Abstract
Young children typically demonstrate low rates of tool innovation. However, previous
studies have limited children’s performance by presenting tools with opaque
affordances. In an attempt to scaffold children’s understanding of what constitutes an
appropriate tool within an innovation task we compared tools in which the focal
affordance was visible to those in which it was opaque. To evaluate possible cultural
specificity, data collection was undertaken in a Western urban population and a
remote Indigenous community. As expected affordance visibility altered innovation
rates: young children were more likely to innovate on a tool that had visible
affordances than one with concealed affordances. Furthermore, innovation rates were
higher than those reported in previous innovation studies. Cultural background did not
affect children’s rates of tool innovation. It is suggested that new methods for testing
tool innovation in children must be developed in order to broaden our knowledge of
young children’s tool innovation capabilities.