Language Thought and Communication

Question 1

what are the main reasons for communication?

Answer 1

survival
reproduction
food
territory

Question 2

elaborate on the reason of communication - survival

Answer 2

Alarm others to warn of predators. use signals to call their young ones who have wondered off. use threat signals to warn others to back off. signals help survive/protect others

Question 3

elaborate on the reason of communication - reproduction

Answer 3

display of colour/movement used by species to attract mates for reproduction. helps pass on genes and survival of species

Question 4

elaborate on the reason of communication - food

Answer 4

animals communicate to indicate food location/ask for food. e.g. bees use dance movements to show the location of food, ants use pheromone trails to show where food is.

Question 5

elaborate on the reason of communication - territory

Answer 5

use signals to show dominance and protect territory from competing animals from their own species or others. E.g. rhesus monkey uses eye-contact to show dominance and protect territory.

Question 6

what is the aim of Von Frisch’s study of communication in animals?

Answer 6

to investigate how bees communicate the location of food sources

Question 7

outline Von Frisch’s method :

Answer 7

• containers with sugar water placed at different places around glass hive of bees, their behavior is observed
• when bees visited container, researcher marked them with different colours dyes to identify and observe them when they returned to the hive
• researchers observed and recorded movement of the bees upon their arrival.

Question 8

what did Von Frisch find?

Answer 8

• bees made different movements based on how far the food source was from the hive
• when within 100m of the hive, bees did a round dance turning in circles from right to left
• when further away, bees did a waggle dance - moved abdomen side to side in straight line, turned in a circle on the left then on right
• number of turns in waggle dance showed how far food is
• the straight line of the waggle dance showed the direction of food source (in relation the position of the sun)

Question 9

what was Von Frisch’s conclusion?

Answer 9

bees use variety of different movements to communicate the distance and direction of food sources to each other

Question 10

Eval n.o. 1 of Von Frisch’s study:

Answer 10

+ replicable
+ standardized, control procedure can be done again with other bees
+ use glass hive + sugar water containers, observe movements when bees return
+ tests reliability of study

Question 11

Eval n.o. 2 of Von Frisch’s study:

Answer 11

• lacks ecological validity
• experiment conducted in artificial manner using artificial glass hives and sugar containers
• not everyday behavior shown by bees
• inaccurate conclusions
• decreases validity of study

Question 12

Eval n.o. 3 of Von Frisch’s study:

Answer 12

• lacks generalizability
• not generalizable to other species
• while studies bees accurately, we understand little about communication in more complex species like wolves
• provides understanding of single species, fails to give bigger picture of communication in animals altogether.

Question 13

what is verbal communication?

Answer 13

conveying messages with the use of words and sounds

Question 14

what is nonverbal communication?

Answer 14

conveying messages without the use of words or sounds. E.g. eye contact