ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2016
Animal and human innovation: novel problems and novel solutions.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bumble bees that follow a stricter routine innovate less: Foraging behaviors, environmental complexity, and how they relate to novel problem solving.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Novel Foraging Behaviors of an Urban Bird, the Light-Vented Bulbul (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Quick on their paws: mice living in human-disturbed areas are faster problem-solvers than mice in strictly protected areas.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Task affordances shape hornbills' problem-solving strategies.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Innovation, Inhibition and Flexibility in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta).American journal of primatology · 2025Article
- Human culture is uniquely open-ended rather than uniquely cumulative.Nature human behaviour · 2025Review
- Food quality influences behavioural flexibility and cognition in wild house mice.Scientific reports · 2024Article
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- Conditions under which faithful cultural transmission through teaching promotes cumulative cultural evolution.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Innovation across 13 ungulate species: problem solvers are less integrated in the social group and less neophobic.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Innovative problem-solving in a small, wild canid.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Compassion-A key to innovation: What promotes and what prevents innovation in organizations?Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Insights into the evolutionary history of the most skilled tool-handling platyrrhini monkey: Sapajus libidinosus from the Serra da Capivara National Park.Genetics and molecular biology · 2023Article
- Behavior of snow monkeys hunting fish to survive winter.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Neophobia and innovation in Critically Endangered Bali myna,Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Links between personality traits and problem-solving performance in zebra finches (Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Innovative problem-solving in a threatened gull species, the Olrog's Gull (Larus atlanticus).Animal cognition · 2022Article
- Animal Creativity as a Function of Behavioral Innovation and Behavior Flexibility in Problem-solving Situations.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2022Article
- Raising the level: orangutans solve the floating peanut task without visual feedback.Primates; journal of primatology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This theme issue explores how and why behavioural innovation occurs, and the consequences of innovation for individuals, groups and populations. A vast literature on human innovation exists, from the development of problem-solving in children, to the evolution of technology, to the cultural systems supporting innovation. A more recent development is a growing literature on animal innovation, which has demonstrated links between innovation and personality traits, cognitive traits, neural measures, changing conditions, and the current state of the social and physical environment. Here, we introduce these fields, define key terms and discuss the potential for fruitful exchange between the diverse fields researching innovation. Comparisons of innovation between human and non-human animals provide opportunities, but also pitfalls. We also summarize some key findings specifying the circumstances in which innovation occurs, discussing factors such as the intrinsic nature of innovative individuals and the environmental and socio-ecological conditions that promote innovation, such as necessity, opportunity and free resources. We also highlight key controversies, including the relationship between innovation and intelligence, and the notion of innovativeness as an individual-level trait. Finally, we discuss current research methods and suggest some novel approaches that could fruitfully be deployed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.