Giacomo asked:

I am behind writing an essay on the ontological status of 'artifacts', using a cognitive approach (that
is, referring to all the philosophy that abundantly relies on cognitive science); I am particularly
interested with understanding how the human mind processes the conceptualisation of artifacts. Is
there anyone who might suggest some clues (essays, articles and people) about experimental data
and/or philosophical reflections related to such issue?

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An interesting question which is just beginning to be seriously researched, after Heidegger's Luddite
treatment of technology discouraged that. Take a look at these:

de Lon, D. "Cognitive Task Transformations." Cognitive Systems Research3 (2002): 349-59.

Imamizu, H., T. Kuroda, S. Miyauchi, T. Yoshioka, and M. Kawato. "Modular Organization of Internal
Models of Tools in the Human Cerebellum." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
100, no. 9 (2003): 5461-66.

Maravita, A., C. Spence, S. Kennett, and J. Driver. "Tool-Use Changes Multimodal Spatial
Interactions between Vision and Touch in Normal Humans." Cognition83 (2002): B25-B34.

Narens, L. "The Irony of Measurement by Subjective Estimations." Journal of Mathematical
Psychology46 (2002): 769-88.

Narens, L. "A Meaningful Justification for the Representational Theory of Measurement." Journal of
Mathematical Psychology46 (2002): 746-68.

Pattee, H.H. "The Physics of Symbols and the Evolution of Semiotic Control." In Workshop on
Control Mechanisms for Complex Systems: Issues of Measurement and Semiotic Analysis,Las
Cruces, New Mexico, Dec. 8-12,1996. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.

Philipse, H. Heidegger's Philosophy of Being: A Critical Interpretation.Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1998.

Philipse, H. "How Are We to Interpret Heidegger's Oeuvre? A Methodological Manifesto." Philosophy
and Phenomenological ResearchLXIII, no. 3 (2001): 573-86.

Tugendhat, E. Self-Consciousness and Self-Determination.Translated by P. Stern. Edited by T.
McCarthy, Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1986.

I believe that the Maravita article might be the most directly relevant to your question. Pattee has
some very interesting things to say about how what might be termed "measurement" relates to
sensory qualities.

Steven Ravett Brown