Age and social affinity effects on contact call interactions in free-ranging spider monkeys

Briseño‐Jaramillo, Margarita; Ramos‐Fernández, Gabriel; Palacios-Romo, T.M.; Sosa‐López, J. Roberto; Lemasson, Alban

doi:10.1007/s00265-018-2615-2

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Tomasello et al ., ; Hobaiter & Byrne, ). Mature spider monkeys ( Ateles geoffroyi ) modulate their use of whinny calls by ( i ) interacting more with their preferred affiliative partner; and ( ii ) matching their call types, while immatures do not (Briseno‐Jaramillo et al ., ). Specifically in humans, the communication learning environment can impact gene expression through neuroepigenetic processes (e.g.…”

Section: Theories Of the Origins Of Languagementioning

confidence: 97%

The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories

et al. 2019

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Investigating in depth the mechanisms underlying human and non-human primate intentional communication systems (involving gestures, vocalisations, facial expressions and eye behaviours) can shed light on the evolutionary roots of language. Reports on non-human primates, particularly great apes, suggest that gestural communication would have been a crucial prerequisite for the emergence of language, mainly based on the evidence of large communication repertoires and their associated multifaceted nature of intentionality that are key properties of language. Such research fuels important debates on the origins of gestures and language. We review here three non-mutually exclusive processes that can explain mainly great apes' gestural acquisition and development: phylogenetic ritualisation, ontogenetic ritualisation, and learning via social negotiation. We hypothesise the following scenario for the evolutionary origins of gestures: gestures would have appeared gradually through evolution via signal ritualisation following the principle of derived activities, with the key involvement of emotional expression and processing. The increasing level of complexity of socioecological lifestyles and associated daily manipulative activities might then have enabled the acquisition and development of different interactional strategies throughout the life cycle. Many studies support a multimodal origin of language. However, we stress that the origins of language are not only multimodal, but more broadly multicausal. We propose a multicausal theory of language origins which better explains current findings. It postulates that primates' communicative signalling is a complex trait continually shaped by a cost-benefit trade-off of signal production and processing of interactants in relation to four closely interlinked categories of evolutionary and life cycle factors: species, individual and context-related characteristics as well as behaviour and its characteristics. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research to improve our understanding of the evolutionary roots of gestures and language.

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Section: Theories Of the Origins Of Languagementioning

confidence: 97%

The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories

et al. 2019

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“…We included group, individual, and individual contributions (the last two nested) as random effects in all models. For those models containing an interaction between two or more factors, we then performed all pairwise comparisons for each level of the interactions using a multiple contrast package (multcomp in R, Bretz et al 2010) with a Tukey post hoc test and we reported estimate, z value, and p value. In each case, data met the assumptions required (Anderson-Darling normality test).…”

Section: Data Collection and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic laws of brevity: conformity in Indri indri

et al. 2021

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Vocal and gestural sequences of several primates have been found to conform to two general principles of information compression: the compensation between the duration of a construct and that of its components (Menzerath-Altmann law) and an inverse relationship between signal duration and its occurrence (Zipf's law of abbreviation). Even though Zipf's law of brevity has been proposed as a universal in animal communication, evidence on non-human primate vocal behavior conformity to linguistic laws is still debated, and information on strepsirrhine primates is lacking. We analyzed the vocal behavior of the unique singing lemur species (Indri indri) to assess whether the song of the species shows evidence for compression. As roars have a chaotic structure that impedes the recognition of each individual utterance, and long notes are usually given by males, we focused on the core part of the song (i.e., the descending phrases, composed of two-six units).Our results indicate that indris' songs conform to Zipf's and Menzerath-Altmann linguistic laws. Indeed, shorter phrases are more likely to be included in the song, and units' duration decrease at the increase of the size of the phrases. We also found that, despite a sexual dimorphism in the duration of both units and phrases, these laws characterize sequences of both males and females. Overall, we provide the first evidence for a trade-off between signal duration and occurrence in the vocal behavior of a strepsirrhine species, suggesting that selective pressures for vocal compression are more ancestral than previously assumed within primates.

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“…Differences between adult and young individuals regarding the appropriateness of the context of call emission have already been reported in various primate species (see food calling in tamarins Saguinus oedipus 76 , and alarm calling in vervet monkeys Chlorocebus pygerythrus 77 ). Some studies have also showed vocal development in the ability to interact properly with congeners (see vocal synchronisation in gibbons Hylobates agilis agilis 78 , as well as call matching and choice of preferred interlocutors in spider-monkeys 38 ). Moreover, two playback studies have confirmed that conversational rules can be detected by adults and not by juveniles (turn-taking in Campbell's monkeys 49 , and call matching in Japanese macaques 50 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dunbar 36 suggested that monkey call exchanges had started to function as a mean to groom-at-distance when the size of group became too large to allocate enough time to physical grooming among all members and maintain close bonds. Indeed, "conversation-like vocal exchanges" occur mainly between two interlocutors that are determined, according to the study species, by their affiliative bonds (humans 37 ; NHP: spider monkeys Ateles geoffroyi 38 , Japanese macaques 39 , pygmy marmosets Cebuella pygmaea 6 , bonobos Pan paniscus 40 ) or by their respective ages (humans 41 ; NHP: common marmosets 42 , western lowland gorillas Gorilla gorilla gorilla 43 , Campbell's monkeys 31 ). In some cases, it was even found that human and nonhuman primates advertise this preferential bond by responding to one another using a matching acoustic structure, a phenomenon known as "vocal convergence" in ethology or "vocal accommodation" in sociolinguistics (humans 44 ; NHP: spider monkeys 38 , Diana monkeys Cercopithecus diana 45 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Breaking conversational rules matters to captive gorillas: A playback experiment

Pougnault

Levréro

Mulot

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Across human cultures, conversations are regulated by temporal and social rules. The universality of conversational rules suggests possible biological bases and encourages comparisons with the communicative interactions of nonhuman animals. Unexpectedly, few studies have focused on other great apes despite evidence of proto-conversational rules in monkeys, thus preventing researchers from drawing conclusions on potential evolutionary origins of this behaviour. A previous study showed however that western lowland gorillas engage in soft call interactions that seem temporally-and socially-ruled. Indeed, interactions occurred mainly between individuals close in age who followed a preset response delay, thus preventing call overlap. Here, we experimentally investigated the presence of these rules in a captive gorilla group, using a violation-of-expectation paradigm. Head orientation responses suggest that the respect of response delay matters to subjects, but the importance of the interlocutors' age proximity appeared less clear. The intensity of the response varied with subjects' age in a context-dependent way, supporting a possible role of learning. Our findings support the growing number of studies highlighting the importance of vocal turn-taking in animals and a possible sociogenesis of this ability. The capacity to "converse" might have been a key step in the co-evolution of communication and complex sociality. Despite the diversity of human cultures, some basic conversational rules are respected in all societies and thus appear universal 1. These features are gathered in a so-called "contract of communication" that conversing interlocutors informally agree on 2. The contract takes into account "context relevance" (i.e. the evaluation of the context as pertinent or not to initiate a conversation), "reciprocity" (i.e. the evaluation of both partners as valid interlocutors), and "contract-based temporal rules" (i.e. the respect of a reciprocal exchange of alternating, short, and flexible turns between two or more interlocutors 3 , and speech overlap avoidance). Several authors have questioned the possible biological bases of these conversational rules and have, for several decades, conducted cross-species comparisons to understand their origin and role across animal communication systems 4-7. To facilitate cross species investigations, authors typically distinguish "conversation-like vocal exchanges" from other vocal patterns like isolated calling (one call emitted and no other calls can be heard around, e.g. in red-capped mangabeys Cercocebus torquatus 8), repeated calling (the same caller calls several times in a row, e.g. in Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata 9), disorganized phonoresponses (one individual produces a call, typically an alarm call that triggers calls in an apparent chaotic way from the other group members, e.g. in blue monkeys Cercopithecus mitis stuhlmanni 10), chorusing (two or more individuals overlap their emission of a given call type, e.g. in chimpanzees Pan troglodytes 11) and duetting (two...

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Age and social affinity effects on contact call interactions in free-ranging spider monkeys

Cited by 21 publications

References 109 publications

The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories

The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories

Linguistic laws of brevity: conformity in Indri indri

Breaking conversational rules matters to captive gorillas: A playback experiment

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