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Author Seyfarth, R.M.; Cheney, D.L.
Title Signalers and receivers in animal communication Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Annual review of psychology Abbreviated Journal Annu Rev Psychol
Volume 54 Issue Pages 145-173
Keywords Affect; *Animal Communication; Animals; Arousal; Auditory Perception; Motivation; *Social Behavior; Social Environment; Species Specificity; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract In animal communication natural selection favors callers who vocalize to affect the behavior of listeners and listeners who acquire information from vocalizations, using this information to represent their environment. The acquisition of information in the wild is similar to the learning that occurs in laboratory conditioning experiments. It also has some parallels with language. The dichotomous view that animal signals must be either referential or emotional is false, because they can easily be both: The mechanisms that cause a signaler to vocalize do not limit a listener's ability to extract information from the call. The inability of most animals to recognize the mental states of others distinguishes animal communication most clearly from human language. Whereas signalers may vocalize to change a listener's behavior, they do not call to inform others. Listeners acquire information from signalers who do not, in the human sense, intend to provide it.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0066-4308 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:12359915 Approved no
Call Number (up) refbase @ user @ Serial 690
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Author Rendall, D.; Cheney, D.L.; Seyfarth, R.M.
Title Proximate factors mediating “contact” calls in adult female baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) and their infants Type Journal Article
Year 2000 Publication Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 114 Issue 1 Pages 36-46
Keywords Animals; Animals, Wild; Botswana; Female; *Maternal Behavior; Motivation; Orientation; Papio/*psychology; Social Environment; Sound Spectrography; *Vocalization, Animal
Abstract “Contact” calls are widespread in social mammals and birds, but the proximate factors that motivate call production and mediate their contact function remain poorly specified. Field study of chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) revealed that contact barks in adult females were motivated by separation both from the group at large and from their dependent infants. A variety of social and ecological factors affect the probability of separation from either one or both. Results of simultaneous observations and a playback experiment indicate that the contact function of calling between mothers and infants was mediated by occasional maternal retrieval rather than coordinated call exchange. Mothers recognized the contact barks of their own infants and often were strongly motivated to locate them. However, mothers did not produce contact barks in reply unless they themselves were at risk of becoming separated from the group.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, USA. d.rendall@uleth.ca
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:10739310 Approved no
Call Number (up) refbase @ user @ Serial 695
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Author Horowitz, A.C.
Title Do humans ape? Or do apes human? Imitation and intention in humans (Homo sapiens) and other animals Type Journal Article
Year 2003 Publication Journal of comparative psychology Abbreviated Journal J Comp Psychol
Volume 117 Issue 3 Pages 325-336
Keywords Adolescent; Adult; Animals; *Appetitive Behavior; Attention; Child, Preschool; Concept Formation; Female; Humans; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Motivation; Pan troglodytes/*psychology; *Problem Solving; *Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Species Specificity
Abstract A. Whiten, D. M. Custance, J.-C. Gomez, P. Teixidor, and K. A. Bard (1996) tested chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) and human children's (Homo sapiens) skills at imitation with a 2-action test on an “artificial fruit.” Chimpanzees imitated to a restricted degree; children were more thoroughly imitative. Such results prompted some to assert that the difference in imitation indicates a difference in the subjects' understanding of the intentions of the demonstrator (M. Tomasello, 1996). In this experiment, 37 adult human subjects were tested with the artificial fruit. Far from being perfect imitators, the adults were less imitative than the children. These results cast doubt on the inference from imitative performance to an ability to understand others' intentions. The results also demonstrate how any test of imitation requires a control group and attention to the level of behavioral analysis.
Address Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA. ahorowitz@crl.ucsd.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Washington, D.C. : 1983 Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:14498809 Approved yes
Call Number (up) refbase @ user @ Serial 736
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Author Devenport, J.A.; Patterson, M.R.; Devenport, L.D.
Title Dynamic averaging and foraging decisions in horses (Equus callabus) Type Journal Article
Year 2005 Publication Journal of Comparative psychology Abbreviated Journal J. Comp. Psychol.
Volume 119 Issue 3 Pages 352-358
Keywords Animals; *Decision Making; *Feeding Behavior; Female; Horses/*psychology; Male; *Memory, Short-Term; Motivation; Orientation; *Social Environment
Abstract The variability of most environments taxes foraging decisions by increasing the uncertainty of the information available. One solution to the problem is to use dynamic averaging, as do some granivores and carnivores. Arguably, the same strategy could be useful for grazing herbivores, even though their food renews and is more homogeneously distributed. Horses (Equus callabus) were given choices between variable patches after short or long delays. When patch information was current, horses returned to the patch that was recently best, whereas those without current information matched choices to the long-term average values of the patches. These results demonstrate that a grazing species uses dynamic averaging and indicate that, like granivores and carnivores, they can use temporal weighting to optimize foraging decisions.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Central Oklahoma, 73034, USA. jdevenport@ucok.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0735-7036 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16131264 Approved no
Call Number (up) refbase @ user @ Serial 752
Permanent link to this record