10.5061/DRYAD.WWPZGMSMZ
Tilston, Ottilie
0000-0003-3622-1860
University of Lausanne
Bangerter, Adrian
University of Neuchâtel
Tylén, Kristian
Aarhus University
Teaching, sharing experience and innovation
Dryad
dataset
2022
FOS: Psychology
University of Neuchâtel
https://ror.org/00vasag41
2022-06-05T00:00:00Z
2022-06-05T00:00:00Z
en
38087 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Teaching is widely understood to have an important role in cultural
transmission. But cultural transmission experiments typically do not
document or analyse what happens during teaching. Here, we examine the
content of teaching during skill transmission under two conditions: in the
presence of the artefact (no-displacement condition) and in the absence of
the artefact (displacement condition). Participants built baskets from
various materials to carry as much rice as possible before teaching the
next participant in line. The efficacy of baskets increased over
generations in both conditions, and higher-performing baskets were more
frequently copied, however the weight of rice transported did not differ
between conditions. Displacement affected the choice of strategy by
increasing innovation. Teachers shared personal experience more to discuss
non-routine events (those departing from expectations) than they did other
types of teaching, especially in the presence of the artefact. Exposure to
non-routine experience sharing during teaching increased subsequent
innovation, supporting the idea that sharing experience through activities
such as storytelling serves a sensemaking function in teaching. This study
thus provides experimental evidence that sharing experience is a useful
teaching method in the context of manual skill transmission.