All Outputs (4)

Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task (2020)
Journal Article
Vale, G. L., McGuigan, N., Burdett, E., Lambeth, S. P., Lucas, A., Rawlings, B., …Whiten, A. (2021). Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task. Evolution and Human Behavior, 42(3), 247-258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.11.003

Humans are distinctive in their dependence upon products of culture for survival, products that have evolved cumulatively over generations such that many cannot now be created by a single individual. Why the cultural capacity of humans appears unriva... Read More about Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task.

A cognitive developmental approach is essential to understanding cumulative technological culture (2020)
Journal Article
Burdett, E. R. R., & Ronfard, S. (2020). A cognitive developmental approach is essential to understanding cumulative technological culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, Article e159. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20000175

Osiurak and Reynaud argue that children are not a good methodological choice to examine cumulative technological culture. However, the manuscript ignores other current work that suggests that young children do display some aspects of creative problem... Read More about A cognitive developmental approach is essential to understanding cumulative technological culture.

The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures (2020)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Nelson, N., Burdett, E., & Goldstein, T. R. (2020). The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures. PLoS ONE, 15(6), Article e0234142. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234142

To what extent do children believe in real, unreal, natural and supernatural figures relative to each other, and to what extent are features of culture responsible for belief? Are some figures, like Santa Claus or an alien, perceived as more real tha... Read More about The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures.

Children’s Developing Understanding of the Cognitive Abilities of Supernatural and Natural Minds: Evidence from Three Cultures (2020)
Journal Article
Burdett, E. R. R., Barrett, J. L., & Greenway, T. S. (2020). Children’s Developing Understanding of the Cognitive Abilities of Supernatural and Natural Minds: Evidence from Three Cultures. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 14(1), 124-151. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.39186

Despite a wealth of research exploring developmental patterns of children’s understanding of the thoughts and desires of another (or, their theory of mind), relatively little research has explored children’s developing understanding of supernatural m... Read More about Children’s Developing Understanding of the Cognitive Abilities of Supernatural and Natural Minds: Evidence from Three Cultures.