The cognitive ontogeny of tool making in children: The role of inhibition and hierarchical structuring


Gonul G., Takmaz E. K., Hohenberger A., Corballis M.

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, vol.173, pp.222-238, 2018 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 173
  • Publication Date: 2018
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.03.017
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.222-238
  • Keywords: Tool innovation, Tool making, Tool manipulation, Response inhibition, Hierarchical representation, Ontogeny, INNOVATION, IMITATION, BRAIN, LANGUAGE, INTELLIGENCE, EMULATION, EVOLUTION, BEHAVIOR, CULTURE
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

During the last decade, the ontogeny of tool making has received growing attention in the literature on tool-related behaviors. However, the cognitive demands underlying tool making are still not clearly understood. In this cross-sectional study of 52 Turkish preschool children from 3 to 6 years of age, the roles of executive function (response inhibition), ability to form hierarchical representations (hierarchical structuring), and social learning were investigated with the hook task previously used with children and animals. In this task, children needed to bend a pipe cleaner to fetch a small bucket with a sticker out of a tall jar. This study replicated earlier findings that preschoolers have great difficulty in tool innovation. However, social learning facilitates tool making, especially after 5 years of age. Capacities to form hierarchical representations and to inhibit prepotent responses were significant positive predictors of tool making after social learning. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.