Learning Of Tool Use Research Articles

What Does It Take for an Infant to Learn How to Use a Tool by Observation?

Observational learning is probably one of the most powerful factors determining progress during child development. When learning a new skill, infants rely on their own exploration; but they also frequently benefit from an adult’s verbal support or from demonstration by an adult modeling the action. At what age and under what conditions does adult demonstration really help the infant to learn a novel behavior? In this review, we summarize recently published work we have conducted on the acquisition of tool use during the second year of life. In particular, we consider under what conditions and to what extent seeing a demonstration from an adult advances an infant’s understanding of how to use a tool to obtain an out-of-reach object. Our results show that classic demonstration starts being helpful at 18 months of age. When adults explicitly show their intention prior to demonstration, even 16-month-old infants learn from the demonstration. On the other hand, providing an explicit demonstration (“look at how I do it”) is not very useful before infants are ready to succeed by themselves anyway. In contrast, repeated observations of the required action in a social context, without explicit reference to this action, considerably advances the age of success and the usefulness of providing a demonstration. We also show that the effect of demonstration can be enhanced if the demonstration makes the baby laugh. Taken together, the results from this series of studies on observational learning of tool use in infants suggest, first, that when observing a demonstration, infants do not know what to pay attention to: demonstration must be accompanied by rich social cues to be effective; second, infants’ attention is inhibited rather than enhanced by an explicit demand of “look at what I do”; and finally a humorous situation considerably helps infants understand the demonstration.

The importance of witnessed agency in chimpanzee social learning of tool use

Social learning refers to individuals learning from others, including information gained through indirect social influences, such as the results of others’ actions and changes in the physical environment. One method to determine the relative influence of these varieties of information is the ‘ghost display’, in which no model is involved, but subjects can watch the results that a model would produce. Previous research has shown mixed success by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) learning from ghost displays, with some studies suggesting learning only in relatively simple tasks. To explore whether the failure of chimpanzees to learn from a ghost display may be due to neophobia when tested singly or a requirement for more detailed information for complex tasks, we presented ghost displays of a tool-use task to chimpanzees in their home social groups. Previous tests have revealed that chimpanzees are unable to easily solve this tool-use task asocially, or learn from ghost displays when tested singly, but can learn after observing conspecifics in a group setting. In the present study, despite being tested in a group situation, chimpanzees still showed no success in solving the task via trial-and-error learning, in a baseline condition, nor in learning the task from the ghost display. Simply being in the presence of their group mates and being shown the affordances of the task was not sufficient to encourage learning. Following this, in an escalating series of tests, we examined the chimpanzees’ ability to learn from a demonstration by models with agency: (1) a human; (2) video footage of a chimpanzee; (3) a live chimpanzee model. In the first two of these ‘social’ conditions, subjects showed limited success. By the end of the final open diffusion phase, which was run to determine whether this new behavior would be transmitted among the group after seeing a successful chimpanzee use the task, 83% of chimpanzees were now successful. This confirmed a marked overall effect of observing animate conspecific modeling, in contrast to the ghost condition.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: insert SI title.

If at first you don't succeed... Studies of ontogeny shed light on the cognitive demands of habitual tool use.

Many species use tools, but the mechanisms underpinning the behaviour differ between species and even among individuals within species, depending on the variants performed. When considering tool use 'as adaptation', an important first step is to understand the contribution made by fixed phenotypes as compared to flexible mechanisms, for instance learning. Social learning of tool use is sometimes inferred based on variation between populations of the same species but this approach is questionable. Specifically, alternative explanations cannot be ruled out because population differences are also driven by genetic and/or environmental factors. To better understand the mechanisms underlying routine but non-universal (i.e. habitual) tool use, we suggest focusing on the ontogeny of tool use and individual variation within populations. For example, if tool-using competence emerges late during ontogeny and improves with practice or varies with exposure to social cues, then a role for learning can be inferred. Experimental studies help identify the cognitive and developmental mechanisms used when tools are used to solve problems. The mechanisms underlying the route to tool-use acquisition have important consequences for our understanding of the accumulation in technological skill complexity over the life course of an individual, across generations and over evolutionary time.

Object affordances tune observers' prior expectations about tool-use behaviors.

Learning about the function and use of tools through observation requires the ability to exploit one's own knowledge derived from past experience. It also depends on the detection of low-level local cues that are rooted in the tool's perceptual properties. Best known as ‘affordances’, these cues generate biomechanical priors that constrain the number of possible motor acts that are likely to be performed on tools. The contribution of these biomechanical priors to the learning of tool-use behaviors is well supported. However, it is not yet clear if, and how, affordances interact with higher-order expectations that are generated from past experience – i.e. probabilistic exposure – to enable observational learning of tool use. To address this question we designed an action observation task in which participants were required to infer, under various conditions of visual uncertainty, the intentions of a demonstrator performing tool-use behaviors. Both the probability of observing the demonstrator achieving a particular tool function and the biomechanical optimality of the observed movement were varied. We demonstrate that biomechanical priors modulate the extent to which participants' predictions are influenced by probabilistically-induced prior expectations. Biomechanical and probabilistic priors have a cumulative effect when they ‘converge’ (in the case of a probabilistic bias assigned to optimal behaviors), or a mutually inhibitory effect when they actively ‘diverge’ (in the case of probabilistic bias assigned to suboptimal behaviors).

Can object affordances impact on human social learning of tool use?

The author describes "higher" and "uniquely human" sociocognitive skills that he argues as being necessary for tool use. We propose that those skills could be based on simpler detection systems humans could share with other animal tool users. More specifically, we discuss the impact of object affordances on the understanding and the social learning of tool use.

Process Versus Product in Social Learning: Comparative Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Neural Systems for Action Execution–Observation Matching in Macaques, Chimpanzees, and Humans

Social learning varies among primate species. Macaques only copy the product of observed actions, or emulate, while humans and chimpanzees also copy the process, or imitate. In humans, imitation is linked to the mirror system. Here we compare mirror system connectivity across these species using diffusion tensor imaging. In macaques and chimpanzees, the preponderance of this circuitry consists of frontal-temporal connections via the extreme/external capsules. In contrast, humans have more substantial temporal-parietal and frontal-parietal connections via the middle/inferior longitudinal fasciculi and the third branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus. In chimpanzees and humans, but not in macaques, this circuitry includes connections with inferior temporal cortex. In humans alone, connections with superior parietal cortex were also detected. We suggest a model linking species differences in mirror system connectivity and responsivity with species differences in behavior, including adaptations for imitation and social learning of tool use.

Observational learning of tool use in children: Investigating cultural spread through diffusion chains and learning mechanisms through ghost displays

In the first of two experiments, we demonstrate the spread of a novel form of tool use across 20 “cultural generations” of child-to-child transmission. An experimentally seeded technique spread with 100% fidelity along twice as many “generations” as has been investigated in recent exploratory “diffusion” experiments of this type. This contrasted with only a single child discovering the technique spontaneously in a comparable group tested individually without any model. This study accordingly documents children’s social learning of tool use on a new, population-level scale that characterizes real-world cultural phenomena. In a second experiment, underlying social learning processes were investigated with a focus on the contrast between imitation (defined as copying actions) and emulation (defined as learning from the results of actions only). In two different “ghost” conditions, children were presented with the task used in the first experiment but now operated without sight of an agent performing the task, thereby presenting only the information used in emulation. Children in ghost conditions were less successful than those who had watched a model in action and showed variable matching to what they had seen. These findings suggest the importance of observational learning of complex tool use through imitation rather than only through emulation. Results of the two experiments are compared with those of similar experiments conducted previously with chimpanzees and are discussed in relation to the wider perspective of human culture and the influence of task complexity on social learning.

Social learning of artefact function in 12- and 15-month-olds

This study investigates whether infants transfer observed information about the functional use of novel artefacts to their own actions, and whether they generalize this knowledge to perceptually different objects that share the same functional feature. In two experiments, 12- and 15-month-olds performed an imitation task followed by a generalization task. In the imitation task, the same target act was demonstrated with two simple monochrome objects fitted with a specific part, producing a sound effect with one object, but no salient effects with the other object. Infants in both age groups increased their actions on the objects after the demonstration, but only the 15-month-olds preferred to use the “effective” object. This suggests that younger infants learned knowledge about the general function of the objects, whereas older infants learned knowledge about the objects' specific function. In the following generalization task, infants watched no demonstration, but were presented with complex multicoloured objects fitted with the same functional part as the demonstration objects. Both age groups generalized the acquired functional knowledge to the novel objects. Yet, the specificity of the functional information acquired in social learning situations changed between 12 and 15 months of age, which may not only affect the learning of tool use, but also the categorization of artefacts.

Competitive and cooperative aspects of social intelligence in chimpanzees

Many primate species live in groups with specific social structures. Much attention has been given to the social intelligence hypothesis, which claims that higher cognitive ability is required to survive in a complex than in a simple social world. Here, I describe four sets of studies that investigated social intelligence in captive chimpanzees, including tactical interactions in competition for food, the learning of tool use in a social situation, assisting of infants by mothers, and cooperative problem-solving behavior in an experimental situation. The results illustrate similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees. Experimental studies using food as a reward tend to emphasize the competitive and selfish nature of chimpanzee behavior, whereas mother-offspring relationships in a non-food context may be a basis for the cooperative aspect of social intelligence.

The social learning of tool use by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Very little is known about the social learning of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), especially in the context of problem-solving situations such as tool use. Sixteen orangutans were presented with a rake-like tool and desirable but out-of-reach food. Eight subjects observed a human demonstrator use the tool in one way, while another eight observed the demonstrator use the tool in another way. Subjects behaved identically in the two experimental conditions, showing no effect of the type of demonstration observed. Analysis of individual learning curves suggested that a large component of individual trial-and-error learning was at work, even for two subjects who received additional trials with an orangutan demonstrator. This pattern of results suggests that subjects were paying attention to the general functional relations in the task and to the results obtained by the demonstrator, but not to the actual methods of tool use demonstrated. It is concluded that subjects in both conditions were employing emulation learning, not imitative learning.

Discovering and learning tool-use for fishing honey by captive chimpanzees

Wild chimpanzees commonly use sticks to fish for termites, ants or honey. This ability seems to be socially transmitted to juveniles by their mothers across generations. In a natural environment, the limited visibility of this behavior with regards to the extent of stick's insertion and about the success or failure in fishing hinders the study of the underlying learning processes.This study explores the discovery and learning of tool use for fishing honey in an artificial hive by a group of four captive chimpanzees. The discovery of tool use was accidental and coactive. The speed with which the group of experimentally naive chimpanzees discovered and learned tool use suggests that wild chimpanzees of different populations independently discovered the fishing behavior. The alpha male and his ally learned before the subordinates. Here, trial-and-error learning was, as in monkeys, the main process allowing the acquisition of the tool-use technique. However, the observation of conspecifics allowed the orienta...

Social cognition of monkeys and apes

This paper reviews what is known about the social cognition of monkeys and great apes. The literature reviewed is divided into three main content areas: (1) social interaction, including knowledge of individuals, knowledge of social relationships, alliance formation, and cooperation; (2) communication, including alarm calls, calls for recruiting allies, gestures, and the “language” skills of human-raised apes; and (3) social learning, including the “cultural transmission” of food-preparation behaviors, the social learning of tool use, and the social learning of vocal and gestural communication. Contrary to the hypotheses of a number of recent investigators, we find no compelling differences in the social cognition of monkeys and great apes. It is possible that differences in the social behavior of these two classes of primate are due to processes of nonsocial cognition, and it is possible that the social behavior of apes is more strongly influenced by human interaction and training.© 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Observational learning of tool-use by young chimpanzees

In the current study two groups of young chimpanzees (4–6 and 8–9 years old) were given a T-bar and a food item that could only be reached by using the T-bar. Experimental subjects were given the opportunity to observe an adult using the stick as a tool to obtain the food; control subjects were exposed to the adult but were given no demonstration. Subjects in the older group did not learn to use the tool. Subjects in the younger group who were exposed to the demonstrator learned to use the stick as a tool much more readily than those who were not. None of the subjects demonstrated an ability to imitatively copy the demonstrator's precise behavioral strategies. More than simple stimulus enhancement was involved, however, since both groups manipulated the T-bar, but only experimental subjects used it in its function as a tool. Our findings complement naturalistic observations in suggesting that chimpanzee tool-use is in some sense «culturally transmitted» — though perhaps not in the same sense as social-conventional behaviors for which precise copying of conspecifics is crucial.

Observation learning of tool use by captive Guinea baboons (Papio papio).

AbstractA subadult male from a captive group of Guinea baboons learned, by trial‐and‐error, to use a tool to rake in food. He then used the tool 104 times over 26 days, thereby providing the group with most of its food. No other group member used the tool during this period. The tool user was removed, and the remainder of the group was given access to the display. None imitated his tool use. It took longer for another finally to learn to use the tool than it had for the initial solution. However, compared with the period before initial solution, group members manipulated the tool more frequently and touched the food pan with the tool nearly twice as many times after the tool user's separation.This type of tool use appears to be too complex for baboons to imitate directly. However, as a result of observing successful tool use, they attend more to the problem and manipulate the tool more frequently and more accurately. This increase in frequency and accuracy may, in turn, accelerate acquisition of the response by observers through instrumental trial‐and‐error learning.