Functional fixedness and body-part-as-object production in pantomime

Abstract

In pantomiming the use of tools, it is possible to use a body part as the object (BPO) or imagine the object (IO). The present four studies test how conceptualizing the functions of objects may underlie BPO production in a non-clinical adult population. We showed that familiar vs. unfamiliar tools (Study 1) and visual experience only vs. visual + motor experience with novel tools (Study 2) made no difference in BPO production. In Study 3, participants showed a trend for higher BPO production for tools presented in two-dimensional pictures rather than in reality. In Study 4, participants' functional fixedness was experimentally manipulated: participants were told unfamiliar tools had either five functions or only one function. Participants produced significantly more BPOs in the one-function condition. These results suggest that conceptualizing objects as having a fixed function is a predictor of BPO production.