About this session

Saturday, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

The Influence of Time Constraints, Language, Model, and Culture on Children’s Tool Imitation and Innovation

Humans are uniquely skilled at making and using tools, yet children find innovating tools remarkably difficult. Children’s approach to creating and using tools is impacted by social, cognitive, and environmental factors. This symposium presents research on several of these, including time constraints, model’s language (normative vs. instrumental), model’s expertise, direct vs. indirect teaching, academic achievement, and culture.

Paper 1 finds that conventional language impacts children’s imitation, but is tempered when task completion must occur within a limited time. Paper 2 reveals that Chinese children prefer to copy an expert using normative (over instrumental) language rather than a neutral majority, especially outgroup models. Paper 3 examines how children across four cultures choose to complete a task when a model’s demonstration includes irrelevant actions, or selecting inefficient tools, both when facing the children and when facing away. Paper 4 found that across 11 different countries, academic achievement was unrelated to children’s tool innovation success, but argues the need for culturally-derived measures for tool innovation.

Why children struggle to make tools remains critically-debated. These papers provide new insights by showing that we must continue to broaden our efforts and consider task framing, culture, and societal factors.

Paper #1
Title	The impact of conventional language on imitation of an inefficient tool in a pressure-based situation
Presenting author	Cara DiYanni, Rider University

Paper #2
Title	Chinese children favour model expertise over copying a majority in a social learning task
Presenting author	Emily Burdett, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Paper #3
Title	The influence of contextual variability on children’s imitative tendencies across different cultures
Presenting author	Frankie Fong, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Paper #4
Title	Tool innovation across diverse cultures: The role of academic achievement
Presenting author	Bruce Rawlings, Durham University, United Kingdom

View all paper details

Session chair
Cara J. DiYanni, Ph.D., Rider University, United States

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