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Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour

Associative Tool Use (ATU) describes the use of two or more tools in combination, with the literature further differentiating between Tool set use, Tool composite use, Sequential tool use and Secondary tool use. Research investigating the cognitive processes underlying ATU has shown that some primat...

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Autores principales: Reindl, E., Tennie, C., Apperly, I. A., Lugosi, Z., Beck, S. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.4
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author Reindl, E.
Tennie, C.
Apperly, I. A.
Lugosi, Z.
Beck, S. R.
author_facet Reindl, E.
Tennie, C.
Apperly, I. A.
Lugosi, Z.
Beck, S. R.
author_sort Reindl, E.
collection PubMed
description Associative Tool Use (ATU) describes the use of two or more tools in combination, with the literature further differentiating between Tool set use, Tool composite use, Sequential tool use and Secondary tool use. Research investigating the cognitive processes underlying ATU has shown that some primate and bird species spontaneously invent Tool set and Sequential tool use. Yet studies with humans are sparse. Whether children are also able to spontaneously invent ATU behaviours and at what age this ability emerges is poorly understood. We addressed this gap in the literature with two experiments involving preschoolers (E1, N = 66, 3 years 6 months to 4 years 9 months; E2, N = 119, 3 years 0 months to 6 years 10 months) who were administered novel tasks measuring Tool set, Metatool and Sequential tool use. Participants needed to solve the tasks individually, without the opportunity for social learning (except for enhancement effects). Children from 3 years of age spontaneously invented all of the types of investigated ATU behaviours. Success rates were low, suggesting that individual invention of ATU in novel tasks is still challenging for preschoolers. We discuss how future studies can use and expand our tasks to deepen our understanding of tool use and problem-solving in humans and non-human animals.
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spelling pubmed-104260972023-08-16 Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour Reindl, E. Tennie, C. Apperly, I. A. Lugosi, Z. Beck, S. R. Evol Hum Sci Research Article Associative Tool Use (ATU) describes the use of two or more tools in combination, with the literature further differentiating between Tool set use, Tool composite use, Sequential tool use and Secondary tool use. Research investigating the cognitive processes underlying ATU has shown that some primate and bird species spontaneously invent Tool set and Sequential tool use. Yet studies with humans are sparse. Whether children are also able to spontaneously invent ATU behaviours and at what age this ability emerges is poorly understood. We addressed this gap in the literature with two experiments involving preschoolers (E1, N = 66, 3 years 6 months to 4 years 9 months; E2, N = 119, 3 years 0 months to 6 years 10 months) who were administered novel tasks measuring Tool set, Metatool and Sequential tool use. Participants needed to solve the tasks individually, without the opportunity for social learning (except for enhancement effects). Children from 3 years of age spontaneously invented all of the types of investigated ATU behaviours. Success rates were low, suggesting that individual invention of ATU in novel tasks is still challenging for preschoolers. We discuss how future studies can use and expand our tasks to deepen our understanding of tool use and problem-solving in humans and non-human animals. Cambridge University Press 2022-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC10426097/ /pubmed/37588934 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.4 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Reindl, E.
Tennie, C.
Apperly, I. A.
Lugosi, Z.
Beck, S. R.
Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title_full Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title_fullStr Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title_full_unstemmed Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title_short Young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
title_sort young children spontaneously invent three different types of associative tool use behaviour
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10426097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37588934
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2022.4
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