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Defining and detecting innovation: Are cognitive and developmental mechanisms important?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2007

Brooke L. Sargeant  and
Janet Mann
Brooke L. Sargeant
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199; sargeant@fiu.eduhttp://www.brookesargeant.com
Janet Mann
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057. mannj2@georgetown.eduhttp://bioserver.georgetown.edu/faculty/Mann/janet.html
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Abstract

Although the authors' ingenuity in identifying criteria for innovation for field studies is appealing, most field studies will lack adequate data. Additionally, their definition does not clearly distinguish innovation from individual learning and is vague about cognitive mechanisms involved. We suggest that developmental data are essential to identifying the causes and consequences of learning new behaviors.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , August 2007 , pp. 423 - 424
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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