2013
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0409
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The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Abstract: We know that even young children are proficient tool users, but until recently, little was known about how they make tools. Here, we will explore the concepts underlying tool making, and the kinds of information and putative cognitive abilities required for children to manufacture novel tools. We will review the evidence for novel tool manufacture from the comparative literature and present a growing body of data from children suggesting that innovation of the solution to a problem by making a tool is a much m… Show more

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Cited by 49 publications
(76 citation statements)
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“…This finding has been found to be consistent cross-culturally, both in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) societies and with a remote tribe of South African Bushman, and has been replicated with more simple tasks [13,14,16,18].…”
Section: Introductionsupporting
confidence: 54%
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“…This finding has been found to be consistent cross-culturally, both in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) societies and with a remote tribe of South African Bushman, and has been replicated with more simple tasks [13,14,16,18].…”
Section: Introductionsupporting
confidence: 54%
“…The foundation of tool use is the ability to create and invent tools, which evidently performed a vital role in human evolution [6,12,13]. Studying children, whose capabilities are still developing, allows insights into the psychological processes supporting tool-making and the age at which specific tool-making skills develop [14].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Such re-use of tools may facilitate learning of how to use these tools and what kind of tool features may be required for the task, especially when visual feedback is minimal [27,44,101,102]. Indeed, individuals master tool use, often if not always, before mastering tool manufacture [9,42,44,72,103]. Laboratory work supports the social enhancement of objects used as tools: for example, young New Caledonian crows and capuchins showed a preference for handling objects or tools that had been manipulated by demonstrator individuals [8,104].…”
Section: Developmental Evidence For the Role Of Social Inputmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…High-fidelity action copying may provide human children with an alternative and quick route to obtain a material culture [111,112]. In fact, human children are rarely successful at making functional tools without a demonstrator until they are age 7 or older [72]. Although captive studies on apes do suggest that apes are capable of using both sources of information, results are mixed (see [113] for a review) and it is hard to know from observational studies what aspect of the action is attended to and affects learning, that is action imitation or observational learning of object affordances.…”
Section: Developmental Evidence For the Role Of Social Inputmentioning
confidence: 99%
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