ABSTRACT
Adaptation realized by cognition, in the sense of the transformative process, is the product of functional processes that are invariant across “organisms”. At the sensorimotor level, one can trace the construction of the object-concept: under the appropriate transformative conditions,“objects” appearing to the subject at different times and places are unified as “the same object”. The physical appearance of the object, even if discontinuous, stays the same. Higher level invariants are those that, instead, enable to construct an object as “the same” when its form is altered. Construction of invariants guides also the structuring of relations among objects. For example, in space, where they allow to keep constant the order relations among objects independently of the subject’s displacements relative to them. To sum up, comparison of structures across species, as well as developmental phases, will enable us to characterize the specificity of each cognitive organization and, hopefully, determine in what exactly their difference lies.
