scholarly journals Cognitive Components of Vocal Communication: A Case Study

Animals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Snowdon
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Pygmy Marmosets ◽  
Contact Calls

Communication among nonhuman animals is often presented as rigid and inflexible, reflecting emotional states rather than having any cognitive basis. Using the world’s smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea), with the smallest absolute brain size amongst simian primates as a case study, I review the role of cognition in the development and usage of vocalizations in pygmy marmosets and present new data on the instrumental use of babbling and of food associated vocalizations. Pygmy marmosets have several contact calls that differ in the psychoacoustic properties for sound localization as well as the distance at which they carry through the rainforest. Marmosets use these calls strategically based on distance from neighbors. Marmosets alter spectral and temporal aspects of call structure when exposed to new groups and when newly mated. They display population specific vocal dialects. Young pygmy marmosets engage in extensive babbling behavior rewarded by parents that helps the young develop adult vocal structures, but older monkeys also use babbling instrumentally in conflict situations. Specific food referential calls generally relate to food preferences, but food calls are suppressed in the presence of animate prey. Unmated animals systematically combine a long distance call with food calls as though advertising for mates. Taken together, these examples show that even small brained primates use their vocal signals flexibly and strategically in response to a variety of environmental and social conditions.

The Vocal Repertoire of the Bearded Capuchin (Cebidae: Sapajus libidinosus): Implications for Understanding the Complexity of Neotropical Primate Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Carolina Almeida Lisboa ◽  
Francisco Dyonísio Cardoso Mendes ◽  
Maurício Silveira ◽  
Ludmilla Moura de Souza Aguiar
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Alarm Call ◽  
Vocal Repertoire ◽  
Primate Communication ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Central Brazil ◽  
Neotropical Primate ◽  
Sexual Display ◽  
Contact Calls ◽  
Aggressive Calls

Vocal communication is an essential aspect of primate social behaviour. The bearded capuchin <i>Sapajus libidinosus</i> is endemic to Brazil, and some studies have described specific vocalisation types for this species; however, there is still no complete description of its vocal repertoire. Thus, this study aimed to describe the vocal repertoire of a group of <i>S. libidinosus</i> living in the<i></i>Parque Nacional de Brasília, a protected area in the Cerrado area of Central Brazil. We carried out focal samplings and recording of vocalisations of members of an <i>S. libidinosus</i> troop in different behavioural contexts. The call analyses revealed 25 different types of vocalisations, and each call presented significant structural variation. We grouped these vocalisations according to the context of the emission or acoustic structure into the following categories: contact calls (contact note, infant babbling, trill, teeth- and lip-smacking, and sirena); foraging calls (chihui, grgr, and patinado); whistle series (food-associated, long-distance, and intergroup encounter); aggressive calls (aggressive contact note, ascending rapid staccato, cough cough, and pip); calls in response to aggression (scream, squeal, and pulsed scream), sexual display calls (chuck and raspy oestrous call), and stress-related calls (alarm call/bark, hiccup, hip, double hip, and wah wah). <i>S. libidinosus</i> presented a very rich vocal repertoire, revealing a pattern consistent with the repertoire of other capuchin monkey species. This is the first comprehensive description of the<i> S. libidinosus</i> vocal repertoire and highlights the complexity of neotropical primate communication.

scholarly journals Immune-challenged vampire bats produce fewer contact calls

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 20200272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Stockmaier ◽  
Daniel I. Bolnick ◽  
Rachel A. Page ◽  
Darija Josic ◽  
Gerald G. Carter
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Sickness Behaviour ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Vampire Bats ◽  
Contact Calls ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Social Encounters

Vocalizations are an important means to facilitate social interactions, but vocal communication may be affected by infections. While such effects have been shown for mate-attraction calls, other vocalizations that facilitate social contact have received less attention. When isolated, vampire bats produce contact calls that attract highly associated groupmates. Here, we test the effect of an immune challenge on contact calling rates of individually isolated vampire bats. Sickness behaviour did not appear to change call structure, but it decreased the number of contact calls produced. This effect could decrease contact with groupmates and augment other established mechanisms by which sickness reduces social encounters (e.g. mortality, lethargy and social withdrawal or disinterest).

scholarly journals Vocal repertoire of the New Zealand kea parrot Nestor notabilis

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 727-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raoul Schwing ◽  
Stuart Parsons ◽  
Ximena J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Communication System ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Vocal Repertoire ◽  
Contact Call ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Call Type ◽  
Cognitive Studies ◽  
Contact Calls

Abstract The unique alpine-living kea parrot Nestor notabilis has been the focus of numerous cognitive studies, but its communication system has so far been largely neglected. We examined 2,884 calls recorded in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Based on audio and visual spectrographic differences, these calls were categorised into seven distinct call types: the non-oscillating ‘screech’ contact call and ‘mew’; and the oscillating ‘trill’, ‘chatter’, ‘warble’ and ‘whistle’; and a hybrid ‘screech-trill’. Most of these calls contained aspects that were individually unique, in addition to potentially encoding for an individual’s sex and age. Additionally, for each recording, the sender’s previous and next calls were noted, as well as any response given by conspecifics. We found that the previous and next calls made by the sender were most often of the same type, and that the next most likely preceding and/or following call type was the screech call, a contact call which sounds like the ‘kee-ah’ from which the bird’s name derives. As a social bird capable of covering large distances over visually obstructive terrain, long distance contact calls may be of considerable importance for social cohesion. Contact calls allow kea to locate conspecifics and congregate in temporary groups for social activities. The most likely response to any given call was a screech, usually followed by the same type of call as the initial call made by the sender, although responses differed depending on the age of the caller. The exception was the warble, the kea’s play call, to which the most likely response was another warble. Being the most common call type, as well as the default response to another call, it appears that the ‘contagious’ screech contact call plays a central role in kea vocal communication and social cohesion.

COMBINING ORAL TRADITIONS AND BAYESIAN CHRONOLOGICAL MODELING TO UNDERSTAND VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF OF PAPUA (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gulf Of Papua ◽  
The Village

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.

scholarly journals Born to sing! Song development in a singing primate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara De Gregorio ◽  
Filippo Carugati ◽  
Vittoria Estienne ◽  
Daria Valente ◽  
Teresa Raimondi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Ontogenetic Changes ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Historical View ◽  
Singing Behavior ◽  
Vocal Behaviour ◽  
Temporal Features ◽  
Vocal Activity ◽  
Song Development

Abstract In animal vocal communication, the development of adult-like vocalization is fundamental to interact appropriately with conspecifics. However, the factors that guide ontogenetic changes in the acoustic features remains poorly understood. In contrast with a historical view of nonhuman primate vocal production as substantially innate, recent research suggests that inheritance and physiological modification can only explain some of the developmental changes in call structure during growth. A particular case of acoustic communication is the indris' singing behavior, a peculiar case among Strepsirrhine primates. Thanks to a decade of intense data collection, this work provides the first long-term quantitative analysis on song development in a singing primate. To understand the ontogeny of such a complex vocal output, we investigated juvenile and sub-adult indris' vocal behaviour, and we found that young individuals started participating in the chorus years earlier than previously reported. Our results indicated that spectro-temporal song parameters underwent essential changes during growth. In particular, the age and sex of the emitter influenced the indris' vocal activity. We found that frequency parameters showed consistent changes across the sexes, but the temporal features showed different developmental trajectories for males and females. Given the low level of morphological sexual dimorphism and the marked differences in vocal behavior, we hypothesize that factors like social influences and auditory feedback may affect songs' features, resulting in high vocal flexibility in juvenile indris. This trait may be pivotal in a species that engages in choruses with rapid vocal turn-taking.

Long distance pollen-mediated gene flow at a landscape level: the weed beet as a case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 3801-3813 ◽  
Author(s):  
STÉPHANE FÉNART ◽  
FRÉDÉRIC AUSTERLITZ ◽  
JOËL CUGUEN ◽  
JEAN-FRANÇOIS ARNAUD
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Landscape Level

Dialects in pygmy marmosets? Population variation in call structure

2009 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella de la Torre ◽  
Charles T. Snowdon
Keyword(s):  
Population Variation ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Pygmy Marmosets

scholarly journals On the nature of cross-linguistic transfer: A case study of Andean Spanish

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTJE G. MUNTENDAM
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Andean Spanish ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Elicitation Studies ◽  
Long Distance Movement

This paper presents the results of a study on cross-linguistic transfer in Andean Spanish word order. In Andean Spanish the object appears in preverbal position more frequently than in non-Andean Spanish, which has been attributed to an influence from Quechua (a Subject–Object–Verb language). The high frequency of preverbal objects could be explained by focus fronting. The main syntactic properties of focus fronting in Spanish are weak crossover and long distance movement. Two elicitation studies designed to test for these properties in non-Andean Spanish, Andean Spanish and Quechua show no evidence of syntactic transfer from Quechua into Andean Spanish. Rather, the analysis of naturalistic data and an elicitation study on question–answer pairs show that there is pragmatic transfer from Quechua into Andean Spanish. The study has implications for theories of syntax and language contact, and especially for the debate on the nature of cross-linguistic transfer.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document