Human toddlers’ sole cognitive advantage over great apes is social learning

Evidence

By contrast, for the social learning subtest, the averages shown in figure 2.2 actually conceal the fact that most of the two-and-a-half-year-olds scored 100% on the test, whereas most of the apes scored 0%. Overall, these findings suggest that the only exceptional cognitive abilities possessed by young children in comparison to two other great apes relate to social learning, and not to space, quantities, or causality. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 80

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Social learning is toddlers’ only cognitive edge over great apes. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 78; Children, unlike chimps, overimitate even when causality is transparent — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 362; Human evolution selected for learnability and behavioral malleability, not fixedness (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Social learning is toddlers’ only cognitive edge over great apes. #corroborates (1.00) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 78
• Human cumulative culture emerges from evolved domain-specific cognitive adaptations for social learning #expands (0.85) — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 16
• Children, unlike chimps, overimitate even when causality is transparent #exemplifies (0.82) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 362
• Human evolution selected for learnability and behavioral malleability, not fixedness #expands (0.80)
• Cultural learning instincts emerge in infants and operate automatically and unconsciously #expands (0.80) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 141
• Most behavioral coding is acquired unconsciously during childhood socialization #expands (0.75)
• Rational assessments of trustworthiness cannot be grounded in purely infantile behavioral learning #complicates (0.72) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 352