Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T23:06:03.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cultural intelligence is key to explaining human tool use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Claudio Tennie
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04013Germany. tennie@eva.mpg.dewww.claudiotennie.deharriet_over@eva.mpg.dehttp://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/staff/over
Harriet Over
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04013Germany. tennie@eva.mpg.dewww.claudiotennie.deharriet_over@eva.mpg.dehttp://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/staff/over

Abstract

Contrary to Vaesen, we argue that a small number of key traits are sufficient to explain modern human tool use. Here we outline and defend the cultural intelligence (CI) hypothesis. In doing so, we critically re-examine the role of social transmission in explaining human tool use.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boesch, C. (1991) Teaching among wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 41(3):530–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enquist, M., Ghirlanda, S., Jarrick, A. & Wachtmeister, C. A. (2008) Why does human culture increase exponentially? Theoretical Population Biology 74(1):4655.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gergely, G. & Csibra, G. (2006) Sylvia's recipe: The role of imitation and pedagogy in the transmission of human culture. In: Roots of human sociality: Culture, cognition, and human interaction, ed. Enfield, N. J. & Levinson, S. C., pp. 229–55. Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Haun, D. B. M. & Tomasello, M. (2011) Conformity to peer pressure in preschool children. Child Development 82(6):1759–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrmann, E., Call, J., Hernández-Lloreda, M. V., Hare, B. & Tomasello, M. (2007) Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis. Science 317(5843):1360–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyons, D. E., Young, A. G. & Keil, F. C. (2007) The hidden structure of overimitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:19751–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moll, H. & Tomasello, M. (2007) Cooperation and human cognition: The Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 362(1480):639–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagell, K., Olguin, K. & Tomasello, M. (1993) Processes of social learning in the tool use of chimpanzees and human children. Journal of Comparative Psychology 107:174–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M. (2009) The imitative behavior of children and chimpanzees: A window on the transmission of cultural traditions. Revue de Primatologie 1:5.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M., Simcock, G. & Jenkins, L. (2008) The effect of social engagement on 24-month-olds' imitation from live and televised models. Developmental Science 11:722–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Over, H. & Carpenter, M. (2009) Priming third-party ostracism increases affiliative imitation in children. Developmental Science 12:F1F8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Over, H. & Carpenter, M. (2011) Putting the social into social learning: Explaining both selectivity and fidelity in children's copying behavior. Journal of Comparative Psychology Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024555 Google ScholarPubMed
Rakoczy, H., Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2008) The sources of normativity: Young children's awareness of the normative structure of games. Developmental Psychology 44:875–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tennie, C., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2009) Ratcheting up the ratchet: On the evolution of cumulative culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364(1528):2405–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomasello, M. (1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
van Schaik, C. P., & Pradhan, G. R. (2003) A model for tool-use traditions in primates: Implications for the coevolution of culture and cognition. Journal of Human Evolution 44(6):645–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W. & Boesch, C. (1999) Cultures in chimpanzees. Nature 399:682–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whiten, A., McGuigan, N., Marshall-Pescini, S. & Hopper, L. (2009) Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364:2417–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed