L10 - Communication

Question 1

Why do animals communicate?

Answer 1

Long term - survive and reproduce
Short term - alarms, food, mating

Question 2

What is the honeybee dance?

Answer 2

Discovered by Karl van Frisch
Round dance - food source less than 100m, alternate directions for 30 seconds
Waggle dance - food source further than 100m, distance indicated by length of dance, bearing indicated by angle of waggle

Question 3

What is the evidence for the honeybee dance?

Answer 3

Michelsen 1992 used a mechanical bee
Riley 2005 used transponders to measure flight paths

Question 4

What is an alarm call?

Answer 4

Vervet monkeys use these
21 distinct messages about predators and what kind of predators so they knew how to react

Question 5

What is the definition of language?

Answer 5

Arbitrariness of units - words randomly represent an event
Semanticity - meaning
Displacement - communicate about events distance in time or space
Productivity - structured according to rules but can be used flexibly

Question 6

Can apes learn the human language?

Answer 6

Gardner and Gardner 1969
Taught apes 132 ASL signs after 5 years
Could not produce sentences

Question 7

What is the evidence for dolphins being able to understand sentences?

Answer 7

used semantically revisable sentences - hoop fetch pipe
Could understand this but not generate own sentences