Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate
our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of …

M. Tomasello, A. Kruger, and H. Ratner (1993) proposed a theory of cultural learning
comprising imitative learning, instructed learning, and collaborative learning. Empirical and …

Winner of the William James Book Award “Magisterial... Makes an impressive argument that
most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general …

Four tasks (N= 191, 3‐to 6‐year‐olds) examined the effect of instrumental versus
conventional language cues on children's imitative fidelity of a necklace‐making activity …

Recent research with Western populations has demonstrated that children use imitation
flexibly to engage in both instrumental and conventional learning. Evidence for children's …

In the last decade, cultural transmission experiments (transmission chains, replacement,
closed groups and seeded groups) have become important experimental tools in …

Highlights•Cumulative cultural evolution is unique to the human species.•One basis for
cumulative culture is human children's tendency to conform.•Another basis for cumulative …

Developmental psychologists have long-established the importance of socio-cognitive
abilities in human intelligence. These abilities enable us to enter, participate and benefit …

In the current literature, there are few experimental tests of capacities for cumulative cultural
evolution in nonhuman species. There are even fewer examples of such tests in young …

The ratchet effect–the accumulation of beneficial changes in cultural products beyond a
level that individuals could reach on their own–is a topic of increasing interest. It is currently …