Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development

Beck, Sarah R.; Chappell, Jackie; Apperly, Ian A.; Cutting, Nicola

doi:10.1017/s0140525x11001877

Cited by 11 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 178 publications

(207 reference statements)

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“…Tool innovation is a complex phenomenon, with potential influences from both individual and social learning [33]. For example, innovation involves novel tools, and there are several senses in which the tool made by an individual might be novel.…”

Section: (B) What Does Successful Tool Innovation Require?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Chappell

Cutting

Apperly

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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We know that even young children are proficient tool users, but until recently, little was known about how they make tools. Here, we will explore the concepts underlying tool making, and the kinds of information and putative cognitive abilities required for children to manufacture novel tools. We will review the evidence for novel tool manufacture from the comparative literature and present a growing body of data from children suggesting that innovation of the solution to a problem by making a tool is a much more challenging task than previously thought. Children's difficulty with these kinds of tasks does not seem to be explained by perseveration with unmodified tools, difficulty with switching to alternative strategies, task pragmatics or issues with permission. Rather, making novel tools (without having seen an example of the required tool within the context of the task) appears to be hard, because it is an example of an ‘ill-structured problem’. In this type of ill-structured problem, the starting conditions and end goal are known, but the transformations and/or actions required to get from one to the other are not specified. We will discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the development of problem-solving in humans and other animals.

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Section: (B) What Does Successful Tool Innovation Require?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Chappell

Cutting

Apperly

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

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“…This finding has been found to be consistent cross-culturally, both in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) societies and with a remote tribe of South African Bushman, and has been replicated with more simple tasks [13,14,16,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Children as young as 3 years old can manufacture both tools and non-tools (e.g. a rattle) after adult demonstration [13,[15][16][17]19,20]. Therefore, if children appear to have the knowledge to solve the task (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…they understand the most functional tool and the properties of the pipe cleaner) and have the ability to manufacture the target tool, then the question needs to be asked, 'Why do children find tool innovation so difficult? ' Previous tool innovation literature offers several suggestions [13,15,16,18]. One is that children over-rely on social learning [13,15,16,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…' Previous tool innovation literature offers several suggestions [13,15,16,18]. One is that children over-rely on social learning [13,15,16,18]. By 2 years, children have a well-established ability to learn by imitating others [18,[21][22][23], to the extent that children (across cultures) copy causally irrelevant actions (over-imitate), for example wiping a stick across a box despite understanding the box can be opened by simply pushing the door [24 -26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of environment and ownership on children's innovation of tools and tool material selection

Sheridan

Konopasky

Kirkwood

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 15 to a theme issue 'Innovation in animals and humans: understanding the origins and development of novel and creative behaviour'. Research indicates that in experimental settings, young children of 3-7 years old are unlikely to devise a simple tool to solve a problem. This series of exploratory studies done in museums in the US and UK explores how environment and ownership of materials may improve children's ability and inclination for (i) tool material selection and (ii) innovation. The first study takes place in a children's museum, an environment where children can use tools and materials freely. We replicated a tool innovation task in this environment and found that while 3-4 year olds showed the predicted low levels of innovation rates, 4-7 year olds showed higher rates of innovation than the younger children and than reported in prior studies. The second study explores the effect of whether the experimental materials are owned by the experimenter or the child on tool selection and innovation. Results showed that 5-6 year olds and 6-7 year olds were more likely to select tool material they owned compared to tool material owned by the experimenter, although ownership had no effect on tool innovation. We argue that learning environments supporting tool exploration and invention and conveying ownership over materials may encourage successful tool innovation at earlier ages.

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Innovative problem solving in great apes: the role of visual feedback in the floating peanut task

et al. 2019

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Nonhuman great apes show remarkable behavioural flexibility. Some individuals are even able to use water as a tool: They spit water into a vertical tube to make a peanut float upwards until it comes into reach (floating peanut task; FPT). In the current study, we used the FPT to investigate how visual feedback, an end-state demonstration and a social demonstration affect task performance in nonhuman great apes in three experiments. Our results indicate that apes who had acquired the solution with a clear tube maintained it with an opaque one. However, apes starting with an opaque tube failed to solve the task. Additionally, facing the peanut floating on a water-filled tube (i.e., an end-state demonstration) promoted success independent on the availability of visual feedback. Moreover, experiencing how water was poured into the tube either by a human demonstrator or by a water tap that had been opened either by the ape or a human did not seem to be of further assistance. First, this study suggests that great apes require visual feedback for solving the FPT, which is no longer required after the initial acquisition. Second, some subjects benefit from encountering the end-state, a finding corroborating previous studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10071-019-01275-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development

Abstract: AbstractRecent data show that human children (up to 8 years old) perform poorly when required to innovate tools. Our tool-rich culture may be more reliant on social learning and more limited by domain-general constraints such as ill-structured problem solving than otherwise thought.

Cited by 11 publications

References 178 publications

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

The effects of environment and ownership on children's innovation of tools and tool material selection

Innovative problem solving in great apes: the role of visual feedback in the floating peanut task

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