Exploring tool innovation: A comparison of Western and Bushman children
Exploring tool innovation: A comparison of Western and Bushman children
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jecp.2014.05.008
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发表时间：
2014-10-01
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Whiten, Andrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nielsen, Mark;Tomaselli, Keyan;Whiten, Andrew
构建新工具或以新方式使用旧工具来解决新问题的能力是人类的核心特征。然而，目前的证据表明，幼儿在创新工具方面的表现令人惊讶。然而，迄今为止，所有关于工具创新的研究都是在相对优越的西方背景下进行的。这就提出了一个问题，即以前记录的工具创新失败是否是文化和经济上的具体问题。因此，在目前的研究中，我们探讨了来自西方化城市背景和南非布须曼偏远社区的儿童的创新能力。与过去的研究一致，我们发现工具创新的发生率极低，文化背景与此无关。目前的研究是第一个对非西方背景儿童的工具创新进行实证测试的研究，我们的数据与以下观点一致，即尽管工具创新在人类进化中发挥着关键作用，但在儿童早期，工具制造的创新能力仍然显着未开发。(C)2014爱思唯尔公司All rights reserved.
A capacity for constructing new tools, or using old tools in new ways, to solve novel problems is a core feature of what it means to be human. Yet current evidence suggests that young children are surprisingly poor at innovating tools. However, all studies of tool innovation to date have been conducted with children from comparatively privileged Western backgrounds. This raises questions as to whether or not previously documented tool innovation failure is culturally and economically specific. In the current study, thus, we explored the innovation capacities of children from Westernized urban backgrounds and from remote communities of South African Bushmen. Consistent with past research, we found tool innovation to occur at extremely low rates and that cultural background had no bearing on this. The current study is the first to empirically test tool innovation in children from non-Western backgrounds, with our data being consistent with the view that despite its key role in human evolution, a capacity for innovation in tool making remains remarkably undeveloped during early childhood. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.