PSY 2364 Homework assignment #2 Animal Communicationassmann/PSY2364/ancom_lec25.pdf · 1 PSY 2364...

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PSY 2364Animal Communication

Homework assignment #2 Comparison of animal communication and human language

• Due date: Wed. Dec. 4

• List and describe a set of universal properties that are found in language.

(a) To what extent are these properties unique to language? (b) To what extent are they also found in animal communication systems? Give examples where appropriate.

• Approximately 2 double-spaced, typed pages

• Submit by via eLearning

Final exam study guide(preliminary version)

Primates

• Kingdom: Animalia

• Phylum: Chordata

• Subphylum: Vertebrata

• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

About 190 species in 3 major groups

(prosimians, monkeys and apes).

Lemurs – Madagascar

Lorises, galagos and their allies – Africa, Asia

Tarsiers (tarsiers, tree shrews) – Philippines, S.E. Asia

Ceboid (New World) monkeys – C. & S. America

Cercopithecoid (Old World) monkeys – guenons, mangabeys, macaques, baboons, langurs, etc.

Lesser Apes (Hylobatidae) – gibbons and siamangsGreat Apes (Pongidae) – chimpanzees, bonobos,

gorillas, orangutans

Humans (Hominidae)

Order: Primates

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Primates – physical traits

• Features shared with other mammals– e.g., giving birth to live young, fed on milk

• Features that define primates as unique– tendency toward erect posture

– prehensile (grasping) limbs

– 5 digits on hands and feet

– opposable thumb; fingernails rather than claws

– long gestation period, delayed maturation, long lifespan

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Distribution

Living Fossil only

Most primates live in the tropics or semi-tropical areas

Primate life styles

• Most primates are arboreal (forest, jungle).

• Some old world monkeys (e.g. olive baboons) are terrestrial, i.e. adapted to living and foraging on the ground.

• Some apes (gorillas, chimpanzees) spend a lot of time on the ground.

• No primates are exclusively terrestrial.

Primates – diet

• Most primates are omnivorous and eat a combination of fruits, seeds, leaves, and insects

• Some species kill and eat small mammals

• Some eat mainly leaves

Primates – sensory systems

• Binocular vision: eyes positioned in the front of the face provides capacity for depth perception and stereoscopic vision.

• Color vision: Diurnal primates see in color; nocturnal primates lack color vision.

• Acute hearing• Reduced reliance on olfaction• Expanded brain size (cerebral hemispheres)

Primate communication systems

• Primate communication is multimodal(vocalizations, facial expressions, gestures, postures, tactile contact signals, olfactory signals).

• Primate communication takes place within an extended context, not in isolation– same sound may appear in different situations– context helps to determine meaning (response)

Marler (1965)

• Multimodal signals

• Long-term social contacts

• Short-range signals– calls, visual gestures and postures, contact

• Long-distance signals– usually unimodal, because of signal degradation

– specialized structures for long-distance vocalization (throat pouches used for long calls by howler monkeys and siamangs)

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Marler (1965)

• Discrete versus graded signals – many primate signals are graded; variations in meaning are correlated with small changes in behavioral pattern rather than discrete and different behaviors.

• Graded signals are well suited for conveying messages along a continuous scale (e.g. degree of confidence or aggression level).

• Discrete signals are well suited for delivering a single message (e.g. vervet monkey alarm calls)

Variety of message states

• Submissiveness

• Aggression

• Anxiety

• Fear

• Mating and courtship signals

• Parent-infant interactions

Variety of message states

• Signals to coordinate group movements, dispersal– increase distance (territorial exclusion)

– maintain distance (constant spacing of adjacent troops)

– reduce distance (bring animals together)

• Environmental information – So far, restricted to alarm calls for different types of

predator

Culture in animals?

• What is culture?– A uniquely human trait mediated by language?

– A process of inter-generational transmission of patterns of behavior via social learning?

– Geographically distinct patterns of variation• Sweet potato washing by Japanese macaques

• Song dialects in birds

• Tool use by chimpanzees

Culture in chimpanzees?

• Whiten, Goodall, McGrew, Nishida, Reynolds, Sugiyama, Tutin, Wrangham and Boesch (1999). Culture in chimpanzees. Science 399: 682-685.

• Field studies from 7 long-term studies revealed patterns of

variation far more extensive than previously recorded for

any animal species except humans.

• 39 different behavior patterns including tool usage, grooming and courtship behaviors consistent with the idea of cultural transmission.

ChimpanzeesPan troglodytes

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Forms of tool use by chimpanzeesScience 399: 682-685

Cultural Transmission

• Transfer and acquisition of information via social learning and teaching

• Learned patterns are passed on from one individual to another

• Cultural transmission involves a “model” and an “observer” who learns a specific behavior from the model

Learning and cultural transmission

• Cultural transmission of behavior: transfer of information from individual to individual via social learning or teaching (within and across generations)

• Social learning – learning how to do something by watching others

Learning and cultural transmission

• Potato washing in Japanese macaques

Social learning

• Social learning: the process of learning by watching others– Local enhancement: not learning from others

directly, but as a result of being attracted to the location by the actions of others.

– Social facilitation: similar to local enhancement, but results simply from the presence of others at the scene.

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Social learning

• Imitation

• Copying

• Teaching

Modes of transmission

• Vertical transmission

• Oblique transmission

• Horizontal transmission


• Vertical transmission: information is passed from parent to offspring – Some songbirds learn the species-specific song

by listening to their father sing

– “Sponging” behavior in dolphins: learned behavior in female bottlenose dolphins, who break off a piece of marine sponge to protect their mouths when probing the sea floor for fish prey


• Horizontal transmission: information is transmitted from peer to peer– Guppies form foraging groups with peers of

similar age and size

– Laland &Williams (1998) trained 2 groups of guppies. One group trained to follow a short path to a food source, the other a long path. When new members were added to each group, they adopted the learned strategy of the group.


• Oblique transmission: information is transmitted across generations but not from parent to offspring– Common in species with no parental care

– Predator recognition in blackbirds

– Snake aversion in rhesus monkeys

Snake aversion in monkeys

• Lab-raised monkeys who have never seen a snake do not respond in the same way as wild-raised primates who have seen them.

• Observing an adult model respond to snakes with fear gestures and actions, a juvenile rhesus monkey adopts the same gestures.

• This happened even when the model was not related to the juvenile (oblique transmission)

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Snake aversion in monkeys

• In one condition juveniles observed an adult monkey who had been conditioned to show a fear response in the presence of a neutral object (flowers). But in this situation the juvenile did not display fear when exposed to flowers, suggesting an interaction of oblique transmission with an innate predisposition to fear snakes.

Local enhancement

• Not all interactions between individuals involve cultural transmission.– Local enhancement describes situations where

one individual is attracted to an area because of the actions of another individual (or group of individuals) that are already there. Learning is not the result of observing another’s behavior.

– Example: Cliff Swallows find good foraging areas by looking for crowds of feeding swallows.

Social facilitation

• Not all interactions between individuals involve cultural transmission– Social facilitation describes situations where

the mere presence of an individual in an area facilitates learning on the part of another animal.

– Example: increased group size leads to increased foraging rates in Starlings.

Foraging behavior

• Experiments on the use of a novel food source by Capuchin monkeys (Cebus paella). The novel food source was sampled by a lone monkey only when it was in view of other monkeys eating a different type of food; not when the other monkeys were present but not eating anything (supports local enhancement, not social facilitation).

Lemurs – Madagascar

Lorises, galagos and their allies – Africa, Asia

Tarsiers (tarsiers, tree shrews) – Philippines, S.E. Asia

Ceboid (New World) monkeys – C. & S. America

Cercopithecoid (Old World) monkeys – guenons, mangabeys, macaques, baboons, langurs, etc.

Lesser Apes (Hylobatidae) – gibbons and siamangsGreat Apes (Pongidae) – chimpanzees, bonobos,

gorillas, orangutans

Humans (Hominidae)

Order: Primates

Pro

sim

ian

s

Prosimians – Aye-aye




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Daubentoniidae

• Genus: Daubentonia

• Species: madagascariensisAye-aye

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141128-these-animals-see-colour-at-night

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Prosimians - Lemurs




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Lemuridae

• Genus: Varecia

• Species: variegataRuffed black-and-white lemur

Prosimians - Lemurs• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Lemuridae

• Genus: Varecia

• Species: rubraRed-ruffed lemur

Prosimians - Lemurs• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Indridae

• Genus: Propithecus

• Species: tattersalliGolden-crowned sifaka

Prosimians - Galagos• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Galagonidae

• Genus: Galago

• Species: moholiLesser Bushbaby

Prosimians - Lorises• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Lorisidae

• Genus: Nycticebus

• Species: coucang

Slow Loris

Prosimians - Tarsiers• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Tarsiidae

• Genus: Tarsius

• Species: spectrum

Spectral Tarsier

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Prosimians - Tarsiers• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Tarsiidae

• Genus: Tarsius

• Species: syrichta

Philippine Tarsier

Marmosets and Tamarins• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Callitrichidae

• Genus: Leontopithecus

• Species: rosaliaGolden Lion Tamarin




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Saguinus

• Species: imperator

Emperor Tamarin




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Saguinus

• Species: oedipus

Cotton-top Tamarin

New World monkeys• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Alouatta

• Species: carayaBlack-and-gold howler monkey




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Aotus

• Species: trivirgatusDouroucouli (owl monkey)

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• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Cebus

• Species: albifronsWhite-fronted capuchin




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Cebus

• Species: apella Tufted capuchin




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Cacajao

• Species: calvus

Red-faced uakari




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cebidae

• Genus: Pithecia

• Species: irrorata Gray’s bald-faced saki

Old World monkeys• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Cercopithecidae

• Genus: Cercopithecus

• Species: lhouesti L’Houest or mountain monkey




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Chlorocebus

• Species: aethiopsVervet monkey

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• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Macaca

• Species: fascicularis

Crab-eating macaque




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Mandrillus

• Species: sphinx

Mandrill




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Colobus

• Species: guereza

Black-and-white colobus monkey (Guereza)




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Pygathrix

• Species: roxellana Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey

Lesser apes• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Hylobatidae

• Genus: Hylobates

• Species: lar White-handed gibbon

Lesser apes• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Hylobatidae

• Genus: Hylobates

• Species: syndactylusSiamang

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Great apes• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Pongidae

• Genus: Pan

• Species: troglodytes Chimpanzee




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Pan

• Species: paniscusBonobo




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Gorilla

• Species: gorilla Gorilla




• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates


• Genus: Pongo

• Species: pygmaeus

Orangutan

Hominids• Kingdom: Animalia



• Class: Mammalia

• Order: Primates

• Family: Hominidae

• Genus: Homo

• Species: sapiens

Human

PSY 2364 Homework assignment #2 Animal Communicationassmann/PSY2364/ancom_lec25.pdf · 1 PSY 2364...

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