The emergence of tool use during the second year of life

Rat‐Fischer, Lauriane; Ο’Regan, J. Kevin; Fagard, Jacqueline

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.001

Cited by 70 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Furthermore, as nearly all children succeeded in making a hook once they had received a demonstration, we know that they have sufficient dexterity to make a hook and use it skilfully enough to retrieve the reward. This confirms previous research showing that children are adept tool users [17,25].…”

Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…They can select an appropriate tool to pull an out of reach toy closer, and also transfer their knowledge to perceptually dissimilar but causally equivalent novel tools [17]. Rat-Fischer et al [25] showed that performance on tasks in which the goal is not attached to the tool improved significantly with age between the ages of 14 and 22 months. Again, the spatial gap between the goal and the tool was important, and children found the task progressively harder as this gap increased [25].…”

Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rat-Fischer et al [25] showed that performance on tasks in which the goal is not attached to the tool improved significantly with age between the ages of 14 and 22 months. Again, the spatial gap between the goal and the tool was important, and children found the task progressively harder as this gap increased [25]. While there is still much to be learned about the development of tool-use abilities in children (such as the role of individual differences [31]), our knowledge about the processes involved is quite extensive [31,32].…”

Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Chappell

Cutting

Apperly

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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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 more challenging task than previously thought. Children's difficulty with these kinds of tasks does not seem to be explained by perseveration with unmodified tools, difficulty with switching to alternative strategies, task pragmatics or issues with permission. Rather, making novel tools (without having seen an example of the required tool within the context of the task) appears to be hard, because it is an example of an ‘ill-structured problem’. In this type of ill-structured problem, the starting conditions and end goal are known, but the transformations and/or actions required to get from one to the other are not specified. We will discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the development of problem-solving in humans and other animals.

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Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Review Of Tool Innovation and Performance (A) Tool Use Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Chappell

Cutting

Apperly

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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show abstract

“…The toy was a small duck, 3 cm long, 2 cm high and 2 cm wide. The tool was identical to the one used in the study by Rat-Fischer et al (2012) and consisted of a rakelike T-shaped object made of white cardboard. The handle was 20 cm long and the head 20 cm wide.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humour production may enhance observational learning of a new tool-use action in 18-month-old infants

Esseily¹,

Rat‐Fischer²,

Somogyi³

et al. 2015

Cognition and Emotion

Self Cite

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Many studies have shown that making children laugh enhances certain cognitive capacities such as attention, motivation, perception and/or memory, which in turn enhance learning. However, no study thus far has investigated whether laughing has an effect on learning earlier in infancy. The goal of this study was to see whether using humour with young infants in a demonstration of a complex tool-use task can enhance their learning. Fifty-three 18-month-old infants participated in this study and were included either in a humorous or a control demonstration group. In both groups infants observed an adult using a tool to retrieve an out-of-reach toy. What differed between groups was that in the humorous demonstration group, instead of playing with the toy, the adult threw it on the floor immediately after retrieval. The results show that infants who laughed at the demonstration in the humorous demonstration group reproduced significantly more frequent target actions than infants who did not laugh and those in the control group. This effect is discussed with regard to individual differences in terms of temperament and social capacities as well as positive emotion and dopamine release.

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“…Modern human infants begin to use tools from 8 months old, following a developmental trajectory involving sensorimotor manipulation and sequential planning (Rat-Fischer et al, 2012). After 24 months, demonstration by an adult plays a major role in the child's tool use acquisition (Fagard et al, 2016).…”

Section: Genetic Disposition Specifically For Tool Usementioning

confidence: 99%

A complex adaptive system may be essential for cumulative modifications in tool design

Hunt¹,

Uomini

2016

Japanese Journal of Animal Psychology

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The cumulative modification of tool designs over time is a crucial development for technological evolution. Cognitive-related prerequisites for this technological capability are innovative behaviour and the faithful inter-generational transmission and maintenance of tool designs by accurate social learning processes. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that a complex of morphological and behavioural adaptations specifically for tool skills is also required. In a novel analysis we compared the tool-associated adaptive patterns in Homo erectus and the New Caledonian crow. Both species provide the most convincing early Homo and nonhuman evidence, respectively, for the making of cumulatively modified tools. We identified probable shared traits in H. erectus and the New Caledonian crow that include morphological adaptations specifically for enhanced tool manipulation and a significant component of daily diet from hunting and/or processing animal food with tools. We propose that a tool-using lifestyle based on animal food that confers a reproductive advantage and evolves enhanced tool manipulation skills, together with appropriate innovative ability and social learning processes, may be essential for cumulative modification of tool designs.

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The emergence of tool use during the second year of life

Cited by 70 publications

References 20 publications

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

The development of tool manufacture in humans: what helps young children make innovative tools?

Humour production may enhance observational learning of a new tool-use action in 18-month-old infants

A complex adaptive system may be essential for cumulative modifications in tool design

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