Animal Communication, Part 2 Flashcards
(18 cards)
What alarm calls do vervets make to warn about predators?
Leopard: loud bark
Eagle alarm: cough
Snake: chutter
The alarm calls elicit different behaviors
vervet monkey experiment context
Researchers repeatedly played a recording of the leopard alarm from individual A to other members (while there was no individual A or leopard)
After a while they stooped running into the trees after the kept hearing A’s warning - deemed not a reliable source
Then played the alarm call from individual B and they responded normally
When they heard the alarm call from A but for different predators, they responded normally
What does the vervet study demonstrate?
The response to predator warning calls is not automatic
Were able to individuate the alarm calls and know whether it was from A or B
What other evidence supports that vervet alarm calls are not automatic?
Solitary vervets do not give alarm calls
Not a result of fear. It is meant to communicate to other vervets
More alarms calls around closs kin or offspring
What aspects of language doe vervet alarm calls do and don’t demonstrate?
DO:
* interchangeability: both males and females make the call
* Arbitrariness: calls aren;t iconically related to the animal
* Prevarication: able to fake an alarm call about a predator that is nto present in order to win a fight
* Productivity: in response to human hunters and hunting dogs, they formed a quiet call that warns them to sneak away quietly (a dog alarm)
* Cultural transmission: no wholly innate since not deployed at will, some learnign demonstrated by dog alarm and the fact that young vervets begin by making alarm calls for all birds
* Displacement: sort of - typically performed in the presence of predators but sometimes faked (e.g. fight example)
DON’T:
* Duality of patterning: he calls don’t have internal structure and are not combinable
* Amiguity: The calls are unambiguous and refer to specific predators
Case of Gua: context and results
Chimpanzee raised in human home and treated like an infant
Gua was very different in terms of development
Gua’s motor skills exceeded a child but never learned to speak
Gua could understand 100 words but didn’t produce words
Ultimately unsuccessful
Case of Viki
Viki the chimp raised in human home and actively taught to produce words
By age six could say mama, papa, cup, and up
Poorly articulated - bit of a stretch
Ultimately unsuccessful
What was identified as the problem when teaching primates to speak?
They have a vocal tract that makes speech essentially impossible
-Larynx is much higher than human
-Larynx helps with vocalization and vowel production
-Humans have a permanently lower larynx, for chimps in lowers when they make vocalization
What cases deal with primates and sign langauge?
-Washoe
-Nim Chimsky
Washoe context
Tried teaching ASL using the molding technique; have the object and then take Washoe’s hand and mold them into the sign for the object
Washoe results
Washoe acquired 160 signs and 250 signs by the age of 27
Could apply signs to other objects that were the same but looked differently
E.g. a red ball and a blue ball
Multi Word utterances
Problems with the data of Washoe
- None of the researchers were fluent in ASL so didn’t acquire ASL
- The Gardeners allowed for sloppiness in Washoe’s signs and justified it by saying her hands were not exactly shaped like humans
- In a double blind experiment, Washoe gave signs referring to an object that the observers coding Washoe’s signs couldn’t see
Washoe’s signs corresponded to the object about 60% of the time but hard to interpret because we don’t know the size of the set of the object in the trial - In the 60s much of the structure of ASL was not known
- Incorrect identifications were counted as correct as long as they were the correct category (e.g. correctly categorized as a thing or a color)
- Many of Washoe’s signs involved more than one signs but were systematically cut down by the researchers when trying to interpret
Coded form looks like a plausible answer but much was of experimenters interpretation
So, ultimately a failure
No evidence of linguistic structure but showed that you can teach signs with associated meaning
Case of Nim Chimsky context and outcome
Lived with human family and exposed to ASL signer, but not native
Systematic language training began using hand molding technique
Nim signed a lot - 20,000 multi sign utterance but not unique utterances
Conclusion: Nim never acquired any human language
Patterns of Nim’s signage
In multi word signs there are tendencies but no apparent rules
Many were object-action or action-object (these usages had equal distribution)
Suggests a lack of linguistic structure
Nim did massive repetition not found in human language
What did Terrace find in his research of Nim?
Found that the discourse content of Nim’s utterances directly reflected the teacher’s signing (involved immediately before in the researches use of sign- they were initiated by the questioning)
90% were reactions and related to the here and now
40% were straight repetition from the teacher
Case of Koko
Koko portrayed as “really” learning ASL but there isn’t data to support this claim
Patterson hasn’t provided much actual data
She does a lot of interpretation on her end
Data is likely be over interpreted
Based on these studies, what are primates able to do regarding human language?
Chimps can learn to associate reference with arbitrary signs, can use signs spontaneously, can learn to use signs creativity but they are not able to acquire human language, signed or spoken
What properties did primates demonstrae that were inconsistent with human language?
no grammatical structure like syntax or morphology, 2-3 signs long utterances, inconsistent word order
