Intuitive invention by summative imitation in children and adults

Humanity's ability to conquer every corner of the planet rests on our inventiveness. But is this inventiveness best explained by individual problem-solving skills or by our species' exceptional social learning abilities? Using a tower-building task, we show that, on average, 3% of 4-6 year old children (n = 180) and adults (n = 192) independently combined tower pieces to produce the most optimal tower possible, confirming that preschool age children and adults alike are poor independent inventors. Yet, after observing one or more models generate tower elements separately, both children and adults reproduced the demonstrated elements and spontaneously combined them, producing a novel (unobserved) tower of optimal height, evidence of intuitive invention by summative imitation. These results challenge folk concepts of innovation and corroborate those from mathematical models showing that our species' inventiveness generally arise from social learning rather than individual insights. So, rather than being sui generis, human inventions are, broadly, communis generis.