EssayWhat do animal signals mean?
Section snippets
The role of information in communication theory
The concept of information features prominently in most sciences, but how it is invoked and applied as an explanatory construct varies greatly. For example, Dall et al. (2005, page 192) recently observed that ‘evolutionary and behavioural ecologists do not adopt consistent, rigorous concepts of information… [instead] informal use of the term information is the norm’. Dall et al. go on to consider how such traditionally loose and informal concepts of information are now inadequate for many of
Primate communication and the metaphor of language
Studies of primate communication are often couched in the metaphor of language where meaning is the central explanatory construct and arises from the common representational states of speakers and listeners. This representational parity in language occurs when the speaker and the listener have similar representational processes that ensure corresponding coding and decoding of signal meaning. The details of signal design are not critical. Indeed the design, or form, of most words is thought to
Sexual selection and acoustic communication
These same themes of information versus influence emerge in a completely different domain, namely sexual selection and communication. Much of this work is conducted with taxa (e.g. birds, frogs, fish, insects) for which the language metaphor has far less intrinsic appeal. Nevertheless, similar informational constructs have been central in this research area as well (Zahavi and Zahavi, 1997, Bradbury and Vehrencamp, 2000). Here, the emphasis is on the information males provide to females in
Concluding remarks
We conclude by returning to the overarching questions that framed this essay. ‘What do animal signals mean?’ ‘What information do they convey?’ These are the common and core questions that structure a great many research programmes in animal communication, if sometimes only implicitly. Our argument is that, explicit or otherwise, the questions are ill-posed. They reflect a natural but loose casting of animal communication systems in linguistic or informational terms. Although the loosely
Acknowledgments
For generous grant support over the years, we thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the NIH and the NSF of the United States. We are grateful to several referees for their valuable comments on the manuscript.
References (91)
- et al.
The alarm-calling system of adult male putty-nosed monkeys, Cercopithecus nictitans martini
Animal Behaviour
(2006) Signalling systems for individual recognition: an information theory approach
Animal Behaviour
(1989)- et al.
Economic models of animal communication
Animal Behaviour
(2000) - et al.
Food calling in ravens: are yells referential signals?
Animal Behaviour
(2001) - et al.
Attending to behaviour versus attending to knowledge: examining monkeys' attribution of mental states
Animal Behaviour
(1990) - et al.
The function and mechanisms underlying baboon ‘contact’ barks
Animal Behaviour
(1996) The role of vocal self-stimulation in female responses to males: implications for state-reading
Hormones and Behavior
(2008)- et al.
Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
(2005) - et al.
Habituation in songbirds
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
(2009) - et al.
Sensory ecology, receiver biases and sexual selection
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
(1998)
Chicken food calls are functionally referential
Animal Behaviour
Red squirrels produce predator-class specific alarm calls
Animal Behaviour
Receiver psychology and the evolution of animal signals
Animal Behaviour
Functional referents and acoustic similarity: field playback experiments with rhesus monkeys
Animal Behaviour
Suricate alarm calls signal predator class and urgency
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Primate vocalization: affective or symbolic?
How monkeys feel about the world: a review of ‘How Monkeys See the World’
Language and Communication
Concordant preferences as a precondition for affective but not for symbolic communication (or how to do experimental anthropology)
Cognition
On the origins of language
Vocal development in vervet monkeys
Animal Behaviour
Functionally referential communication in a chimpanzee
Current Biology
Fundamental frequency and tracheal pressure during three types of vocalizations elicited from anesthetized dogs
Journal of Voice
Current research in amphibians: studies integrating endocrinology, behavior, and neurobiology
Hormones and Behavior
Referential labelling in wild Diana monkeys
Animal Behaviour
A syntactic rule in forest monkey communication
Animal Behaviour
Referential signalling in non-human primates: cognitive precursors and limitations for the evolution of language
Advances in the Study of Behavior
Language evolution: semantic combinations in primate calls
Nature
Incidental emissions, fortuitous effects, and the origin of communication
Principles of Animal Communication
Function and intention in the calls of non-human primates
Proceedings of the British Academy
Why animals don't have language
Constraints and preadaptations in the earliest stages of language evolution
Linguistic Review
Reciprocal talk between the auditory thalamus and hypothalamus: an antidromic study
NeuroReport
The syntax and meaning of wild gibbon songs
PLoS One
Sensory trade-offs predict signal divergence in surfperch
Evolution
Conspicuousness and diversity in animal signals
Animal signals: information or manipulation
Food-associated calls of tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella nigritus) are functionally referential signals
Behaviour
Referential signals
Representational signaling in birds
Biology Letters
On the meaning of alarm calls: functional reference in an avian vocal system
Animal Behaviour
Kin selection and ‘mother tongues’: a neglected component in language evolution
The evolution of urgency-based and functionally referential alarm calls in ground-dwelling species
American Naturalist
Auditory tunings and frequency preferences in anurans
The analysis of animal communication
Cited by (291)
Information Ecology: an integrative framework for studying animal behavior
2023, Trends in Ecology and EvolutionNonlinear dynamics of a stage-structured interacting population model with honest signals and cues
2023, Chaos, Solitons and FractalsSex differences in costly signaling in rural Western China
2023, Evolution and Human BehaviorCosts, constraints and sexual trait elaboration
2022, Animal Behaviour
- 1
M. J. Owren is at the Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia 30302-5010, U.S.A.
- 2
M. J. Ryan is at the Section of Integrative Biology, 1 University Station, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, U.S.A.