Comp 10 Flashcards
Discuss communicating with emotions
Emotions are deeply rooted. They can involved vocalisataions and facial expressions. Animals have a large and complex communicative repertoire, which can be assess using FACS (facial action units). Animals have large and complex communicative repertoire including form and function, high relevance and explicit communication.
Discuss human communciation with emotions
Human communication systems are particularly complex and effective, and can use emotional behaviours in highly flexible ways, and often with intentions.
Humans have a sophisticated nonverbal communication system and use it often efficiently and effectively. But it is still more rudimentary than linguistics (language).
How do we measure animals levels and functions of communicative behaviours
One way is characterising types of calls, by recording the behaviours and coding them doing inter-coder reliability tests. This can show a behavioural repertoire for nonverbal communication in animals. Non-human primates vocal expressions are limited to specific contexts, which is an important difference to humans. However, this variation is also visble across populations, for example Sumatran and Bornean orangutans sounds different in their dialect long calls (Delago et al., 2010).
Another way is testing for responses, by playback experiments, tests evoking the studied behaviours and examining natural social responses. This can help answer why animals communicate the way they do. For example, singing in gibbons, is either to attract females or in duets to bond and build monogamy.
Discuss comparing communication systems of humans and nonhumans
In order to better understand why humans communicate the way we do, by comparing communication systems.
Human systems include language and non verbal communication. Nonhuman systems include just nonverbal communcation. Some behaviours and abilities of human nonverbal communication are clearly unique. But there are similarities that can be explained by both phylogenetic reconstructions.
Comparing humans and nonhumans communications To study the evolution of language, it is important to examine nonhuman species and compare their analagous communication system to human language. But these are two very different systems.
What did Rendall and Owren (2002) find
They wrote a critical review, that highlighted the relevance of studying the abilities of animals in close link to human language. However, there are methodolical limitations and there is a risk of overinterpreting and anthropomorphizing behaviours.
How did language evolve?
Primates are of special research interest. They have a phylogenetic relationship with humans, and have a complex communication system. They also have the ability to make informed choices based on mental representations.
Referential calls, such as vervet monkey alarm calls are different for different dangers. Apes referential calls, such as chimps responding differently to acoustically distinct food calls. However referential meaning does not need to be involved, even if empirical findings on animal communication suggest it. Rendall and Owren (2002), critically reviewed this by saying how is it said and who said it? Direct effect on recipients attention and affect and indirect effects via cues of social identity. But speech and language bases much on our ability to produce new signals and to modify signals in order to explicitly communicate to present new ideas.
Discuss the flexibility and control communicative behaviours
Tomasello and Zuberbuhler (2002) compared the use of vocal and gestural signals. Vocalisations are demonstrated by all land-living vertabrates. Gestures have only been presented by apes and humans.
Oller and Griebel (2013) studied functional flexibility and the early development and evolution of language. They found human infants flexibly produce vocalisations free from emotions. They also found differences in functional flexibility with respect to vocal phylogeny. For example, evolutionarily old vocalisations such as laughter are more functionally stable).
There seems to be some control of acoustic expressions in nonhuman primates, but only to a limited extent. Hopkins et al. 2007 showed that cpative chimpanzees selectively produced novel calls to get the attention of a human. These novel calls seem to have a specific function.
Some nonhuman primate studies suggest that cals were key behaviours for language to evolve, but the vocal flexibility/control is limited. For example Viki could only say mama, papa, up and cup. Owren et al (1992) found only limited modifications in the calls of two cross-fostered macaque species.
Discuss the controversy around calls being the key behaviour for language evolution
Some researchers claimed for this to be the case, gestures must have played a key role. When comparing bonobo and chimp groups, a study measured the lnik between communication signals and contexts. They found gesture usage varied strongly within and between species, but not the use of expressions.
How do we know if a nonhuman behaviour is intentional?
The animal would need to tell us. Animal signals serve a specific function, where receivers are affected. THe receiver may be affected via a range of processes, ranging from most simplest to complex cognitive ones.
The learning of novel symbols with specific referential meaning can provide us important insights. Language trained apes have the ability to use symbols, even though they do not use them naturally.
But we can never say an ape is using symbols intentionally, even though it may seem that way. As we can never actually be sure they are.
Discuss the relationship between learning culture and evolution
Language emerged from important interactions of individual learning, cultural transmission and evolution. A 3 dynamical system operating on three different timescales, (Kirby, 2007).
