Previous studies have reported that older people are more knowledgeable about nature than the younger generation. The relationship between people’s age and level of knowledge can be explained via two mechanisms: knowledge increases with age (wisdom of the elders), and opportunities to acquire knowledge decrease with successive generations (loss of experience). In this study, we examined the association between age and knowledge regarding the use of wild fruits among people living on Awaji Island in Japan. Analysis of the results revealed that the decline in knowledge among young people can be attributed to loss of experience. Furthermore, we found that the channels of knowledge transfer have changed between generations, earlier, children received it from their peers, but in recent years, it has been coming to them from older people and teachers.

之前的研究表明，老年人比年轻一代更了解自然。人们的年龄与知识水平之间的关系可以通过两种机制来解释：知识随着年龄的增长而增加（老年人的智慧），获得知识的机会随着世代的减少而减少（经验的丧失）。在这项研究中，我们研究了生活在日本淡路岛的人们的年龄与野生水果使用知识之间的关联。对结果的分析表明，年轻人知识的下降可归因于经验的丧失。此外，我们发现知识传递的渠道在几代人之间发生了变化，早期，儿童从同龄人那里获得知识，但近年来，知识传递的渠道已经从老年人和老师那里传来。