Tool Using

Abstract

Research on the development of tool use in children has often emphasized the cognitive bases of this achievement, focusing on the choice of an artifact, but has largely neglected its motor foundations. However, research across diverse fields, from evolutionary anthropology to cognitive neuroscience, converges on the idea that the actions that embody tool use are also critical for understanding its ontogenesis and phylogenesis. In this article, we highlight findings across these fields to show how a deeper examination of the act of tool using can inform developmental accounts and illuminate what makes human tool use unique.

Keywords: action; cognitive development; motor development; tool use.

Figure 1. The experimental setup for the different experiments

by a) Kahrs, Jung, and Lockman (2012), b) Kahrs, Jung, and Lockman (2013), and c) Kahrs, Jung, and Lockman (2014). Kinematics were recorded from 11 markers: one at the sternum and 5 on each arm at the following locations: shoulder, elbow, thumb side of the wrist, little finger side of the wrist, and knuckle.

Figure 2. Examples of representative hand trajectories for a young infant

a) 238 days old, and an older infant b) 356 days old. All available strikes for each infant, 10 and 7 respectively, are presented and starting locations for each strike are normalized to be at the origin (reproduced from Kahrs, Jung, & Lockman, 2014). All axes are in mm.