Viki was often rewarded with food when she solved tool-using problems. Even though she had learned to use tools in play and by imitation, the motivation of getting food as a reward was also a valuable tool with which to help her learn new skills at early ages.

After a session of problem solving, Viki decided to use her well-practiced skills to solve her own problem. There was a very, VERY tall tree in Viki’s yard, and her parents had wrapped it in electrically charged wire to keep her from climbing the tree. In this clip, a 4 1/2 year old Viki uses boxes provided to her for her official problem-solving activities to demonstrate her skills in an unofficial problem-solving way.