In the current literature, there are few experimental tests of capacities for cumulative cultural evolution in nonhuman species. There are even fewer examples of such tests in young children. This limited evidence is noteworthy given widespread interest in the apparent distinctiveness of human cumulative culture, and the potentially significant theoretical implications of identifying related capacities in nonhumans or very young children. We evaluate experimental methods upon which claims of capacities for cumulative culture, or lack thereof, have been based. Although some of the established methods (those simulating generational succession) have the potential to identify positive evidence that fulfills widely accepted definitions of cumulative culture, the implementation of these methods entails significant logistical challenges. This is particularly true for testing populations that are difficult to access in large numbers, or those not amenable to experimental control. This presents problems for generating evidence that would be sufficient to support claims of capacities for cumulative culture, and these problems are magnified for establishing convincing negative evidence. We discuss alternative approaches to assessing capacities for cumulative culture, which circumvent logistical problems associated with experimental designs involving chains of learners. By inferring the outcome of repeated transmission from the input–output response patterns of individual subjects, sample size requirements can be massively reduced. Such methods could facilitate comparisons between populations, for example, different species, or children of a range of ages. We also detail limitations and challenges of this alternative approach, and discuss potential avenues for future research.This article is categorized under:Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of CognitionCognitive Biology > Cognitive DevelopmentPsychology > Comparative Psychology
Human learners are rarely the passive recipients of valuable social information. Rather, learners usually have to actively seek out information from a variety of potential others to determine who is in a position to provide useful information. Yet, the majority of developmental social learning paradigms do not address participants’ ability to seek out information for themselves. To investigate age-related changes in children’s ability to seek out appropriate social information, 3- to 8-year-olds (N = 218) were presented with a task requiring them to identify which of four possible demonstrators could provide critical information for unlocking a box. Appropriate information seeking improved significantly with age. The particularly high performance of 7- and 8-year-olds was consistent with the expectation that older children’s increased metacognitive understanding would allow them to identify appropriate information sources. Appropriate social information seeking may have been overlooked as a significant cognitive challenge involved in fully benefiting from others’ knowledge, potentially influencing understanding of the phylogenetic distribution of cumulative culture.
The majority of developmental social learning paradigms do not address children’s ability to seek information for themselves. To investigate age-related changes in children’s ability to seek appropriate social information, 3- to 8-year-olds (N = 218) were presented with a task requiring them to identify one appropriate social model from four to obtain the necessary information for unlocking a box. Appropriate information seeking improved significantly with age. Particularly high performance in 7- and 8-year-olds was consistent with the expectation that older children’s increased metacognitive understanding would allow them to identify appropriate information sources. Therefore, appropriate social information seeking may have been overlooked as a significant cognitive challenge involved in fully benefiting from others’ knowledge, potentially influencing understanding of the phylogenetic distribution of cumulative culture.
The aim of the current study was to determine whether the level of generosity shown by 3-to 8-year-old children (N = 136; M age = 69 months) in a resource distribution task would vary according to whether the recipient had previously displayed kind (affection and generosity) and/or non-kind (non-affection and non-generosity) behavior towards a third party. We first asked whether donor children would show higher levels of generosity towards an affectionate than a non-affectionate recipient (condition 1), and a generous than a non-generous recipient (condition 2), before pitting the two forms of recipient kindness directly against each other (condition 3). Last, we asked whether donations to generous recipients would decrease if the recipient simultaneously displayed non-kind behavior through a lack of affection (condition 4). Here we show that children allocated a greater share of the available resource to generous and affectionate recipients than non-generous and non-affectionate recipients respectively. However, when asked to divide resources between a generous and an affectionate recipient, or two recipients who had each displayed a combination of kind and non-kind behavior, children allocated each recipient an equal share of the resource. These findings suggest that children donate selectively based on previous information regarding recipient generosity and affection, however when both forms of kindness are pitted directly against each other, children strive for equality, suggesting that kindness engenders donor generosity irrespective of the form of kindness previously displayed. Keywords Resource distribution. Selective prosocial donating. Recipient characteristics. Indirect reciprocity Behaving prosocially, that is acting to benefit others, is widespread amongst humans, with extreme levels of self-sacrifice, such as charitable donations to anonymous strangers frequently occurring (Fehr and Fischbacher 2003). The human capacity to cooperate, to help, and to share resources with others, contributes to the success of our socially motivated species, and, in part, facilitates our ability to live harmoniously in large social groups (e.g., Fehr and Fischbacher 2003). Unlike other species, humans frequently act prosocially not only to kin, but also to non-kin and even strangers (Daniel et al. 2015; Trommsdorff et al. 2007), a proclivity towards maintaining cooperation that is so strong that group members who display antisocial behavior are often punished or ostracized from the group (Herrmann et al. 2008; Kenward and Östh 2015; Korsgaard et al. 2010). Psychologists have long been interested in the developmental origins of such prosociality, with studies revealing complex developmental trajectories (Eisenberg and Fabes 1998), in which a capacity to help and cooperate, emerges before the ability to share resources (Brownell et al. 2013; House et al. 2012; Paulus and Moore 2014). The developing capacity to share resources with others has recently stimulated a great deal of interest within the developmental literature,...
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