How prior experience in analogous tasks affects three-year-olds’ tool making

Abstract

Research on analogical reasoning shows that preschoolers have the basic skills to generalize knowledge about tool use across problems. However, whether young children can also generalize knowledge about tool making is still unclear. The current study examined the effects of prior experience with two analogous training tasks on three-year-olds’ performance in a tool innovation task (Vertical Tube Task). Children in the Training Condition (N = 25) showed significant improvement in terms of transferring the correct idea for a solution across tasks (i.e., building a hook to catch a toy). Nevertheless, most children were unable to put this correct idea into action and failed to solve the task (i.e., retrieving the toy with the hook tool), resulting in success rates comparable to a Control Condition without prior training (N = 25). We discuss the implications of the observed discrepancy between generating a proper solution and implementing it for studies on the early development of tool innovation skills.