Despite major advances in the study of animal tool behaviour, researchers continue to debate how exactly certain behaviours are acquired. While specific mechanisms, such as genetic predispositions or action copying, are sometimes suspected to play a major role in behavioural acquisition, controlled experiments are required to provide conclusive evidence. In this opinion piece, we refer to classic ethological methodologies to emphasize the need for studying the relative contributions of different factors to the emergence of specific tool behaviours. We describe a methodology, consisting of a carefully staged series of baseline and social-learning conditions, that enables us to tease apart the roles of different mechanisms in the development of behavioural repertoires. Experiments employing our proposed methodology will not only advance our understanding of animal learning and culture, but as a result, will also help inform hypotheses about human cognitive, cultural and technological evolution. More generally, our conceptual framework is suitable for guiding the detailed investigation of other seemingly complex animal behaviours.

中文翻译：

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检查获取动物工具行为的潜在机制。

尽管在动物工具行为研究方面取得了重大进展，但研究人员仍在争论如何确切地获得某些行为。尽管有时怀疑特定的机制（例如遗传易感性或动作复制）在行为习得中起主要作用，但仍需要进行受控实验以提供确凿的证据。在这篇观点中，我们将参考经典的伦理学方法论，以强调有必要研究不同因素对特定工具行为的出现的相对贡献。我们描述了一种方法，该方法由一系列精心设计的基准和社会学习条件组成，使我们能够梳理出不同的机制在行为库开发中的作用。使用我们提出的方法进行的实验不仅会增进我们对动物学习和文化的理解，而且还将因此有助于为有关人类认知，文化和技术发展的假设提供信息。更笼统地说，我们的概念框架适合指导其他看似复杂的动物行为的详细研究。