FIGURE 6 (S309F): Pseudoconceptual reasoning within a syncretic representation

The three-year-old participant in Figure 6 (S309F) also consistently built towers (about to go “Crash! Bang! Boom!” (“Thunder ‘n lightning do too.”)), and in this photograph had patiently interrupted her syncretic chain-like construction of blocks (which had earlier featured a house with a tree and stairs and a carefully angled trapezoid door) to demonstrate a somewhat flexible understanding of what constituted “big” and “small”. For her, the white cev hexagon and the yellow cev circle (“The Baby Block”) were both considered to be “small circles”, whereas the orange lag circle (“The Daddy Block”), the white mur circle, the white mur hexagon, and the blue bik circle (“The Mummy Block”) were all considered to be “big circles” (irrespective of differences in diameter and height). She consistently referred to the same three blocks with the names of the nuclear family, and on more than one occasion reminded me very firmly: “That’s the Rainbow!” (the yellow bik semi-circle (off-screen)).