Flexible signaling in response to social and ecological pressures: Studies in cowbirds, humans and hyenas.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Gersick, Andrew S, author.

Contributor:

Cheney, Dorothy L., degree supervisor.

Seyfarth, Robert M., degree supervisor.

University of Pennsylvania. Psychology.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychology, Behavioral Sciences.

Biology, Evolution and Development.

Anthropology, Physical.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Local Subjects:

Psychology, Behavioral Sciences.

Biology, Evolution and Development.

Anthropology, Physical.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Genre:

Academic theses.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (153 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 76-01B(E).

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania ; Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2014.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Linguists generally agree that language is designed to convey information from signalers to receivers, though the influence of natural selection on the particulars of that design is more controversial. In the study of animal communication, signals and the responses they elicit are always considered as products of natural selection, but debate periodically arises about whether (or to what extent) animal signals must "inform" receivers in order to meet selective challenges. The research described in the following chapters investigates communication in three species: brown-headed cowbirds, spotted hyenas, and humans. In each case, I looked for evidence that ultimate selection pressures from species' ecologies and social structures may have selected for flexible signaling on a proximate level - i.e. abilities of individuals to adjust signal structures or signal performance in ways that alter the informational contents of those signals or their effects on receivers. Results of this work suggest that flexible signaling is widespread, and that when signalers can produce more- or less-informative versions of signals, receivers may have corresponding abilities to adjust how much information they extract from the surrounding context. At the same time, looking at similar types of communication across very different species has suggested that debates about the role of information in animal signaling may overestimate the degree to which that role is generalizable. Information can be distributed across at least three domains - signals, interactions among signals, and interactions between signals and context. The features of particular social structures and ecologies may produce communication systems with very different distributions of information across those domains. It may therefore be untenable to define broad functional classes of signals (for example alarm calls or courtship displays) as fundamentally "informative" or "context-dependent." Instead the most interesting questions may be about when and why natural selection may produce highly informative signals, communication systems that rely largely on contextual information, or - in the case of humans - individuals able to choose whichever communicative strategy benefits them most at a particular moment.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 76-01(E), Section: B.

Advisers: Robert M. Seyfarth; Dorothy L. Cheney.

Department: Psychology.

Thesis Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2014.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9781321143690

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.