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 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.
Footnotes
References
- 1
Beck BB . 1980 Animal tool use: the use and manufacture of tools by animals. New York, NY: Garland. Google Scholar - 2
Kacelnik A . 2009 Tools for thought or thoughts for tools? Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 10 071–10 072. (doi:10.1073/pnas.0904735106). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 3
Bentley-Condit V& Smith EO . 2010 Animal tool use: current definitions and an updated comprehensive catalog. Behaviour 147, 185–221. (doi:10.1163/000579509X12512865686555). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 4
McGrew WC . 2013 Is primate tool use special? Chimpanzee and New Caledonian crow compared. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120422. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0422). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 5
Weir AA, Chappell J& Kacelnik A . 2002 Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows. Science 297, 981. (doi:10.1126/science.1073433). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 6
Bird CD& Emery NJ . 2009 Insightful problem solving and creative tool modification by captive non tool-using rooks. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 10 370–10 375. (doi:10.1073/pnas.0901008106). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 7
Auersperg AM, Szabo B, von Bayern AM& Kacelnik A . 2012 Spontaneous innovation in tool manufacture and use in a Goffin's cockatoo. Curr. Biol. 22, R903–R904. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 8
Sanz CM& Morgan DB . 2007 Chimpanzee tool technology in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo. J. Hum. Evol. 52, 420–433. (doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.11.001). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 9
Sinha A . 1997 Complex tool manufacture by a wild bonnet macaque, Macaca radiata. Folia Primatol. 68, 23–25. (doi:10.1159/000157227). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 10
Westergaard GC& Fragaszy DM . 1987 The manufacture and use of tools by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). J. Comp. Psychol. 101, 159–168. (doi:10.1037/0735-7036.101.2.159). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 11
Kenward B, Weir AAS, Rutz C& Kacelnik A . 2005 Tool manufacture by naive juvenile crows. Nature 433, 121. (doi:10.1038/433121a). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 12
Kenward B, Rutz C, Weir AAS& Kacelnik A . 2006 Development of tool use in New Caledonian crows: inherited action patterns and social influences. Anim. Behav. 72, 1329–1343. (doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.04.007). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 13
Johnson-Frey SH . 2003 What's so special about human tool use? Neuron 39, 201–204. (doi:10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00424-0). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 14
Meulman EJM, Seed AM& Mann J . 2013 If at first you don't succeed… Studies of ontogeny shed light on the cognitive demands of habitual tool use. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20130050. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0050). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 15
Fragaszy DM, Biro D, Eshchar Y, Humle T, Izar P, Resende B& Visalberghi E . 2013 The fourth dimension of tool use: temporally enduring artefacts aid primates learning to use tools. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120410. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0410). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 16
Connolly K& Dalgleish M . 1989 The emergence of a tool-using skill in infancy. Dev. Psychol. 25, 894–912. (doi:10.1037/0012-1649.25.6.894). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 17
Brown AL . 1990 Domain-specific principles affect learning and transfer in children. Cogn. Sci. 14, 107–133. Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 18
Buttelmann D, Carpenter M, Call J& Tomasello M . 2008 Rational tool use and tool choice in human infants and great apes. Child Dev. 79, 609–626. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01146.x). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 19
Hopper LM, Flynn EG, Wood LA& Whiten A . 2010 Observational learning of tool use in children: investigating cultural spread through diffusion chains and learning mechanisms through ghost displays. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 106, 82–97. (doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2009.12.001). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 20
Flynn E& Whiten A . 2010 Studying children's social learning experimentally ‘in the wild.’. Learn. Behav. 38, 284–296. (doi:10.3758/LB.38.3.284). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 21
Price EE, Lambeth SP, Schapiro SJ& Whiten A . 2009 A potent effect of observational learning on chimpanzee tool construction. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 3377–3383. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0640). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 22
Sanz C, Call J& Morgan D . 2009 Design complexity in termite-fishing tools of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Biol. Lett. 5, 293–296. (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0786). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 23
Beck SR, Apperly IA, Chappell J, Guthrie C& Cutting N . 2011 Making tools isn't child's play. Cognition 119, 301–306. (doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.01.003). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 24
Piaget J . 1952 The origins of intelligence in children. New York, NY: International Universities Press. Crossref, Google Scholar - 25
Rat-Fischer L, O'Regan JK& Fagard J . 2012 The emergence of tool use during the second year of life. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 113, 440–446. (doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.001). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 26
McCarty ME, Clifton RK& Collard RR . 1999 Problem solving in infancy: the emergence of an action plan. Dev. Psychol. 35, 1091–1101. (doi:10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.1091). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 27
McCarty ME, Clifton RK& Collard RR . 2001 The beginnings of tool use by infants and toddlers. Infancy 2, 233–256. (doi:10.1207/S15327078IN0202_8). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 28
Chapman KM, Weiss DJ& Rosenbaum DA . 2010 Evolutionary roots of motor planning: the end-state comfort effect in lemurs. J. Comp. Psychol. 124, 229–232. (doi:10.1037/a0018025). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 29
Weiss DJ, Wark JD& Rosenbaum DA . 2007 Monkey see, monkey plan, monkey do: the end-state comfort effect in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Psychol. Sci. 18, 1063–1068. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02026.x). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 30
Bates E, Carlson-Luden V& Bretherton I . 1980 Perceptual aspects of tool using in infancy. Infant Behav. Dev. 3, 127–140. (doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(80)80017-8). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 31
Keen R . 2011 The development of problem solving in young children: a critical cognitive skill. Ann. Rev. Psychol. 62, 1–21. (doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.031809.130730). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 32
Chen Z& Siegler RS . 2000 Across the great divide: bridging the gap between understanding of toddlers’ and older children's thinking. Monogr. Soc. Res. Child Dev. 65, v–vi, 1–96. (doi:10.1111/1540-5834.00072). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 33
Beck SR, Chappell J, Apperly IA& Cutting N . 2012 Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: a perspective from child development. Behav. Brain Sci. 35, 220–221. (doi:10.1017/S0140525X11001877). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 34
Boden MA . 1996 What is creativity? In Dimensions of creativity (ed.& Boden MA ), pp. 75–117. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar - 35
Vaesen K . 2012 The cognitive bases of human tool use. Behav. Brain Sci. 35, 1–16. (doi:10.1017/S0140525X11000069). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 36
Want SC& Harris PL . 2001 Learning from other peoples mistakes: causal understanding in learning to use a tool. Child Dev. 72, 431–443. (doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00288). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 37
Bonawitz E, Shafto P, Gweon H, Goodman ND, Spelke E& Schulz L . 2011 The double-edged sword of pedagogy: instruction limits spontaneous exploration and discovery. Cognition 201, 322–330. (doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.001). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 38
Whiten A, McGuigan N, Marshall-Pescini S& Hopper LM . 2009 Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364, 2417–2428. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0069). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 39
Flynn E& Smith K . 2012 Investigating the mechanisms of cultural acquisition. Soc. Psychol. 43, 185–195. (doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000119). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 40
Tennie C, Call J& Tomasello M . 2009 Ratcheting up the ratchet: on the evolution of cumulative culture. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364, 2405–2415. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0052). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 41
Boesch C& Tomasello M . 1998 Chimpanzee and human cultures. Curr. Anthropol. 39, 591–614. (doi:10.1086/204785). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 42
van Schaik CP . 2012 Animal culture: chimpanzee conformity? Curr. Biol. 22, R402–R404. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.04.001). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 43
Chappell J& Kacelnik A . 2002 Tool selectivity in a non-primate, the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Anim. Cogn. 5, 71–78. (doi:10.1007/s10071-002-0130-2). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 44
Chappell J& Kacelnik A . 2004 Selection of tool diameter by New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides. Anim. Cogn. 7, 121–127. (doi:10.1007/s10071-003-0202-y). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 45
St Clair JJH& Rutz C . 2013 New Caledonian crows attend to multiple functional properties of complex tools. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120415. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0415). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 46
Schrauf C, Huber L& Visalberghi E . 2008 Do capuchin monkeys use weight to select hammer tools? Anim. Cogn. 11, 413–422. (doi:10.1007/s10071-007-0131-2). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 47
Manrique HM, Gross AN& Call J . 2010 Great apes select tools on the basis of their rigidity. J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Proc. 36, 409–422. (doi:10.1037/a0019296). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar - 48
Manrique HM, Sabbatini G, Call J& Visalberghi E . 2011 Tool choice on the basis of rigidity in capuchin monkeys. Anim. Cogn. 14, 775–786. (doi:10.1007/s10071-011-0410-9). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 49
Gumert MD& Malaivijitnond S . 2013 Long-tailed macaques select mass of stone tools according to food type. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 368, 20120413. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0413). Link, ISI, Google Scholar - 50
Bonawitz EB, van Schijndel TJ, Friel D& Schulz L . 2012 Children balance theories and evidence in exploration, explanation, and learning. Cogn. Psychol. 64, 215–234. (doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2011.12.002). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 51
Diamond A . 2006 The early development of executive functions. Lifespan cognition: mechanisms of change (eds, Bialystok E& Craik F ), pp. 70–95. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar - 52
Frye D, Zelazo PD& Palfai T . 1995 Theory of mind and rule-based reasoning. Cogn. Dev. 10, 483–527. (doi:10.1016/0885-2014(95)90024-1). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 53
Hrubesch C, Preuschoft S& van Schaik C . 2009 Skill mastery inhibits adoption of observed alternative solutions among chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Anim. Cogn. 12, 209–216. (doi:10.1007/s10071-008-0183-y). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 54
Lehner SR, Burkart JM& Schaik CP . 2011 Can captive orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus abelii) be coaxed into cumulative build-up of techniques? J. Comp. Psychol. 125, 446–455. (doi:10.1037/a0024413). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 55
Cutting N, Apperly IA& Beck SR . 2011 Why do children lack the flexibility to innovate tools? J. Exp. Child Psychol. 109, 497–511. (doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.012). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 56
Reynolds B, Ortengren A, Richards JB& de Wit H . 2006 Dimensions of impulsive behavior: personality and behavioral measures. Pers. Indiv. Differ. 40, 305–315. (doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.03.024). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 57
Schachar R& Logan GD . 1990 Impulsivity and inhibitory control in normal development and childhood psychopathology. Dev. Psychol. 26, 710–720. (doi:10.1037/0012-1649.26.5.710). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 58
Vlamings PHJM, Hare B& Call J . 2010 Reaching around barriers: the performance of the great apes and 3–5-year-old children. Anim. Cogn. 13, 273–285. (doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0265-5). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 59
Karmiloff-Smith A& Inhelder B . 1975 If you want to get ahead, get a theory. Cognition 3, 195–212. (doi:10.1016/0010-0277(74)90008-0). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 60
Leslie AM& Keeble S . 1987 Do six-month-old infants perceive causality? Cognition 25, 265–288. (doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(87)80006-9). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 61
Oakes LM& Cohen LB . 1990 Infant perception of a causal event. Cogn. Dev. 5, 193–207. (doi:10.1016/0885-2014(90)90026-P). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 62
Diamond A, Kirkham N& Amso D . 2002 Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response. Dev. Psychol. 38, 352–362. (doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.3.352). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 63
Beck SR, Carroll DJ, Brunsdon VE& Gryg CK . 2011 Supporting children's counterfactual thinking with alternative modes of responding. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 108, 190–202. (doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.07.009). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 64
Beck SR, Riggs KJ& Gorniak SL . 2009 Relating developments in children's counterfactual thinking and executive functions. Think. Reason. 15, 337–354. (doi:10.1080/13546780903135904). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 65
Visalberghi E& Trinca L . 1989 Tool use in capuchin monkeys: distinguishing between performing and understanding. Primates 30, 511–521. (doi:10.1007/BF02380877). Crossref, ISI, Google Scholar - 66
Visalberghi E, Fragaszy DM& Savage-Rumbaugh ES . 1995 Performance in a tool-using task by common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus), an orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), and capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). J. Comp. Psychol. 109, 52–60. (doi:10.1037/0735-7036.109.1.52). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 67
Kacelnik A, Chappell J, Kenward B& Weir AAS . 2006 Cognitive adaptations for tool-related behavior in New Caledonian crows. Comparative cognition: experimental explorations of animal intelligence (eds, Wasserman EA& Zentall TR ), pp. 515–528. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar - 68
Cutting N . 2013 Children's tool making: from innovation to manufacture. PhD thesis, Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Google Scholar - 69
Cheke LG, Loissel E& Clayton NS . 2012 How do children solve Aesop's fable? PLoS ONE 7, e40574. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040574). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 70
Hanus D, Mendes N, Tennie C& Call J . 2011 Comparing the performances of apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus) and human children (Homo sapiens) in the floating peanut task. PLoS ONE 6, e19555. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019555). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 71
Shallice T& Burgess P . 1991 Higher-order cognitive impairments and frontal lobe lesions in man. Frontal lobe function and dysfunction (eds, Levin HS, Eisenberg HM& Benton AL ), pp. 125–138. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar - 72
Burgess PW, Alderman N, Emslie H, Evans JJ, Wilson BA& Shallice T . 1996 The simplified six element test. Bury St. Edmunds, UK: Thames Valley Test. Google Scholar - 73
Silva FJ, Page DM& Silva KM . 2005 Methodological-conceptual problems in the study of chimpanzees folk physics: how studies with adult humans can help. Learn. Behav. 33, 47–58. (doi:10.3758/BF03196049). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 74
Silva FJ, Silva KM, Cover K, Leslie AM& Rubalcaba M . 2008 Humans folk physics is sensitive to physical connection and contact between a tool and reward. Behav. Process. 77, 327–333. (doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2007.08.001). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar - 75
Hansell M& Ruxton GD . 2008 Setting tool use within the context of animal construction behaviour. Trends Ecol. Evol. 23, 73–78. (doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.10.006). Crossref, PubMed, ISI, Google Scholar