Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies: Exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children

McGuigan, Nicola; Burdett, Emily; Burgess, Vanessa; Dean, Lewis; Lucas, Amanda; Vale, Gillian; Whiten, Andrew

Abstract

© 2017 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. 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’.

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 B: Biological Sciences, 372(1735), Article 20160425. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0425

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 26, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Oct 23, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 5, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 28, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 17, 2020
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0962-8436
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2970
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 372
• Issue: 1735
• Article Number: 20160425
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0425
• Keywords: General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2839353
• Publisher URL: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2016.0425
• Additional Information: Accepted: 2017-07-26; Published: 2017-10-23