Approaches to animal cognition and communication

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Approaches to animal cognition and communication

• MSc ACSB module 2006/07
• AC Session 1
• revised 03/01/07

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Approaches to animal studies

• ETHOLOGY Lorenz, Tinbergen, von Frisch
• COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY Köhler, Warren
• SOCIOBIOLOGY WD Hamilton, EO Wilson, Trivers
• EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY Maynard Smith, Parker,
  Hammerstein
• EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY Tooby Cosmides, Buss,
  Gangestad
• plus
• The A-life approach
• Gigerenzers fast and frugal heuristics

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How this course is structured

• Two strands of ACSB, in parallel
• AC on Tuesdays at 9, SB on Fridays at 9
• Share SB teaching with EP module
• SB on Fridays at 9, EP on Fridays at 10
• Workshops (2 combined with EP)
• Literature Review essays for assessment
• Need to structure essay to avoid plagiarism

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Similar but distinct

• Ethology
• Behavioural ecology
• Socioethology
• Sociobiology
• Appendix illustrates the different questions each
  might ask regarding vervet monkey behaviour
  which Cheney Seyfarth have made famous for
  studies of primate communication

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Animals can be seen as just S-R mechanisms

• Tinbergen and early ethologists deplored the
  anthropomorphic approach
• Animals seen as just S-R mechanisms, designed by
  evolution to achieve communication without
  intention or understanding
• Gull chick pecks at any long sharp object with a
  contrasting patch at tip parents yellow beak
  with red patch, or red pencil with 3 white rings
  around sharpened tip. Parent responds by feeding.

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Analyses of animal signalling

• Releasing stimuli and response
• Displays which reveal motivation fear,
  aggression, sexual interest, or a mixture
• Honeybee dance language used to give
  information about environment (location of food
  source)
• Bird-song marks territory. ? Song learning
  parallels language learning
• Females may assess males song AND assess quality
  of his territory, in deciding which male to mate
  with

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Peacock tail and display

• But male peacock contributes his sperm, but no
  further help towards rearing of young
• Female peahen very fussy in choosing best male
  attends to tail (number of eyespots) and display
  (Petrie)
• Health of male (no. of heterophil w.b.c.) related
  to rate of display and no. of eyespots poor
  health ? low display rate and small number of
  eyespots
• Eyespots reveal long-term health, display rate
  reveals current status

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Peacock display (2)

• Loyau et al. (2005, Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 58,
  552-557) tested effects of experimental immune
  challenge (E. coli LPS) reduced display
  compared to placebo injection
• Males with many eyespots showed a smaller
  display-rate drop after LPS injection
• So, they have better genes the tail provides
  an honest signal of their quality

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Creative deception in a young baboon (Byrne
Whiten)

• Paul (a young baboon) finds adult, Mel, who has
  just dug up a corm good food but difficult for
  Paul to dig up himself
• Mum is out of sight Paul looks around, then
  screams loudly as if under threat
• Mum runs up, sees Mel and pursues her
• When they have gone, Paul picks up and eats the
  desired food item
• Uses tactic 3 times over few weeks, but NEVER
  when mum was in sight of 'cause' of the scream

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Brain evolution, cognitive abilities and language

• Brains reflect evolutionary processes.
• Relatively larger (fore-) brains linked to
  smarter behaviour in primates and birds
• Extra development of brain regions linked to
  specialised abilities, e.g. bird food-hoarding,
  large song repertoires
• Nick Humphrey - Henry Ford and the economy of
  nature.

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Tactical deception increases with neocortex ratio
(r0.72, Byrne Corp, 2004, PRSB)
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European warbler song - larger repertoire needs
larger brain centre

• Székely et al., 1996, PRSB 263, 607-610
• Correlation between size of repertoire and
  residual volume of higher vocal centre (HVC), r
  0.68
• Used phylogenetically independent contrasts

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Communication by the African Honeyguide

• Isack Reyer, 1989, Science 243, 1343-1346
• Bird guides Honey Badger or African hunters to
  wild bees' nests the raid on nest gives the
  bird access to beeswax as food. Hunters leave
  some honeycomb on ground for it
• Hunters make special call to summon honeyguides
  that might be in the area
• Bird guides them towards bees nest, stopping from
  time to time for them to catch up

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Honeyguide performance

• Orientation is accurately towards the nest (mean
  error 0.5 degrees)
• Major reduction in hunters' time to find nests
  using honeyguide down from 9 to 3 hrs approx
• Birds choose more or less direct route from
  wherever hunter takes as starting point
  obviously knows geography and location of
  possible nests
• Birds regularly visit bees nests and inspect them
  when not guiding keep tabs on potential food
  resources

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Do honeyguides understand what they are doing?

• They appear to have a mental map, and to
  under-stand the aim of co-operation - raid on
  beehive - and the communication with human/animal
  helper
• But the young honeyguide is like a cuckoo, the
  mother lays egg in another birds nest, then
  leaves
• This elaborate guiding behaviour must mainly be
  based on INSTINCT

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The rise of 'cognitive ethology'

• Griffin Mental experiences are real and
  important to us and insofar as they occur in
  nonhuman animals they must be important to them
  as well
• Chimp fetches a heavy stone to extract edible
  nut-kernels "must we reject or repress the
  suggestion that the chimp thinks consciously
  about the tasty food it manages to obtain by
  these coordinated actions?"
• See Griffin (1992) Animal Minds, etc.

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Animal communication

• Griffin writes "Insofar as animals experience
  conscious thoughts and feelings, these are very
  likely to accompany social behaviour and the
  interaction between predator and prey"
• "The implications of the general proposition that
  animal communication provides objective,
  verifiable data on animal thoughts are so far
  reaching and so significant for cognitive
  ethology that they call for thoughtful
  consideration"

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Washoe and Babies (1)

• Washoe chimp who learned ASL in Gardners
  project
• W lost own babies, very upset, and then initially
  rejected foster-baby she was given as substitute
• Researcher pregnant, W understood and doted over
  her swelling belly
• Human baby stillborn, mother took time off to
  recover
• W let mother know she was upset she had been off

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Washoe and babies (2)

• Mother decided to explain (she knew W had lost
  several babies) signed "My baby died"
• W looked into her eyes, signed "Cry", touching
  cheek where tears would be
• W would not let her go when she was ready to
  leave, signed "Please person hug" (Fouts, p.
  280-281). W could empathise with her grief
• But this is one anecdote so is it data? And
  what does it prove about Ws ability to
  understand signed language?

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Comparisons between animal signals and human
language

• Hockett, Altmann, Thorpe (Design features)
• Hauser, Chomsky, Fitch (2002) The faculty of
  language What is it, who has it, and how did it
  evolve? Science 298 1569-1579
• Cheney Seyfarth, Marler, work on vervet monkeys
  in the field

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General References

• Hauser The evolution of communication (Chapters
  1-2)
• Bradbury Vehrencamp Principles of animal
  communication
• Cheney Seyfarth How monkeys see the world
• Shettleworth Cognition, evolution and behavior
  (Chapter 12)
• Byrne The thinking ape (Chapter 11)

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Appendix (Ethologists)

• ETHOLOGISTS study species-typical behaviour,
  social interactions, communication, development,
  etc.
• Why do vervet monkeys fear-call? (i.e., what are
  the releasing stimuli)
• What essential features differentiate the
  different calls in the vervet monkey repertoire?
  (i.e., what properties differentiate those
  vocalisations that act as different signals)
• How does the appropriate use of the
  call-repertoire develop?
• What do closely-related monkeys do in response to
  predators? (i.e., what was the evolutionary
  history of the vervets' 3 predator alarm calls)

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Appendix (Socio-ethologists)

• SOCIO-ETHOLOGISTS (Crook) - focus on societies
• Why do vervets live in (big) groups on the
  ground, not in pairs, or up in the trees?
• Why do vervets live in multi-male groups, when
  the related Diana monkey lives in one-male
  groups?
• Is the need for group living in vervets related
  to an increase in predation from ground predators
  when the monkeys took to a partially terrestrial
  life?

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Appendix (Behavioural ecologists)

• BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGISTS study how behaviour fits
  into the animal's way of life (ecology)
• Do vervet monkeys show optimal foraging?
• How big should a vervet monkey troop territory be
  ? (it ranges from 11 to 100 hectares at Amboseli
  National Park)
• What are costs and benefits of group vs. solitary
  life for vervets? (e.g., foraging)

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Appendix (Sociobiologists)

• SOCIOBIOLOGISTS focus on individual strategy,
  kinship, etc.
• Vervet females give alarm calls to warn troop
  members of danger, but are females more ready to
  alert relatives than non-relatives?
• Females remain for life in the group, while males
  transfer at some risk to themselves, so when
  should a male quit a group? (i.e. how does the
  balance of costs and benefits alter with age?)
• Female vervets make alliances when should a
  female intervene in a dispute to support another
  female with whom it has an alliance?