Communication Flashcards
Why should we study animal communication?
It is the fabric of animal social life, window on the minds of animals, mysteries, implications on human communication
What is communication?
The process in which a sender uses a specially evolved signal to modify the behavior of the receiver
What are signals? What are cues?
Signals: Stimuli produced intentionally to influence a receiver
Cues: Stimuli produced without intention of influencing the receiver.
Note: Sender benefits with signals, may not with cues
How should we test if traits are signals?
First isolate one aspect of a trait and manipulate it to be more/less extreme. Second, control for differences between stimulus animals that are unrelated to the trait. Third, control for experimental procedure itself. Ex: Lion experiment with the darker and lighter manes. The stuffed lions allowed experimenters to control other traits of the lions that might influence a response in behavior (size, age, or behavior of lions).
What is unforced honesty?
Sender and receiver have genetic interests that are aligned –> cooperative signaling
Ex: Pilots in a plane both don’t want it to crash ; honeybees doing waggle dance
What is forced honesty?
Sender and receiver have genetics interests that are divergent –> non-cooperative signaling
Ex: Courtship signal of a male northern cardinal… dark red plumage indicates male health… male and female cardinal’s male-choice interests are not aligned.
What are playback experiments?
Allows one to experimentally manipulate the system, make predictions and how individuals should respond and test it in natural conditions
What is eavesdropping?
Frog does a mating call to a female frog, bat hears it and eats male frog
Allometry of alarm calls
Black capped chickadee encodes information about predator size -> smaller predators get more “D” notes. With alarm calls, eavesdropping from other species happens and they benefit. There is a strong overlap of interests.
Signal efficacy - what makes a signal effective?
1) Detectability: how well does it transmit and how well is the signal picked up by receiver’s perceptive abilities
2) Discriminability: how easily are different possible values of the signal differentiated from one another
3) Memorability: how easily can the signal be remembered by receivers depending on the salience of signal features
What is “information?”
Unpredictability or uncertainty in a signaling system
More possibilities = more information
What are index signals? What is an example?
Cases where the intensity of the signal is physically constrained and cannot be bluffed. Male dogs try and cheat this
What are the four types of signals?
Quality signals, strategy signals, group signals, and identity signals
What are quality signals? What is an example?
Display some aspect of condition relative to other individuals
Ex: Male carotenoid based ornament (high information, low discriminability)
What is an example of a strategy signal?
Mallard ducks, males vs. females
