Tool innovation has played a crucial role in human adaptation. Yet, this capacity seems to arise late in development. Before 8 years of age, many children struggle to solve the hook task, a common measure of tool innovation that requires modification of a straight pipe cleaner into a hook to extract a prize. Whether these findings are generalizable beyond postindustrialized Western children remains unclear. In many small-scale subsistence societies, children engage in daily tool use and modification, experiences that theoretically could enhance innovative capabilities. Although two previous studies found no differences in innovative ability between children from Western and small-scale subsistence societies, these did not account for the latter’s inexperience with pipe cleaners. Thus, the current study investigated how familiarity with pipe cleaners affected hook task success in 132 Congolese BaYaka foragers (57 girls) and 59 Bondongo fisher–farmers (23 girls) aged 4–12 years. We contextualized these findings within children’s interview responses and naturalistic observations of how pipe cleaners were incorporated into daily activities. Counter to our expectation, prior exposure did not improve children’s performance during the hook task. Bondongo children innovated significantly more hooks than BaYaka children, possibly because they participate in hook-and-line fishing. Observations and interviews showed that children imagined and innovated novel uses for pipe cleaners outside the experimental context, including headbands, bracelets, and suspenders. We relate our findings to ongoing debates regarding systematic versus unsystematic tool innovation, the importance of prior experience for the ontogeny of tool innovation, and the external validity of experimental paradigms.

工具创新在人类适应中发挥了至关重要的作用。然而，这种能力似乎出现在发展后期。很多孩子在8岁之前都在努力解决钩子任务，这是一种工具创新的常见措施，需要将直管清洁器改装成钩子才能提取奖品。这些发现是否可以推广到后工业化的西方儿童之外还不清楚。在许多小规模的自给自足社会中，儿童参与日常工具的使用和修改，这些经验理论上可以提高创新能力。尽管之前的两项研究发现来自西方和小规模生存社会的儿童在创新能力方面没有差异，但这并不能解释后者对管道清洁工缺乏经验。因此，目前的研究调查了对管道清洁工的熟悉程度如何影响 132 名刚果巴亚卡族觅食者（57 名女孩）和 59 名 4-12 岁的邦东戈渔民（23 名女孩）的钩子任务成功。我们将这些发现与儿童的访谈反应和对管道清洁剂如何融入日常活动的自然观察结合起来。与我们的预期相反，事先接触并没有提高儿童在钩子任务中的表现。邦东戈儿童发明的鱼钩明显多于 BaYaka 儿童，这可能是因为他们参与了钩线捕鱼。观察和采访表明，孩子们在实验环境之外想象和创新了管道清洁器的新用途，包括头带、手镯和吊带。