**5. Affordances and conceptual integration**

The cognitive operation which describes the relationship between internal and external domains is called *conceptual integration* (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002; Sinha, 2005; Zhang and Patel, 2006), a general process which accounts for phenomena in low and high level cognition, as well as perceptual phenomena. Also known as *blending*, conceptual integration is the term which gives name to a net of sophisticated processes which subsumes relationships among domains of every kind and the creation of novel artefacts, ideas, techniques, etc. Conceptual integration is also used to describe online construction of meaning in every domain of experience. In the blend, features of these domains are coupled according to the aspects they bring which are relevant for the specific aim of the cognitive processing. There are no constraints for associating these domains and features, but these aspects are detected from the emergence of a generic space which opens the possibility that these features and domains be blended. The effect of the blend, located in the blend space, is the new "thing" – meaning, representation, concept, affordance and many other accomplishments, which carries features of the inputs but brings traces of its own (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002).

Learning in Cognitive Niches 11

(Turner employs the term "frames") which do not share the same organizing structure – in the case of affordances, differently structured external and internal domains. The input spaces are filled by, on one side, the internal representations of the person, and, on the other side, the environmental representations. In this operation, the normative component includes the goals of cognitive activity; it embraces the generic space which allows the possibility of articulation between the inputs, and defines some terms and directions of the

The blending scheme predicts that, although the input spaces can be filled by distinct domains, they can present matched counterparts (indicated by the full line). It also presumes that the formation of new concepts assumes an autonomous nature in relation to the inputs (signalled by the white circles), and admits that the effect of the process can function as input for other blending actuations. These properties turn the blending process into a cognitive processing model which can describe the detection of affordances not as the product of the construction and maintenance of niches, but as a part of the cognitive continuous flow from the bases recognized in this chapter. In sociogenetic terms, they are also a niche structuring component, providing the ratchet effect, which is the improvement

The possibility of describing the emergence of affordances as a blending process brings some advantages which motivate their use as a structural description for many cogntive

 It is a description which explains the relationship person-environment as a genuine cognitive process, since (among other reasons) it can be subsumed under some basic principles of non-autonomous and non-computational Cognitive Sciences, such as interdominial mapping (Fauconnier, 1997), and on-line and real-time nature of meaning construction (Coulson, 2001) – both of them clearly compatible with the Distributed Cognition Hypothesis; in this sense, it is associated to the Cognitive Psychology tradition, endorsing and refining classic studies about interactive information

 It is a concept identified not only in the flow of the relationship person-environment, but also in the evolution and creation of artefacts, technologies, etc. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002; Sinha, 2005). For this reason, it is object of interest in studies in Evolutionary Anthropology (Mithen, 1999), and Developmental Psychology (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992; Tomasello, 1999). It is used to explain and describe: in the phylogenesis, the evolutionary gains of *Homo sapiens* in his/her relationship with the environment; in the ontogenesis, the development of the person; and, in the sociogenesis, learning - in these contexts always keeping the idea that cognition can transform and (re)create

 Last, but not least, it is a model which allows precise identification of the elements directly at issue in the detection of a specific affordance, without losing sight of the other features involved in the process. For this reason, it allows the managing of the context, favouring the work of those who need detailed descriptions of affordances to

of human inventions from generation to generation (Tomasello, 1999).

phenomena, among them the creation of affordances in specific niches:

processing (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981).

blending operation.

environments.

succeed in their cognitive actions.

The detection of affordances is also in charge of conceptual integration. As elements found in the blend space, affordances can bring features which are unique entities in a unique event of mutual and transforming situated interchange between person and environment. This premise is important for us to detect the sources for the meanings and affordances produced in the niches, and what constitutes them.

The basic structural model for conceptual integration is summarized by Fauconnier and Turner (2002, p. 46) and adapted to the perspective proposed in this chapter.

**Figure 1.** Structural schema of conceptual integration – detection of affordances

The conceptual integration model (blending) associated to affordances is of the doublescope kind (Turner, 2008). It occurs when the inputs are formed by different domains (Turner employs the term "frames") which do not share the same organizing structure – in the case of affordances, differently structured external and internal domains. The input spaces are filled by, on one side, the internal representations of the person, and, on the other side, the environmental representations. In this operation, the normative component includes the goals of cognitive activity; it embraces the generic space which allows the possibility of articulation between the inputs, and defines some terms and directions of the blending operation.

10 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

constraints for associating these domains and features, but these aspects are detected from the emergence of a generic space which opens the possibility that these features and domains be blended. The effect of the blend, located in the blend space, is the new "thing" – meaning, representation, concept, affordance and many other accomplishments, which carries features

The detection of affordances is also in charge of conceptual integration. As elements found in the blend space, affordances can bring features which are unique entities in a unique event of mutual and transforming situated interchange between person and environment. This premise is important for us to detect the sources for the meanings and affordances

The basic structural model for conceptual integration is summarized by Fauconnier and

of the inputs but brings traces of its own (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002).

Turner (2002, p. 46) and adapted to the perspective proposed in this chapter.

**Figure 1.** Structural schema of conceptual integration – detection of affordances

The conceptual integration model (blending) associated to affordances is of the doublescope kind (Turner, 2008). It occurs when the inputs are formed by different domains

produced in the niches, and what constitutes them.

The blending scheme predicts that, although the input spaces can be filled by distinct domains, they can present matched counterparts (indicated by the full line). It also presumes that the formation of new concepts assumes an autonomous nature in relation to the inputs (signalled by the white circles), and admits that the effect of the process can function as input for other blending actuations. These properties turn the blending process into a cognitive processing model which can describe the detection of affordances not as the product of the construction and maintenance of niches, but as a part of the cognitive continuous flow from the bases recognized in this chapter. In sociogenetic terms, they are also a niche structuring component, providing the ratchet effect, which is the improvement of human inventions from generation to generation (Tomasello, 1999).

The possibility of describing the emergence of affordances as a blending process brings some advantages which motivate their use as a structural description for many cogntive phenomena, among them the creation of affordances in specific niches:


Mostly, the option for recognizing affordances through describing them via conceptual integration comes from the last item above, because it satisfies the need to systematize the cognitive behaviours which, allied to the socio-cultural experiences proper to the classroom, offer a scenario of the specific conditions of learning settings.

Learning in Cognitive Niches 13

What enables the conceptualization of a map which depicts, at the same time, the Western Countries and the Rio de Janeiro's hills is a cognitive operation called compression (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002, p. 113). It is related to conceptual integration and refers to information, concepts and dimensions which are selected and adapted to create novel knowledge structures. What we can see now is that the effectiveness of this creation can be better acknowledged when it is observed in a situated fashion, and when the purposes of their existence are taken into concern. In the specific case of Acerola's map, it results from the compression of information associated to the dimension of space: the features of two different places are compressed, and this selective operation captured only information of these places which could not crash during his speech, in order for his colleagues to

As an affordance, Acerola's map was an object created in a unique and specific niche construction, to suffice his specific task of appropriating the information given by the teacher and deliver them to his colleagues. He built it through the negotiation between the need to reproduce information about History and the will to express himself in order to be heard by the students. And it is quite presumable that he has been successful in this undertaking.

The Distributed Cognition Hypothesis proposes the agency of the environment in meaning construction and the detection of what is meaningful and important for fulfilling action goals in a given setting. These ideas provoke methodological changes in cognitive investigation (Clark and Chalmers, 1998, p. 10), as elicits new and fresh comprehensions about facts and phenomena relating cognitive actions and behaviours – learning, and also memory, language acquisition, beliefs, intersubjectivity, cognitive development, psychomotor abilities. It means that the idea of learning in cognitive niches cannot be the same as the one put by traditional theories of cognition, which usually does not consider the situated identity of the learner in educational contexts. Learning in cognitive niches, as we see, is an agentic, dynamic and creative cognitive action which includes the appropriation of institutional

**6. Distributed cognition and school – Environments of learning** 

practices, norms, instruments and behaviours (Wertsch, 1998; Sawyer & Greeno, 2009).

testify in the observation of the History lesson depicted in this chapter.

Consequently, in the classroom cognitive niche, with its variety of material and symbolic artefacts, we can expect a set of cognitive behaviours and the emergence of a given kind of affordances which are specific of that niche, and are not found anywhere else – as we could

Studies on Evolutionary Psychology corroborate the idea that the cognitive actions and behaviours identified in the classroom niche can be described as a phylogenetic achievement, due to the Developmental Psychology supposition for the phylogenetic basis for constructing and understanding cognitive behaviours related to specific settings for pedagogical actions (Premack and Premack, 1996; Csibra and Gergely, 2006). These studies favour the definition of the proper nature of pedagogy and teaching and learning actions as cognitive systems. So all people involved in teaching and learning activities are operating cognitively in a way which is specific for pedagogic purpose, and not for any other one.

understand the facts he was portraying.

Indeed, when we describe the conceptual construction of the map used by Acerola as an affordance to help the students understand events if the past in a context of articulation with their previous knowledge, we can see clearly which features in this formulation were at stake. We can also see how was the image conceived by him from his own conceptualizations about the dimensions included in the process: space, time and territorial definition, to be articulated to the external information given by the teacher's map.

**Figure 2.** Structural schema of conceptual integration – Acerola's map

The map created by Acerola through conceptual integration, which presumes the existence of hills in the 19th century's Western World, could never exist in a supposed exact reality, let alone exist previous to his lesson, because in the 19th century there were not hills conceptualized as countries and occupied by slums. There was not even the concept of slum. As a matter of fact, the map cannot exist outside the events occurred in that niche, and outside the relationships, goals and norms that were regulating the meanings and affordances produced there.

What enables the conceptualization of a map which depicts, at the same time, the Western Countries and the Rio de Janeiro's hills is a cognitive operation called compression (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002, p. 113). It is related to conceptual integration and refers to information, concepts and dimensions which are selected and adapted to create novel knowledge structures. What we can see now is that the effectiveness of this creation can be better acknowledged when it is observed in a situated fashion, and when the purposes of their existence are taken into concern. In the specific case of Acerola's map, it results from the compression of information associated to the dimension of space: the features of two different places are compressed, and this selective operation captured only information of these places which could not crash during his speech, in order for his colleagues to understand the facts he was portraying.

12 Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

offer a scenario of the specific conditions of learning settings.

**Figure 2.** Structural schema of conceptual integration – Acerola's map

affordances produced there.

The map created by Acerola through conceptual integration, which presumes the existence of hills in the 19th century's Western World, could never exist in a supposed exact reality, let alone exist previous to his lesson, because in the 19th century there were not hills conceptualized as countries and occupied by slums. There was not even the concept of slum. As a matter of fact, the map cannot exist outside the events occurred in that niche, and outside the relationships, goals and norms that were regulating the meanings and

Mostly, the option for recognizing affordances through describing them via conceptual integration comes from the last item above, because it satisfies the need to systematize the cognitive behaviours which, allied to the socio-cultural experiences proper to the classroom,

Indeed, when we describe the conceptual construction of the map used by Acerola as an affordance to help the students understand events if the past in a context of articulation with their previous knowledge, we can see clearly which features in this formulation were at stake. We can also see how was the image conceived by him from his own conceptualizations about the dimensions included in the process: space, time and territorial

definition, to be articulated to the external information given by the teacher's map.

As an affordance, Acerola's map was an object created in a unique and specific niche construction, to suffice his specific task of appropriating the information given by the teacher and deliver them to his colleagues. He built it through the negotiation between the need to reproduce information about History and the will to express himself in order to be heard by the students. And it is quite presumable that he has been successful in this undertaking.
