Making tools isn’t child’s play

Sarah Beck; Ian Apperly; Jackie Chappell; C Guthrie; Nicola Cutting

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.003

Making tools isn’t child’s play

Sarah Beck, Ian Apperly, Jackie Chappell, C Guthrie, Nicola Cutting

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

96 Citations (Scopus)

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Tool making evidences intelligent, flexible thinking. In Experiment 1, we confirmed that 4- to 7-year-olds chose a hook tool to retrieve a bucket from a tube. In Experiment 2, 3- to 5-year-olds consistently failed to innovate a simple hook tool. Eight-year-olds performed at mature levels. In contrast, making a tool following demonstration was easy for even the youngest children. In Experiment 3, children's performance did not improve given the opportunity to manipulate the objects in a warm-up phase. Children's tool innovation lags substantially behind their ability to learn how to make tools by observing others.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	301-306
Number of pages	6
Journal	Cognition
Volume	119
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.003
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2011

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10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.003

96 Citations
1 Article

Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development
Beck, S. R., Chappell, J., Apperly, I. A. & Cutting, N., Aug 2012, In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 35, 4, p. 220-221 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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7 Citations (Scopus)

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1 Finished

(Re)Inventing the wheel: the development of tool innovation.
Beck, S., Apperly, I. & Chappell, J.
Economic & Social Research Council
12/10/12 → 30/09/16
Project: Research Councils

Cite this

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title = "Making tools isn{\textquoteright}t child{\textquoteright}s play",

abstract = "Tool making evidences intelligent, flexible thinking. In Experiment 1, we confirmed that 4- to 7-year-olds chose a hook tool to retrieve a bucket from a tube. In Experiment 2, 3- to 5-year-olds consistently failed to innovate a simple hook tool. Eight-year-olds performed at mature levels. In contrast, making a tool following demonstration was easy for even the youngest children. In Experiment 3, children's performance did not improve given the opportunity to manipulate the objects in a warm-up phase. Children's tool innovation lags substantially behind their ability to learn how to make tools by observing others.",

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Making tools isn’t child’s play

Abstract

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Research output

Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development

Projects

(Re)Inventing the wheel: the development of tool innovation.

Cite this