Communication and language

Question 1

what is communication?

Answer 1

• the passing of a signal that has evolved for a specific purpose
• Verbal and written communication – both the reader and writer have learned how to communicate in that specific way
• Foragers can also leave chemicals on the ground to communicate to other ants
• Cues are another form of communication
• ex: Zebra prints show the lions where they are, but neither species evolved to learn that

Question 2

why is communication hard to study

Answer 2

• don’t necessarily know if they are even communicating
• don’t know when and where to look to find it

Question 3

what are some different types of communication channels

Answer 3

• animals can use different sensory modalities
• water striders can communicate using the surface tension of the water they’re on

Question 4

how do bees use communication for food location

Answer 4

• Used green and orange plastic flowers because they aren’t colors that the bees naturally go towards
• Researchers put dead or model bees on the flowers, while the bees were in the holding pen
• They cleaned off the flowers to remove olefactoy senses and removed bees
• Bees went to the flowers that they saw the model or dead bees on

Question 5

functional relevance

Answer 5

• receivers behave differently given the length of call
• tells you how careful to be

Question 6

describe the communication behavior in vervet monkeys

Answer 6

• they produce different calls for different animals
• hide in different places depending on the call

Question 7

cross species communication

Answer 7

• If the call doesn’t lead to a predator, the vervets will stop responding
• Not just habituation of fear, it is specific to the type of predator they have habituated to

Question 8

what is the value of inter-sexual communication

Answer 8

• helps in species recognition
• sometimes necessary for them to mate iwth the right species

Question 9

sexual selection

Answer 9

Question 10

intra-sexual competition

Answer 10

• lions fight by roaring
• roaring is an indicator of strength and an honest quality for that individual
• they can roar instead of fight so that they have a winner without them getting hurt
• better for their population as a whole

Question 11

what are the two styles of inter-sexual communication for mate choice

Answer 11

• handicap principle
• physical contraints

Question 12

what is the handicap principle

Answer 12

• the individual must be in elite condition to display that trait
• Ex: peacocks must be good at foraging and hygiene to maintain their tail, which would otherwise be a handicap

Question 13

what are physical constrains in inter-sexual communication

Answer 13

• there is a direct correlation between the arbitrary signal and the actual strength
• ex: pitch of call related to size of vocal cords and size of animal

Question 14

peacock’s tail in mating communication

Answer 14

Question 15

what honest signal do birds display

Answer 15

• males have larger outermost tail feathers
• males with longer tails mate more
  
  • mate with females who provide more care

Question 16

describe the communication between crickets

Answer 16

• Crickets have a specific song for each species – attract males of their own species (specific frequency)
• Crickets have ears on their legs
• Spiracles and tympanum allow airflow for the ear to vibrate
• Distance from spiracle to tympanum is exactly half the wavelength of the soundwaves they are trying to detect
  
  • Peak on outside and trough on inside gives maximum detection
  • not good information but maximum output

Question 17

describe simple communication in bees

Answer 17

• Insects have dedicated channels to promote response to specific odors
• If you get stung by a bee, others arrive quickly because the odor drives others to the site of danger
• Focus on simplicity of systems - don’t need to know specific examples

Question 18

Human language

Answer 18

• Most animals are just semantic
• Chomsky said that language is human and no animal can communicate like humans
  “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” – syntax is correct even though the sentence is nonsense
  
  • Chomsky says it proves we have innate rules
• Reading and writing isn’t a natural behavior but spoken and sign language is

Question 19

what is syntax

Answer 19

• you can put the same words in different orders to generate new meaning

Question 20

what are the cognitive aspects of language?

Answer 20

• ability to learn lots of words (good memory)
• ability to plan and organize thoughts
• voal imitation

Question 20

what are the two aspects of language

Answer 20

• cognitive
• physiological

Question 21

what are the physiological aspects of language?

Answer 21

• ability to produce sounds
• ability to control breathing

Question 22

what is the necessary neural architecture for human language

Answer 22

• some functions of the brain can develop as a proportion of the brain
  
  • ex: prefrontal cortex

Question 23

what the Broca’s area

Answer 23

• the part of the brain needed for the production of speech
• other animal’s broca’s area contain mirror neurons
  
  • they fire when you produce an action or when you see another individual producing an action

Question 24

what is the necessary physiology for human language

Answer 24

- for control intonation, air pressure to trachea must be constant regardless of how full lungs are - uses thorax and abdomen - thoracic vertebral canal is larger in modern animals and neanderthals than primates and early hominids - hypoglossal nerve canal is enlarged for control of complex tongue articulation - descended larynx

Question 25

can chimps learn language?

Answer 25

- Physiology may be the only thing preventing many animals from language - Substitute verbal language for sign language - Don’t fully know if they animals know the mechanisms of putting words together - Evidence of lana learning language don’t know if she knows the language or just that “-please machine give” would result in what she wanted - Second generation of lana project showed that the chimp couln’t distinguish order (man bite dog vs dog bite man)

Question 26

alex the parrot

Answer 26