire through material engagement This paper presents a qualitative analysis of six observations from a longitudinal pilot study carried out at an infant school in Madrid (Spain), with children from ages 5 to 17 months Children’s interactions with each other, with their teacher, and with objects were recorded every 21 days for 6 months Results show that when children, in their first year of life, grasp the canonical uses of objects they stop interacting with isolated things and start to interact with members of functional classes Knowledge about the canonical function of objects grants children access to new forms of interaction with the material world, with others, and with themselves I, therefore, propose that, in early childhood, general forms of material engagement that take place within culturally organised activities are central to conceptual development Specifically, I hold that canonical uses of objects are conceptual in nature Results are discussed in relation to the need for more studies addressing the active role of material culture for cognition in early childhood

Object Concepts and Their Functional Core: Material Engagement and Canonical Uses of Objects in Early Childhood Education

We present a systematic and qualitative review of academic literature on early conceptual development (0–24 months of age), with an emphasis on methodological aspects. The final sample of our review included 281 studies reported in 115 articles. The main aims of the article were four: first, to organise studies into sets according to methodological similarities and differences; second, to elaborate on the methodological procedures that characterise each set; third, to circumscribe the empirical indicators that different sets of studies consider as proof of the existence of concepts in early childhood; last, to identify methodological limitations and to propose possible ways to overcome them. We grouped the studies into five sets: preference and habituation experiments, category extension tasks, object sorting tasks, sequential touching tasks and object examination tasks. In the “Results” section, we review the core features of each set of studies. In the “Discussion” and “Conclusions” sections, we describe, for one thing, the most relevant methodological shortcomings. We end by arguing that a situated, semiotic and pragmatic perspective that emphasises the importance of ecological validity could open up new avenues of research to better understand the development of concepts in early childhood.

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The development of categorisation and conceptual thinking in early childhood: methods and limitations

Within cognitive and developmental psychology, it is commonly argued that perception is the basis for object concepts. According to this view, sensory experiences would translate into concepts thanks to the recognition, correlation and integration of physical attributes. Once attributes are integrated into general patterns, subjects would become able to parse objects into categories. In this article, we critically review the three epistemological perspectives according to which it can be claimed that object concepts depend on perception: state non-conceptualism, content non-conceptualism, and content conceptualism. We show that the three perspectives have problems that make perception inadequate as a conceptual basis. We suggest that the inquiry about the origin and development of object concepts can benefit from a pragmatic perspective that considers objects’ cultural functions as a conceptual foundation. We address this possibility from the theoretical framework of the pragmatics of the object, considering the importance of objects’ functional permanence.

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Constraints of Agency

Citations

The Possible as a Field of Inquiry.

Object Concepts and Their Functional Core: Material Engagement and Canonical Uses of Objects in Early Childhood Education

The development of categorisation and conceptual thinking in early childhood: methods and limitations

On perception as the basis for object concepts: A critical analysis

The Sociocultural Study of Creative Action

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