A Marriage is an Artefact and not a Walk that We Take Together: An Experimental Study on the Categorization of Artefacts Corrado Roversi & Anna M. Borghi & Luca Tummolini # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Artefacts are usually understood in contrast with natural kinds and con- ceived as a unitary kind. Here we propose that there is in fact a variety of artefacts: from the more concrete to the more abstract ones. Moreover, not every artefact is able to fulfil its function thanks to its physical properties: Some artefacts, particularly what we call “institutional” artefacts, are symbolic in nature and require a system of rules to exist and to fulfil their function. Adopting a standard method to measure concep- tual representation (the property generation task), we have experimentally explored how humans conceptualise these different kinds of artefacts. Results indicate that institutional artefacts are typically opposed to social objects, while being more similar to standard artefacts, be they abstract or concrete. 1 Introduction Artefacts come in great variety. Beside everyday tools like hammers and screw- drivers, less concrete examples are a poem or a project. Even if these lack material properties that can be readily tracked by our senses, they too are products of intentional human action with a more or less recognizable function. Moreover, aside from standard artefacts and tools, there is a domain of artefacts that is more symbolic in nature and does not necessary rely on physical properties to achieve its intended function. A check, for instance, is a typical example of institutional artefact whose physical properties (i.e. being made of paper and with a standard shape and colour) Rev.Phil.Psych. DOI 10.1007/s13164-013-0150-7 C. Roversi (*) School of Law, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy e-mail: corrado.roversi@unibo.it A. M. Borghi Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy A. M. Borghi : L. Tummolini Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy