Abstract
Effectively choosing between exploring alternative strategies versus exploiting familiar ones is a keyaspect of adaptive behavior. Previous research suggests that exploration in early life gives way tomore targeted exploitation with age. Further, group composition can shape one’s propensity forexploration and exploitation. Yet, few studies have investigated how individual cognitivedevelopment and collective intelligence articulate to help resolve the explore-exploit dilemma in real-world contexts. Here, we investigated spatial behavior in BaYaka hunter-gatherer children and adultsfrom the Republic of the Congo. We used 337 foraging GPS tracks collected across 42 days toinvestigate how individual age and group composition (child-only, mixed-age, adult-only) predictedsix spatial behaviors during real-world foraging bouts. We found that children's foraging paths weremore sinuous—that is, most exploratory—when travelling with peers than with adults. In contrast,mixed-age groups travelled further and covered more unique ground than child-only groups. Wesuggest that this may be indicative of distinct learning goals across foraging social contexts. Wefurther propose that child-only exploration alongside more adult-like exploitation may operate ascomplementary components of an age-graded division of cognitive labor, with discoveries made bychildren during exploratory foraging informing adults' subsequent resource exploitation.