Osiurak, F.
Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France
Although humans are not unique in using tools, they are special in having established a culture which the use and manufacture of tools is a universal feature. Only humans possess a vast repertoire of tool-use skills, make one tool to create another, or spontaneously engage in tool use activities. A certain number of attempts have been made to model how humans perform tool behaviour. But, another important question, which has received very little attention from psychologists, is why humans use tools so frequently and
spontaneously? In this talk, I shall address this intriguing issue. More specifically, after discussing studies in neuropsychology demonstrating that tool use might be supported by the ability to reason about object’s physical properties, I shall present recent evidence that people may quite spontaneously represent objects as potential tools to enhance their body’s abilities.