000			02394nam a22002897a 4500
005			20250710090058.0
008			250710b ph ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
022			_a0002-9556
040			_cOCT
100			_aOsiurak, Francois
240			_aAJP : The american journal of psychology / _hFall 2024
245			_aThe role of explanation in the evolution of technology / _cFrancois Osiurak, Giovannie Federico, Chloe Bryche, Alexandre Bluet, Maximilien Metaireau, Eleonore Tran, Joel Brogniart, and Nicolas Claidiere
300			_aVol 137 (3) pages 285-320 : _billustrations ; _c28 cm
500			_aOne way to pass on our own causal understanding about how a physical system works is to provide a verbal explanation about it, raising the question of the role of explanations in the transmission and evolution of technology. Here we address this question by conducting new analyses on the data collected in 3 previously published microsociety studies, in which participants organized into transmission chains had to improve a technology. In 3 of the 6 conditions reported, the participants were also asked to generate verbal explanations about how the technology works. In 1 of these conditions, these explanations were transmitted to the next participant. Our results indicated that the participants improved the technology and gained a better understanding of it over generations, although they were unable to elaborate on its hidden causes using scientific language. When the explanations were analyzed as instructions, we did find an increase in the quality of the explanations over generations, which was linked to participants' causal understanding. However, this increase had no direct impact on the transmission of the technical content. These findings open interesting avenues for future research on the role of explanation in the evolution of technology and raise the question of whether (explanation-based) teaching is an opportunity for the teacher to increase their own causal understanding.
650			_acausal understanding
650			_acultural evolution
650			_asocial learning
650			_ateaching
700			_aFederico, Giovannie
700			_a Bryche, Chloe
700			_aBluet, Alexandre
700			_aMetaireau, Maximilien
700			_aTran, Eleonore
700			_aBrogniart, Joel
700			_aClaidiere, Nicolas
942			_2ddc _cCR _n0
999			_c10366 _d10366