12.1 A Block-Arch Scenario


Minsky describes a situation where two new bolck structures with identical descriptions produce different affordances. "So the child must find some way to change the mental description of Block-Arch." This is akin to the Piagetian notion of accommodation.

(NB: The analogy between structure and function begins with this section. On the one hand, we have a structural description -- Block-Arch. On the other hand, there is a functional affordance that is (or may be) offered by such a structure -- Hand-Change. Finding some Block-Arch's with the affordance, and some without, drives the change in the structural description. In other words, a breakdown in the structure/function relationship is the impetus for conceptual change.)


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