ABSTRACT
According to the historical view, function reflects the intention of an object’s creator structure and use are relatively unimportant. A new view, the HIPE theory, integrates the affordance and historical views, proposing that function cumulatively requires history, goals, structure, and use to be complete. Three experiments in S. E. Chaigneau tested the HIPE theory. In each, participants read scenarios that described an artifact’s design history and physical structure, along with an agent’s goal and actual use. Experiment 1 found that compromising each component reduced an object’s functionality relative to baseline, consistent with HIPE’s prediction that all four components are cumulatively necessary for a complete function. Experiment 2 tested the historical view’s assumption that design history is causally sufficient for function. Experiment 3 explored the finding in experiments that history is more important than structure and use in naming.
