Children, unlike chimps, overimitate even when causality is transparent

Evidence

In this work, the comparative psychologists Vicki Horner and Andy Whiten used the same opaque “artificial fruit” used above and also a clear version of the fruit in which one could readily see that the top slot was not connected to the area with the reward. When the causality was more transparent, with the clear box, the chimpanzees immediately dropped all irrelevant actions, whereas the three-to four-year-old Scottish kids copied the irrelevant actions as much as with the opaque fruit. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 362

As you may anticipate, the chimpanzees outperformed their big-headed cousins once again. In this work, the comparative psychologists Vicki Horner and Andy Whiten used the same opaque “artificial fruit” used above and also a clear version of the fruit in which one could readily see that the top slot was not connected to the area with the reward. When the causality was more transparent, with the clear box, the chimpanzees immediately dropped all irrelevant actions, whereas the three-to four-year-old Scottish kids copied the irrelevant actions as much as with the opaque fruit. Chimpanzees did learn some stuff by watching the model work on the fruit: it helped them assess the affordances of the apparatus. They learned how different parts of the fruit could move. But once they had visual evidence that these actions would not do anything, they dropped them. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 363

Categorization

• XREF: The reader’s stated question asks whether conformist-bias transmission maps onto a developmental timeline; this is a related finding about overimitation emerging strongly by ages 3-4 in humans but not chimps. — connects to: Humans copy spontaneously and automatically far more than chimpanzees do. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 100; Reports on ape cognitive superiority are contested and hard to replicate. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 1086; Human children overimitate even when they see actions are useless — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 943 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 362; Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 363

Broader Connections

• Human children overimitate even when they see actions are useless #corroborates (0.95) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 943
• Confident models and accurate imitation strengthen children’s normative judgments. #expands (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 610