Comparative Animal Behavior, Ethology, and Sociobiology

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Comparative Animal Behavior, Ethology, and
Sociobiology COMMUNICATIONS
Neil GreenbergDepartment of Ecology and
Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of Tennessee
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What is communication?Classical definitions
Any sharing of information Smith, 1984 an
action on the part of one organism (or cell) that
alters the probability pattern of behavior in
another organism (or cell) in a fashion adaptive
to either one or both of the participants
Wilson, 1975 The transmission of a signal from
one animal to another such that the sender
benefits, on average, from the response of the
recipient Slater, 1983
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Possible outcomes of communication

1. Mutual benefit true communication
2. Sender benefits manipulation/deceit
3. Receiver benefits eavesdropping
4. Neither benefits Highly unlikely

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Levels of Communication

1. Vegetative
2. Tonic
3. Phasic
4. Signal Level (biosocial / psychosocial
   influences)
5. Symbolic (develops through social experience)
6. Language (abstract)

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INPUTdetection of signals from the internal or
external sense organs
DEVELOPMENT (e.g., when in an animals life does
signal detection (or lack thereof) occur can it
be influenced by experience?) (e.g., when sense
organ is mature but it might need environmental
stimulation to do that!) ECOLOGY (e.g., can
signal detection be influenced by the abiotic or
biotic context) (e.g., when sense organ is mature
but it might need environmental stimulation to
do that!) EVOLUTION (e.g., what capacities have
been transmitted from prior generation(s) and
what capacities will be passed on? (e.g., genes
from ancestors, memes from ancestors, caregivers,
peers) PHYSIOLOGY (e.g., what is the more-or-less
proximate cause within the individual?) (e.g.,
when sense organ is mature but it might need
environmental stimulation to do that!)
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What we know of nature is necessarily limited

1. CONSTRAINTS our sense organs have evolved to
   detect only that which is essential to survival
   to the meeting of our needs.

The umwelt there are many qualities of the world
we have no need to know about so the capacity
to detect and act upon those qualities is weak at
best and may never have evolved . . .
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So our model of the world is necessarily
fragmented and incomplete

• The ILLUSION of completeness is created by the
  mind so that we can take effective action rather
  than being indecisive.

The illusion is perfected by (1) extrapolating
by projecting information from within a zone of
confidence to an outside area of less certainty
or (2) interpolating or filling in from
adjacent cells
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we are a dynamic, endlessly shifting assemblage
of individual attributes(think of hundreds of
connected mobiles)

• In this environment, new fragments of information
  are tested for the best possible (not perfect)
  approximation of the real world
  (correspondence) and then assembled into the
  best possible (not perfect) story (coherence)

• Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions
  from insufficient premises.
• (Samuel Butler Notebooks (1912) ch. 1)

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REALITY TESTINGdoes our inner model of the
outer world correspond to reality?
CORRESPONDENCE and COHERENCE
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TEACHING is an act of COMMUNICATION

• Teaching and learning involves MEMES the
  cultural equivalent of biological units of
  information GENES.
• Art of Communication?
• ...painting, that is to say the material thing
  called painting is no more than the pretext,
  than the bridge between the mind of the painter
  and that of the spectator. (Eugene Delacroix
  1850)
• It takes two to speak the truth-- one to speak,
  and another to hear. (Thoreau1849)

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EVOLUTION of BEHAVIOR

• In animals, almost invariably, a change in
  behavior is the crucial factor initiating
  evolutionary innovation (Ernst Mayr 1988).
• Behavior creates new selective pressures (Mark
  Baldwin via Deacon 1998)

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The evolution of communicative signalsRITUALIZATI
ON

• There is often selection pressure for social
  signals to become more precise, less ambiguous .
  . . Termed ritualization
• it is of great intrinsic interest to the student
  of social behavior BUT the processes
  observed also exemplify the ways in which units
  of behavior can be transformed in function over
  time evolve.
• Any behavioral pattern is a candidate for
  ritualization if it can communicate information
• Many behavioral patterns multitask,
  particularly those that communicate information
  about the internal state that might affects
  behavior

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The evolution of communicative signalsRITUALIZATI
ON

• MOTOR PATTERNS (somatic)
• Intention movement of (e.g.) body, limbs, ears,
  tail
• Ambivalent Posture or movement . . . raising or
  lowering head (e.g., dominance)
• AUTONOMIC REFLEXES
• Alimentary Increase or decrease in salivation.
  Sphincter control, urination, defecation. (e.g.,
  territorial marking)
• Circulatory Pallor, flushing, vasodilation of
  sex organs. Fainting.(e.g., skin patches)
• Respiratory Changes in respiratory rate or
  amplitude. Gasping, sighing, panting. (e.g.,
  inflation displays, hissing, speech (?)
• Thermoregulatory Sweating, pilomotor responses.
  (e.g., hair or feather erection, scent signals)
  Electrodermal response
• Lacrimatory weeping.

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The evolution of communicative signalsRITUALIZATI
ON

• Ways in which the displays can become elaborated
  (Morris 1966)
• 1. Development of conspicuous structures
• 2. Schematization ("simplification") by means of
  (e.g.)
• Lowering of threshold changes
• Rhythmic repetition
• Exaggeration or omission of specific components
  of a movement
• Change in speed or vigor of a movement
• When the movement comes to be governed by causal
  factors other than those that governed the source
  of the display it is said to be emancipated.

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The Peacocks Tail

• raised by feather pilomotor muscles
• an ancient autonomic thermoregulatory mechanism
• Ordinarily hidden
• displayed when aroused

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The Lizards Flag

• Effected by the hyoid apparatus
• An ancient mechanism activated by stress
• Ordinarily hidden
• displayed when aroused