Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T11:04:19.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Technical reasoning alone does not take humans this far

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2020

Maxime Derex
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, 31080 Toulouse Cedex 06, Francemaxime.derex@iast.fr
Robert Boyd
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-4101. robert.Boyd.1@asu.edu

Abstract

Although we see much utility in Osiurak and Reynaud's in-depth discussion on the role of what they term technical reasoning in cumulative culture, we argue that they neglect the time and energy costs that individuals would have to face to acquire skills in the absence of specific socio-cognitive abilities.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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(2):301306. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J. & Henrich, J. (2011) The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(Suppl. 2):10918–25. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100290108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derex, M., Bonnefon, J. F., Boyd, R. & Mesoudi, A. (2019) Causal understanding is not necessary for the improvement of culturally evolving technology. Nature Human Behaviour 3:446–52. doi: 10.1038/s41562-019-0567-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N., Waismeyer, A. & Gopnik, A. (2012) Learning about causes from people: Observational causal learning in 24-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology 48:1215–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miton, H. & Charbonneau, M. (2018) Cumulative culture in the laboratory: Methodological and theoretical challenges. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285(1879):20180677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed