Lew-Levy and Amir provide a strong rationale for the important role children and peer culture play in cultural adaptation. We agree that peer interaction plays a pivotal role in acquiring, transmitting, maintaining, and innovating culture. However, absent from this target article is how peer-to-peer interactive experiences can inspire learning of new skills and accelerate the development of particular cognitive capacities fundamental to peer culture. Thus, we would like the authors to consider the bidirectionality of the role cognitive development plays in these cultural processes and how these social interactions shape cognition. We further note the importance of paying equal attention to Indigenous and urban observations to avoid a biased representation of peer culture.

Firstly, the paper would benefit from some acknowledgment that peer interactions provide unique social learning opportunities that a child does not otherwise experience in adult–child interactions. These opportunities may foster further development of key cognitive skills vital for acquiring and creating culture. For example, the authors describe a study by McGuigan et al. (Reference McGuigan, Burdett, Burgess, Dean, Lucas, Vale and Whiten2017) where 3- to 4-year-olds worked together and collectively innovated and transmitted increasingly complex tools to solve a novel puzzle box. However, they missed a crucial point: the skills and insights gained from collaborative social learning are what enabled these preschoolers to achieve what 3- to 4-year-olds could not do on their own in an asocial condition or in a typical dyadic, pedagogical interaction with an adult. Prior work has shown that children younger than 8 years are not able to create the tools required to solve these tasks on their own, largely in part to immature cognitive skills (Beck et al., Reference Beck, Apperly, Chappell, Guthrie and Cutting2011; Cutting, Apperly, & Beck, Reference Cutting, Apperly and Beck2011; Rawlings, Reference Rawlings2022). Thus, peer-to-peer interaction may shape preschooler’s learning in unique ways.

Secondly, we emphasize that social cognitive skills are needed for social interaction, and social interaction facilitates the development of these skills. Theory of mind is one example of an important cognitive skill where development is enhanced with social experiences and, in turn, eases social interactions where children attempt to understand intention and perspective of others (Lane & Bowman, Reference Lane and Bowman2021). Indeed, social interest and opportunities of observation of others advance the development of theory of mind (e.g., Brink, Lane, & Wellman, Reference Brink, Lane and Wellman2015; Moore, Bosacki, & Macgillivray, Reference Moore, Bosacki and Macgillivray2011), especially compared to children who are socially anxious and disengage from social situations (e.g., Lane et al., Reference Lane, Wellman, Olson, Miller, Wang and Tardif2013).

Additionally, Lew-Levy and Amir include an example of pretend play in San children (section 5.6) as an activity that enables the preservation of traditional knowledge, but details about the underlying mechanisms and functions seem lacking. Joint pretend play is a rich context where social cognitive skills are utilized amongst peers to explore and experiment with novel ideas inspired by their daily encounters, forming the foundations for cultural adaptations (Chylińska & Gut, Reference Chylińska and Gut2020). It allows children to re-enact different plausible social scenarios and solutions for problems, enhancing their evaluation and generation of cultural knowledge (Harris, Reference Harris2021; Nielsen Reference Nielsen2012), as well as informing the kinds of novel knowledge they want to acquire through other future interactions (Harris, Reference Harris2024).

Notably, some children also spend a substantial amount of time with their siblings. In some cultures, they even tend to interact more with siblings and young relatives than with friends outside of an extended family circle (e.g., Yucatec Mayan, see Gaskins, Reference Gaskins, Chen, French and Schneider2006). It is, thus, logical to view sibling interaction as a form of peer interaction. Sibling interaction has been shown to benefit a child with more than one sibling with a richer understanding of false belief compared to children who only have one sibling (Perner, Ruffman, & Leekam, Reference Perner, Ruffman and Leekam1994). In the context of knowledge transmission and exchange, (Barr & Hayne, Reference Barr and Hayne2003) reported how older siblings facilitated replication of new behaviors in young children through playful sibling interactions. Older siblings may serve as cultural experts or credible authority figures, though the extent to which the bond between siblings is different from the connection between friends requires further investigation.

Lastly, we note that this target article concentrates primarily on small-scale and Indigenous communities, and this bias may risk over-generalization of Indigenous peer interaction contexts to urban settings. According to a recent observation of Yucatec Maya and US toddlers (Padilla-Iglesias et al, Reference Padilla-Iglesias, Basargekar, Woodward and Shneidman2024), focusing on instances when toddlers were accompanied by other children, an adult was present almost all of the time in the US sample, whereas Maya toddlers were left spending time with peers/siblings without an adult half of the time. This is just one example of how peer interaction context may differ across cultures. Alternatively, it may provide a false impression that peer culture is not as prevalent in urban settings. Urban peer interactions at kindergartens/schools, playgrounds, hobby classes, or playdates are also understudied and worth equal attention. For example, Flynn and Whiten (Reference Flynn and Whiten2012) revealed intriguing social learning patterns when they gave British children an open diffusion task. They found that children paid attention to and also copied older children and those who are perceived as more dominant and popular. Comparing these model-based biases across Indigenous and urban samples would help illuminate motivations for imitation and spread of culture in peer cultures, including whether there are culture-specific social learning biases.

In general, we think the proposed framework of children’s contributions to cultural evolution (Figure 2, target article) could improve by considering children’s cognitive development: how peer interaction can expand knowledge, reinforce culture and norms, and accelerate cognition by providing opportunities to strengthen social cognition beyond what a single child could normally acquire or achieve on his or her own. Children’s cultural experiences and cognitive development are closely related (Bohn et al., Reference Bohn, Fong and Pope-Caldwell2024). Taking into account the crucial roles of peer-to-peer social learning, peer observation for theory of mind development, joint pretend play, and sibling interactions, across Indigenous and urban settings, will contribute to a more holistic view of children’s contribution to cultural adaptation.