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Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies : exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children
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dc.contributor.author | McGuigan, Nicola | |
dc.contributor.author | Burdett, Emily | |
dc.contributor.author | Burgess, Vanessa | |
dc.contributor.author | Dean, Lewis | |
dc.contributor.author | Lucas, Amanda | |
dc.contributor.author | Vale, Gillian | |
dc.contributor.author | Whiten, Andrew | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2017-11-21T15:30:10Z | |
dc.date.available | 2017-11-21T15:30:10Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2017-12-05 | |
dc.identifier | 251523255 | |
dc.identifier | 09531b52-6450-43f6-a0af-2eba4d88eefe | |
dc.identifier | 85032384796 | |
dc.identifier | 000413446100011 | |
dc.identifier.citation | McGuigan , N , Burdett , E , Burgess , V , Dean , L , Lucas , A , Vale , G & Whiten , A 2017 , ' Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies : exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children ' , Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences , vol. 372 , no. 1735 , 20160425 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0425 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 0962-8436 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0003-2426-5890/work/65013963 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/12142 | |
dc.description | This research was funded by grant ID40128 from the John Templeton Foundation to A.W. and K. Laland. | en |
dc.description.abstract | The experimental study of cumulative culture and the innovations essential to it is a young science, with child studies so rare that the scope of cumulative cultural capacities in childhood remains largely unknown. Here we report a new experimental approach to the inherent complexity of these phenomena. Groups of 3–4-year-old children were presented with an elaborate array of challenges affording the potential cumulative development of a variety of techniques to gain increasingly attractive rewards. In contrast to a prior study, we found evidence for elementary forms of cumulative cultural progress, with inventions of solutions at lower levels spreading to become shared innovations, and some children then building on these to create more advanced but more rewarding innovations. This contrasted with markedly more constrained progress when children worked only by themselves, or if groups faced only the highest-level challenges from the start. Further experiments that introduced higher-level inventions via the inclusion of older children, or that created ecological change, with the easiest habitual solutions no longer possible, encouraged higher levels of cumulative innovation. Our results show children are not merely ‘cultural sponges’, but when acting in groups, display the beginnings of cycles of innovation and observational learning that sustain cumulative progress in problem solving. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’. | |
dc.format.extent | 14 | |
dc.format.extent | 2210359 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences | en |
dc.subject | Cultural evolution | en |
dc.subject | Culture | en |
dc.subject | Cumulative culture | en |
dc.subject | Innovation | en |
dc.subject | Social learning | en |
dc.subject | Tool use | en |
dc.subject | BF Psychology | en |
dc.subject | Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all) | en |
dc.subject | Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all) | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | BF | en |
dc.title | Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies : exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.sponsor | John Templeton Foundation | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution | en |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0425 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 40128 | en |
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