Young children fail to generate an additive ratchet effect in an open-ended construction task.

ABSTRACT: The ratchet effect-the gradual accumulation of changes within a cultural trait beyond a level that individuals can achieve on their own-arguably rests on two key cognitive abilities: high-fidelity social learning and innovation. Researchers have started to simulate the ratchet effect in the laboratory to identify its underlying social learning mechanisms, but studies on the developmental origins of the ratchet effect remain sparse. We used the transmission chain method and a tower construction task that had previously been used with adults to investigate whether "generations" of children between 4 and 6 years were able to make a technological product that individual children could not yet achieve. 21 children in a baseline and 80 children in transmission chains (each consisting of 10 succe

SUBMITTER: Reindl E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6005566 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature