Social Learning and Innovation in Adolescence

Hewlett, Bonnie L.

doi:10.1007/s12110-021-09391-y

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Finally, several studies conducted among Aka and Chabu foragers demonstrate that adolescents preferentially learn complex skills from individuals they consider to be especially competent teachers (Dira and Hewlett 2016;Hewlett 2013Hewlett , 2016Hewlett , 2021. Although we found only a weak relationship between teaching and skill complexity, teacher quality may be an important, and unaccounted for, factor in the transmission of complex knowledge via teaching.…”

Section: Limitationscontrasting

confidence: 44%

“…First, oblique transmission may be primarily used to refine previously acquired knowledge rather than acquire new knowledge forms (Reyes-García et al 2016). For example, although an individual may learn to hunt from their father or weave baskets from their mother in early life, they may also seek out expert adults to learn specialized aspects of these tasks, such as innovative basketry design (Dira and Hewlett 2016;Hewlett 2013Hewlett , 2016Hewlett , 2021Hewlett and Hewlett 2012). Several studies also suggest that recall data biases respondents toward nominating categories of individuals from whom knowledge transmission is expected instead of those from whom it actually occurs (e.g., Aunger 2000;Dira and Hewlett 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In middle childhood, much of children's time is spent in child-only groups, playing and working, and children likely learn a majority of the basic subsistence tasks needed in adulthood horizontally during this time (Boyette and Hewlett 2017;Lew-Levy, Kissler et al 2020;Maynard and Tovote 2009;Quinlan et al 2016;Salali et al 2016Salali et al , 2019Zarger 2002). By adolescence and into adulthood, when most basic foraging competencies have been acquired, learners may seek to acquire more complex knowledge obliquely from experts outside the family or the friend group (Aunger 2000;Dira and Hewlett 2016;Garfield et al 2016;Hewlett 2013Hewlett , 2016Hewlett , 2021Reyes-García et al 2009). In sum, low-skill tasks performed by most or all of the population are acquired earlier in life from easily accessible models, such as parents and peers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Life History of Learning Subsistence Skills among Hadza and BaYaka Foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Lew‐Levy

Ringen

Crittenden

et al. 2021

Hum Nat

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Aspects of human life history and cognition, such as our long childhoods and extensive use of teaching, theoretically evolved to facilitate the acquisition of complex tasks. The present paper empirically examines the relationship between subsistence task difficulty and age of acquisition, rates of teaching, and rates of oblique transmission among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. We further examine cross-cultural variation in how and from whom learning occurred. Learning patterns and community perceptions of task difficulty were assessed through interviews. We found no relationship between task difficulty, age of acquisition, and oblique transmission, and a weak but positive relationship between task difficulty and rates of teaching. While same-sex transmission was normative in both societies, tasks ranked as more difficult were more likely to be transmitted by men among the BaYaka, but not among the Hadza, potentially reflecting cross-cultural differences in the sexual division of subsistence and teaching labor. Further, the BaYaka were more likely to report learning via teaching, and less likely to report learning via observation, than the Hadza, possibly owing to differences in socialization practices.

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Section: Limitationscontrasting

confidence: 44%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Life History of Learning Subsistence Skills among Hadza and BaYaka Foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

Lew‐Levy

Ringen

Crittenden

et al. 2021

Hum Nat

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“…Largely because psychologists’ interest in tool innovation was piqued by comparative research, which tends to focus on comparing animals to human children (which itself may be a problematic approach; see Rawlings, Legare, et al, 2021), few studies have examined tool innovation beyond childhood. We know little about if, and how, it continues to improve into adolescence and adulthood, which in many cultures may be periods when tools are used more frequently (Hewlett, 2021).…”

Section: Are Adolescents and Adults Also Unskilled Tool Innovators?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, older children and adolescents living in Pune, West India, copied others (particularly adults) frequently when solving simple tasks (Molleman et al, 2019). In ethnographic data from both the Aka of southwestern Central African Republic and the northeastern part of the Republic of Congo, and the Chabu of the Oromo, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region, and Gambela regions in southwestern Ethiopia, similarly aged children actively sought to learn knowledge and skills by observing innovative adults (Hewlett, 2021). In other work, adults' attitudes towards children's conformity have varied culturally: Ni-Vanuatu adults from Tanna, Tafea Province, endorsed children's conformity positively, whereas middle-class U.S. adults in Texas praised innovative behaviors more (Clegg et al, 2017).…”

Section: W H At I S T H E Nat U R E Of C Ros S -C U Lt U R a L Consi ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

After a decade of tool innovation, what comes next?

Rawlings

2022

Child Dev Perspectives

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The study of tool innovation-broadly defined as designing new tools or using old tools in novel ways to solve new problems-has accelerated rapidly over the past decade, almost exclusively in developmental research. Since the seminal findings of Beck and colleagues (Beck et al., 2011) that young working-and middle-class children in the United Kingdom were strikingly unskilled at tool innovation, a wave of research has explored the ontogeny of this skill. Studies reporting that children from geographically diverse cultures find seemingly simple tool-based problem-solving tasks difficult have stimulated evocative questions. Humans are capable of extraordinarily complex technology, including gene mapping, self-driving spacecraft, and augmented reality. How can we achieve so much and be renowned in the animal kingdom for our ability to create and use tools, yet simple tool innovation be such a difficult and late-developing skill? In contrast, how can young children easily master other sophisticated behaviors, such as using smartphones, being multilingual, and understanding complex social norms? After a decade of research, what comes next for the study of children's tool innovation? In this article, I briefly synthesize what we know about the development of tool innovation, then describe five outstanding questions in the field. Combining theory and data, I argue that addressing these questions is crucial to understanding fully the ontogeny of one of humans' most defining skills.

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A Brain‐To‐Brain Mechanism for Social Transmission of Threat Learning

et al. 2023

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Survival and adaptation in environments require swift and efficacious learning about what is dangerous. Across species, much of such threat learning is acquired socially, e.g., through the observation of others’ (“demonstrators’”) defensive behaviors. However, the specific neural mechanisms responsible for the integration of information shared between demonstrators and observers remain largely unknown. This dearth of knowledge is addressed by performing magnetoencephalography (MEG) neuroimaging in demonstrator‐observer dyads. A set of stimuli are first shown to a demonstrator whose defensive responses are filmed and later presented to an observer, while neuronal activity is recorded sequentially from both individuals who never interacted directly. These results show that brain‐to‐brain coupling (BtBC) in the fronto‐limbic circuit (including insula, ventromedial, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) within demonstrator‐observer dyads predict subsequent expressions of learning in the observer. Importantly, the predictive power of BtBC magnifies when a threat is imminent to the demonstrator. Furthermore, BtBC depends on how observers perceive their social status relative to the demonstrator, likely driven by shared attention and emotion, as bolstered by dyadic pupillary coupling. Taken together, this study describes a brain‐to‐brain mechanism for social threat learning, involving BtBC, which reflects social relationships and predicts adaptive, learned behaviors.

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Social Learning and Innovation in Adolescence

Cited by 21 publications

References 94 publications

The Life History of Learning Subsistence Skills among Hadza and BaYaka Foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

The Life History of Learning Subsistence Skills among Hadza and BaYaka Foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo

After a decade of tool innovation, what comes next?

A Brain‐To‐Brain Mechanism for Social Transmission of Threat Learning

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