The developmental origins of tool innovation

通过制造新工具或以新方式使用旧工具来解决新问题，是我们人类的标志。对儿童社会认知能力发展的理论和实验研究与最近的研究相冲突，研究表明幼儿是贫穷的工具创新者。该项目将是第一个自信地消除我们对儿童是否有能力进行工具创新的知识，通过使用新的全面任务电池，新颖的测试条件以及澳大利亚和南部非洲工业化和土著社区的数据整合来系统地调查他们的能力。这项研究将为人类状况的一个关键特征的发展提供最广泛的见解。

Solving new problems by making new tools, or using old tools in new ways, is a hallmark of our species. Theoretical and experimental enquiry into children’s developing socio-cognitive abilities conflicts with recent research suggesting young children are poor tool innovators. This project will be the first to confidently disambiguate our knowledge about whether children are capable of tool innovation by systematically investigating their abilities using a new comprehensive battery of tasks, novel test conditions and the integration of data from industrialised and indigenous communities in Australia and Southern Africa. This research will provide the broadest insights yet into the development of a key feature of the human condition.