1. The capacity to make one thing stand for something else. Representations consist of a symbolic vehicle and a referent. The symbolic vehicle is that which does the representing (e.g., a word, an image, a picture). The referent consists of that which is represented (e.g., an event, a meaning, an object) in the real or imagined world. 2. in Kurt Fischer’s skill theory, the third tier of skill development in which children gain the capacity to construct concrete meanings using signs and symbols. Another developmental approach casts the architecture and functioning of a representational system in the context of object identity.
See Abstractions, Category learning, Common coding, Direct realist account, Distributed representation, Domain specificity, Homunculus, Mental image, Moderate-discrepnacy hypothesis, Object identity, Phonological pathway, Representation (cultural), Representational re-description, Symbols, Topographical representation