208 A CREATIVE COGNITIONevents in and across domains, and so on. It is the dynamic structure of
these “coordinations between coordinations” at vari ous levels that
form the logic of perception, knowledge, thought, and action, according
to Piaget.
Coordinations must have pre ce dence over ele ments, according to
Piaget, because in both the world of experience and be hav ior, there is a
continual construction of novelty. From birth, coordinations in experi-
ence are revealed by the infant’s normal activity in the world. At fi rst, they
are registered as a result of random movements, but increasingly ac-
tivities are guided by the growing knowledge of those coordinations
themselves.
Take, for example, a ball of clay rolled out into successive shapes.
According to Piaget, the actions of the subject on the object reveal not
only isolated properties of the clay but also the coordinations between
them. Th e length and the thickness of the ball are not in de pen dent
dimensions. Th ere is a necessary statistical connection between them—
as one changes, so does the other; that is, they vary together, or co- vary.
In other words, they are coordinated. Moreover, this coordination is itself
embedded within the coordinations of the action: between the changing
visual appearance of the ball and the sense- receptors in skin, muscles,
and joints. Th is is what happens in all our everyday thoughts and actions
like digging, riding bikes, and lift ing objects.
Th e essential idea is that only by internalizing coordinations— not
ele ments— can an individual conceive the invariant structures in ob-
jects and events against constant variations in appearance. And only with
such conceptions can cognitive systems operate in the real world. Being
neither prestructured adaptations nor simple copies of experience, in
the form of simple associations, Piaget stressed that these mental struc-
tures develop as coordinations are assimilated.
For example, the primitive perceptual and conceptual routines available
at birth suff er constant disturbances. So they must constantly readapt
(Piaget used terms like “compensation” or “re- equilibration”). In the
pro cess, Piaget said, these coordinations become ever deeper and more
inclusive of the dynamics of the world, slowly developing into the “logico-
mathematical” structures of adult cognition.
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