Tooling and Construction: From Nut-Cracking and Stone-Tool Making to Bird Nests and Language

•Offers a new framework for comparative biology and psychology studies that builds on neuroethological studies of action-oriented perception in relation to manual skills•Builds on the theory of “tooling” of Fragaszy and Mangalam (2018).•Detailed analysis of how birds construct their nests highlights key questions for analyzing construction.•Extends Gibson's ecological psychology of affordances to explores their possible titration against cognitive processes.•Contrasts the “how” of action details and the “what” of motor programs•Introduces the notation P }A}E to indicate that, when precondition P is satisfied, action A is likely to have effect E on the external world. The word “likely” indicates that effect E may not be achieved and that corrective action or replanning may be required.•Enriches this with conceptual analysis of several brain modeling efforts including opportunistic scheduling.•Extends action models to a framework for analysis of construction.•Assesses and critiques the notion of (multi-modal) “image” in the assemblage of actions in complex behaviors.•Contrasts percussive tooling by monkeys with the subtractive construction of Oldowan and Acheulean traditions of stone tool making.•Contrasts these with the additive construction of bird nests and hafted tools.•Briefly discusses birdsong before discussing the emergence of language.•Compares two hypotheses linking manual action via pantomime to communication as a foundation for the emergence of language: the technological pedagogy hypothesis and the mirror system hypothesis.•Argues that language, having evolved from manual skills, provides an open-ended means for devising innovations in tool use and construction.