The Process of Tool Innovation in Young Children: An Attempt to Unify the Gestalt and the Perception-Action Theories

Background: Tool innovation in young children is an underexplored topic, and the Gestalt and the perception-action theories offer different explanations of the process of tool innovation. Aims: We aimed to design and to validate nine new tool innovation tasks and to investigate 3- to 6-year-olds’ tool innovation process. Sample: From three kindergartens, 141 Chinese children (77 boys and 64 girls) took part in this research. Methods: Using the new tasks, children’s performance was coded as task success (whether the reward was retrieved) and ideal manipulation (whether certain manipulation was performed), and children’s exploration process was coded for fixation (the frequency of repeating the same actions) and flexibility (the frequency of shifting to novel actions). Children’s cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control, divergent thinking, and general intelligence were also measured. Results: The new tasks showed varied difficulty levels and exhibited high internal consistency, and children’s individual differences in task performance were positively associated with their individual differences in age, general intelligence, and divergent thinking. Children’s behavioral fixation hinders their tool innovation; and this effect was strengthened for easier compared to harder tasks, whereas children's behavioral flexibility enhances their tool innovation; and this effect was seemingly stronger for harder compared to easier tasks. Conclusions: The new tasks were robust and suitable for studying young children’s tool innovation. Task difficulty level has a critical role in shaping children’s tool innovation process, which may serve as a mechanism to bridge the Gestalt and the perception-action theories in explaining the process of tool innovation.