Dialects in wild chimpanzees?

Mitani, John C.; Hasegawa, Toshikazu; Gros‐Louis, Julie; Marler, Peter; Byrne, Richard W.

doi:10.1002/ajp.1350270402

Cited by 170 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Accumulating evidence of call convergence (the convergence of the acoustic features of a call to a shared structure) within social groups suggests some degree of vocal plasticity in nonhuman primates (Fischer et al, 1998;Gouzoules and Gouzoules, 1990;Mitani et al, 1992) (reviewed by Egnor and Hauser, 2004). This conclusion is still controversial; many investigators argue that the observed convergence may be the result of shared motivational states, shared genetics, shared environment or the selection of a specific call from within an innately determined repertoire (Janik and Slater, 2000;Lieblich et al, 1980;Mitani et al, 1992).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perturbation of auditory feedback causes systematic perturbation in vocal structure in adult cotton-top tamarins

Egnor

Iguina

Hauser

2006

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Auditory feedback is critical for the development and maintenance of speech in humans. In contrast, studies of nonhuman primate vocal production generally report that subjects show little reliance on auditory input. We examined the extent to which cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) vocal production is sensitive to perturbation of auditory feedback by manipulating the predictability of presentation of a 1 s burst of white noise during the production of the species-specific contact call, the combination long call(CLC). We used three experimental conditions: the Begin condition, in which white noise was presented only during the first half of a recording session,the End condition, in which white noise was presented only in the last half,and the Random condition, in which each call had a 50% probability of receiving white noise playback throughout the recording session, making the auditory feedback unpredictable. In addition we recorded calls before and after the experimental series (Baseline condition) to determine whether any changes induced by modification of auditory feedback persisted. Results showed that playback of white noise during the production of the CLC produced changes in the temporal structure of the CLC: calls were shorter and had fewer pulses,indicating that modification of auditory feedback can interrupt vocal production. In addition, calls that received modified feedback were louder and had longer inter-pulse intervals than those that did not, consistent with an adaptive response to the masking effect of white noise playback. The magnitude of this compensatory effect and the interruption rate were both sensitive to whether the feedback modification occurred at the beginning or end of the experimental session: early feedback produced less interruption and more compensation. Finally, when auditory feedback modification was unpredictable,adaptive changes were observed in both calls that received modified feedback and those that received normal feedback, suggesting that tamarins can generate an expectation of noise playback and increase vocal amplitude in anticipation of masking.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This conclusion is still controversial; many investigators argue that the observed convergence may be the result of shared motivational states, shared genetics, shared environment or the selection of a specific call from within an innately determined repertoire (Janik and Slater, 2000;Lieblich et al, 1980;Mitani et al, 1992).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perturbation of auditory feedback causes systematic perturbation in vocal structure in adult cotton-top tamarins

Egnor

Iguina

Hauser

2006

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…This situation is common, where studies find geographical differences in calls but are not able to distinguish between possible inherited and learned components in call development (e.g. Wang Ding et al 1995, Mitani et al 1992, Green 1975. In some cases, the calls of hybrids can help.…”

Section: Methods Used To Study Vocal Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Fripp¹

1999

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The objective of this thesis is to develop the methods necessary for evaluating the role of learning in the natural whistle development of bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins provide a unique opportunity to study social influences on vocal learning in a highly social non-human mammal. V ocallearning is critical for the development of human language but plays a much smaller role in the vocal development of most non-human terrestrial mammals. Preliminary evidence has indicated that the signature whistles of dolphin calves are modeled on the whistles in the calves' early environments and that the calves' social interactions influence the choice of model. The methods currently used to study the acoustic and social behavior of dolphins are insufficient to evaluate the role of learning in whistle development and the social influences on that development. The techniques necessary to perform such a study have therefore been developed and tested in this thesis.The methods used to study vocal learning in various species were reviewed and a study of vocal learning appropriate to dolphins was designed. A strategy for sampling the dolphins' social and acoustic behavior was developed. To test the sampling strategy, and to provide data for the development of analysis techniques, a pilot study was performed on dolphin calves born in captivity. Focal samples of the social interactions of dolphin mothers and calves were taken over several months before and after the births of four calves, with simultaneous acoustic recordings during all focal sessions. A test of sampling times determined that five focal samples spaced throughout the day adequately represented the dolphins' behavior for the entire day. The interactions recorded during the focal samples were analyzed with loglinear analysis, multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the types of social relationships that occurred between the dolphins. For both calves and adults, three types of relationships were found. An analysis of a prolonged alloparenting incident demonstrated that the social relationship between mothers and calves was a care-giving relationship independent of their genetic relationship. Measures other than the total association were found to be necessary to the evaluation of the subtle relationships between the dolphins.Methods for the quantitative analysis of the whistles produced by the dolphins were needed. Therefore, programs were developed to automatically detect and extract the whistles from the recordings in an unbiased manner. Several methods for categorizing whistles were compared and hierarchical cluster analysis of dynamic time warping of extracted contours was shown to perform well for comparing both stereotyped and un-stereotyped whistles. These techniques were then used to compare the early acoustic environments of the calves born in the pilot study. The early environments of the four calves were found to be distinctive. In particular, the putative signature whistle of each calf s mother made up a subst...

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“…For example, early papers on geographical variation in pant hoots of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) suggested that this variation was evidence for production learning in this species (Mitani et al 1992;Mitani and Brandt 1994;Clark Arcadi 1996). Mitani et al (1999) reassessed the interpretation of geographical variation in chimpanzee calls.…”

Section: Geographical and Temporal Variation In Callsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergence of calls as animals form social bonds, active compensation for noisy communication channels, and the evolution of vocal learning in mammals.

Tyack¹

2008

Journal of Comparative Psychology

131

146

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The classic evidence for vocal production learning involves imitation of novel, often anthropogenic sounds. Among mammals, this has been reported for African elephants, harbor seals, and dolphins. A broader taxonomic distribution has been reported for vocal convergence, where the acoustic properties of calls from different individuals converge when they are housed together in captivity or form social bonds in the wild. This kind of vocal convergence has been demonstrated for animals as diverse as songbirds, parakeets, bats, elephants, cetaceans, and primates. For most of these species, call convergence is thought to reflect a group-distinctive identifier, with shared calls reflecting and strengthening social bonds. Pooling data on vocal imitation and vocal convergence suggests a wider taxonomic distribution of vocal production learning among mammals than generally appreciated. The wide taxonomic distribution of this evidence for vocal production learning suggests that perhaps more of the neural underpinnings for vocal production learning are in place in mammals than is usually imagined. One ubiquitous function for vocal production learning that is starting to receive attention involves modifying signals to improve communication in a noisy channel.

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Dialects in wild chimpanzees?

Cited by 170 publications

References 20 publications

Perturbation of auditory feedback causes systematic perturbation in vocal structure in adult cotton-top tamarins

Perturbation of auditory feedback causes systematic perturbation in vocal structure in adult cotton-top tamarins

Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Convergence of calls as animals form social bonds, active compensation for noisy communication channels, and the evolution of vocal learning in mammals.

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