Hostname: page-component-6b989bf9dc-jks4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-14T14:57:44.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Sarah R. Beck ,
Jackie Chappell ,
Ian A. Apperly  and
Nicola Cutting
Sarah R. Beck
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. s.r.beck@bham.ac.uki.a.apperly@bham.ac.uknxc945@bham.ac.ukwww.birmingham.ac.uk/psychology
Jackie Chappell
Affiliation:
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. j.m.chappell@bham.ac.ukwww.birmingham.ac.uk/biosciences
Ian A. Apperly
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. s.r.beck@bham.ac.uki.a.apperly@bham.ac.uknxc945@bham.ac.ukwww.birmingham.ac.uk/psychology
Nicola Cutting
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. s.r.beck@bham.ac.uki.a.apperly@bham.ac.uknxc945@bham.ac.ukwww.birmingham.ac.uk/psychology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent 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.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , August 2012 , pp. 220 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, S. R., Apperly, I. A., Chappell, J., Guthrie, C. & Cutting, N. (2011) Making tools isn't child's play. Cognition 119:301–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bird, C. D. & Emery, N. J. (2009) Insightful problem solving and creative tool modification by captive nontool-using rooks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106:10370–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutting, N., Apperly, I. A., Beck, S. R. (2011) Why do children lack the mental flexibility to innovate tools? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 109:497–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutting, N., Beck, S. R. & Apperly, I. A. (under review) Is there a complexity hierarchy in human children's tool making?Google Scholar
Dumontheil, I., Burgess, P. W. & Blakemore, S. J. (2008) Development of rostral prefrontal cortex and cognitive and behavioral disorders. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 50:168–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goel, V. (1995) Sketches of thought. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, A. A. S., Chappell, J. & Kacelnik, A. (2002) Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows. Science 297(5583):981. doi: 10.1126/science.1073433 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed