No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
What laboratory research has told us about dolphin cognition
... Other studies on cognitive abilities related to hearing identified that dolphins can discriminate small differences in pitch (Thompson and Herman, 1975), mimic a wide variety of sounds preserving their frequency contour and showing octave-generalization (see review in Herman, 2010). Together, these studies suggest a considerable level of vocal flexibility as well as a high sensitivity to sound nuances that may be key components of vocal communication among dolphins, especially in recognizing the contours of individualized whistles of others in their group. ...
... Since the beginning of the twentieth century, then, descriptions of behaviour in rare opportunities of observation, like pregnancy and birth, have been given. Captive research has so far provided important information about the intelligence and cognition of cetaceans (see, for example, Herman, 2010;Marino et al., 2007;, offering a level of experimental control and validation that cannot be as easily achieved in the natural setting (Marino and Frohoff, 2011). However, some researchers, philosophers and many funding agencies are increasingly questioning research on captive animals, mainly for ethical or philosophical reasons . ...
... Our results about the use of burst pulse sounds during play raised hypotheses about this vocal category being an indicator of arousal or emotion. Herman (2010) argued that the high ability of dolphins to discriminate small differences in the durations of sound may be explained by a potential communicative value in this parameter. He hypothesizes that the sender's emotional state could be expressed by these duration differences. ...
Studies on animal bioacoustics, traditionally relying on non-human primate and songbird models, converge towards the idea that social life appears as the main driving force behind the evolution of complex communication. Comparisons with cetaceans is also particularly interesting from an evolutionary point of view. They are indeed mammals forming complex social bonds, with abilities in acoustic plasticity, but that had to adapt to marine life, making habitat another determining selection force. Their natural habitat constrains sound production, usage and perception but, in the same way, constrains ethological observations making studies of captive cetaceans an important source of knowledge on these animals. Beyond the analysis of acoustic structures, the study of the social contexts in which the different vocalizations are used is essential to the understanding of vocal communication. Compared to primates and birds, the social function of dolphins’ acoustic signals remains largely misunderstood. Moreover, the way cetaceans’ vocal apparatus and auditory system adapted morphoanatomically to an underwater life is unique in the animal kingdom. But their ability to perceive sounds produced in the air remains controversial due to the lack of experimental demonstrations. The objectives of this thesis were, on the one hand, to explore the spontaneous contextual usage of acoustic signals in a captive group of bottlenose dolphins and, on the other hand, to test experimentally underwater and aerial abilities in auditory perception. Our first observational study describes the daily life of our dolphins in captivity, and shows that vocal signalling reflects, at a large scale, the temporal distribution of social and non-social activities in a facility under human control. Our second observational study focuses on the immediate context of emission of the three main acoustic categories previously identified in the dolphins’ vocal repertoire, i.e. whistles, burst-pulses and click trains. We found preferential associations between each vocal category and specific types of social interactions and identified context-dependent patterns of sound combinations. Our third study experimentally tested, under standardized conditions, the response of dolphins to human-made individual sound labels broadcast under and above water. We found that dolphins were able to recognize and to react only to their own label, even when broadcast in the air. Apart from confirming aerial hearing, these findings go in line with studies supporting that dolphins possess a concept of identity. Overall, the results obtained during this thesis suggest that some social signals in the dolphin repertoire can be used to communicate specific information about the behavioural contexts of the individuals involved and that individuals are able to generalize their concept of identity for human-generated signals.
... It is uncontested that birds and mammals learn and recall categories [28,29], but some have claimed that animal categories are little more than reflexes, reactively elicited in sensory cortices by sensory inputs and lacking the flexibility and generality of human concepts [18,30]. However, current data demonstrate that many species form cross-modal associations, showing that their categories are flexibly multi-modal [31][32][33]. Animals can summon categorical representations in the absence of relevant triggering stimuli, for instance seeking hidden food items at particular times, or re-hiding food items a potential thief saw them hide, in the absence of that thief [34]. They can compute abstract relationships like 'same' and 'different', for example, correctly choosing novel 'same' pairs when presented with two matched objects, and vice versa when given unmatched pairs [35,36]. ...
... Turning now to a large-brained species, the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus is another species for which we have solid data about both cognition and communication. Dolphins have sophisticated cognitive abilities rivalling those of non-human primates [31]. They rapidly learn a 'delayed match-to-sample' task and generalize across hundreds of novel sounds [55]. ...
... They rapidly learn a 'delayed match-to-sample' task and generalize across hundreds of novel sounds [55]. Dolphins can remember lists of items (spatial locations, visual objects or sounds), correctly indicating whether a probe stimulus was or was not in the list, and show a classic recency effect, like humans [31]. Dolphins show cross-modal integration, matching visually and acoustically perceived (via echolocation) object shapes, and show mirror self-recognition, inspecting themselves in a mirror when marked in an otherwise invisible location (and not doing so when sham-marked). ...
Studies of animal communication are often assumed to provide the ‘royal road’ to understanding the evolution of human language. After all, language is the pre-eminent system of human communication: doesn't it make sense to search for its precursors in animal communication systems? From this viewpoint, if some characteristic feature of human language is lacking in systems of animal communication, it represents a crucial gap in evolution, and evidence for an evolutionary discontinuity. Here I argue that we should reverse this logic: because a defining feature of human language is its ability to flexibly represent and recombine concepts, precursors for many important components of language should be sought in animal cognition rather than animal communication. Animal communication systems typically only permit expression of a small subset of the concepts that can be represented and manipulated by that species. Thus, if a particular concept is not expressed in a species' communication system this is not evidence that it lacks that concept. I conclude that if we focus exclusively on communicative signals, we sell the comparative analysis of language evolution short. Therefore, animal cognition provides a crucial (and often neglected) source of evidence regarding the biology and evolution of human language.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘What can animal communication teach us about human language?’
... By training their dolphins to respond to auditory and gestural cues, Herman and colleagues tested dolphins on a variety of tasks carefully constructed to probe their cognitive abilities. Animals were trained to perform various actions such as fetch, leap over, swim under, etc. often in conjunction with various items such as ball, hoop, and frisbee (Herman, 2010). In most of Herman's studies, objects were positioned appropriately to allow the dolphins to perform the requested action. ...
... While some have questioned the validity of Pryor's et al. (1969) original findings (e.g., Holth, 2012), similar methods have since been used to elicit novel behavior in a variety of other species (dogs, Canis lupus familiaris; cats, Felis catus; horses, Equus ferus caballus; parrots, Psittaciformes; gorillas, Gorilla gorilla gorilla; budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulates; and walruses, Odobenus rosmarus) (Manabe, 1997;Manabe & Dooling, 1997;Pryor, 2004aPryor, , 2004bPryor, , 2006Pryor, , 2009Schusterman & Reichmuth, 2007), including bottlenose dolphins (Herman, 1991;Kuczaj & Eskelinen, 2014). Herman and colleagues taught bottlenose dolphins a create gesture, which asked for a behavior different from the preceding behavior (Braslau-Schneck, 1994;Herman, 1991Herman, , 2002Herman, , 2006Herman, , 2010Mercado, Murray, Uyeyama, Pack, & Herman, 1998;Mercado, Uyeyama, Pack, & Herman, 1999). This is slightly different than Pryor's et al. (1969) study in that creative behavior is now under control of a gesture, allowing trainers to repeatedly ask for new behaviors within a single trial. ...
... In some primates, cognitive abilities appear to have coevolved across functional domains leading Reader et al. (2011) to suggest that some form of flexible, general intelligence was selected for in these species. Given that some odontocetes excel in a variety of cognition abilities (Herman, 2010), their innovative and creative skills could be an extension of a similar general intelligence. However, much greater detail on the cognitive abilities of a wider range of odontocete taxa are needed to better test this hypothesis. ...
In this chapter, we explore examples of novel, unusual, and atypical behavior by both wild and captive whales and dolphins in an effort to inform our understanding of cetacean innovative and creative abilities. While innovative and perhaps creative behavior occurs in a variety of contexts for both suborders, far more examples have been observed in odontocetes than mysticetes, which may be due to differences in ecology, morphology, life history, and/or cognitive ability, or simply reflect biases in the available data. In comparison to other taxa, data from cetacean research is less complete, but does provide important comparative insights into who innovates and why.
... While dolphins and whales demonstrate many other notable cognitive capacities, including fairly robust memory (despite an apparently atrophic limbic lobe) and decision-making (for review see : Herman, 2010;Janik, 2013), they do not clearly distinguish themselves cognitively outside the area of auditory and vocal processing and social interaction. ...
... At his time, Lilly was convinced that dolphins possessed a discernible and comprehensible language (e.g., Lilly, 1961Lilly, , 1967. Today, it is known that trained dolphins are able to correctly follow symbolic instructions on a screen and that they easily understand the meaning of a human's pointing gesture (Herman, 2010). Only humans and dolphins appear capable of imitation in multiple modalities (Hauser et al., 2002). ...
Since the early days of neuroanatomy, the brains of dolphins and whales have attracted attention for their large volume, unusual shape, and intense gyrification. Progress toward describing the central nervous system of cetaceans has been aptly summarized in several seminal articles and reviews. While the authors of these papers have been largely in agreement regarding the key features of dolphin neural organization, there is ongoing and unsettled controversy concerning the relationship between dolphin brains and empathy, social organization, and ultimately the intelligence of these fascinating species. The functional characteristics of the cetacean brain, which are central to these sorts of cognitive and behavioral questions, rely not just on settled anatomical understanding but also on ongoing and incomplete exploration into cetacean neurophysiology. In this chapter, we will briefly summarize what uncontroversial facts are known regarding dolphin (and whale) brains and highlight unsolved issues, with a particular attention to neurophysiology.
... There is a substantial body of research of captive cetaceans. It is clear that in some areas such as physiology (e.g., Wiliams et al. 2017;Noren et al. 2017), echolocation (Au 2015), and cognition (Herman 2010), studies of captive animals have made very substantive contributions to our understanding of cetaceans' biology. Indeed, some of the strongest advocates for ocean sanctuaries for captive cetaceans came to their stance from studies of the cognition of captive dolphins (e.g., Reiss and Marino 2001). ...
... In terms of research, a large body of important research has been conducted with captive cetaceans (e.g., Au 2015;Herman 2010, Pack 2015. Clearly, highly controlled environments are more conducive to experimental studies than open water environments. ...
People have held marine mammals captive for public display for centuries, and the history of peoples’ engagement with free-ranging marine mammals has an even longer history. Currently, most concern is expressed over keeping cetaceans captive, rather than other marine mammals, so cetaceans are the focus of this chapter. Conservation and animal welfare arguments against catching free-ranging cetaceans have gained traction in many countries in recent decades. Few nations now have live-capture industries. The reasons for and against maintaining captive cetaceans continue to be debated. While some countries have banned keeping cetaceans captive for entertainment, the industry is growing in others, particularly China. As standards for captive husbandry in some of these new operations are poor, survival and welfare there remain problematic. In some other nations, conditions for captive cetaceans have improved markedly, and captive dolphins live at least as long as their free-ranging conspecifics. The recent extinction of the baiji and dire conservation situation of other small odontocetes have led to a call for new thinking on the possible role of ex situ conservation measures. For this, the veterinary and husbandry skills developed for captive cetaceans can play a role in integrated conservation programs. There is a continuum of interactions with cetaceans, from remote observation of free-ranging animals, through engagement with dolphins that seek human interaction, semi-natural reserves used in the conservation programs, to cetaceans kept in indoor pools far from the ocean. The development of oceanic sanctuaries to house cetaceans formerly held in entertainment facilities adds to this continuum, and allows more options for integrated conservation. As humanity’s understanding of the complexity of the lives of cetaceans has improved, our ethical stance on some aspects of maintaining them in captivity has shifted. At the same time, our need to engage the public with conservation messaging, and to manage the welfare of free-ranging cetaceans injured by human actions, has also grown.Keywords
Tursiops; Orcinus
Delphinapterus
Ocean sanctuariesLive captureWildlife rescuerehabilitationAnimal welfare
... Nevertheless, in general, cetacean visual systems are considered to be well developed [Supin et al., 2001;Supin, 2007, 2009] and there is an increasing body of evidence that vision plays an important role in a range of different cetacean behaviours [Mobley and Helweg, 1990;Würsig et al., 1990;Mann et al., 2000;Cronin et al., 2017]. Having said this, our knowledge of the visual capabilities of cetaceans comes primarily from studies of small odontocetes, such as the porpoises and dolphins (Table 1) [e.g., Spong and White, 1971;White et al., 1971;Herman, 1990Herman, , 2010Mobley and Helweg, 1990;Tomonaga et al., 2014], which, being much smaller than mysticetes, can thus be more readily kept in captivity and used in psychophysical experiments. It is also possible to more readily collect well-preserved tissue from odontocetes that die in captivity, or from animals that become stranded [Murayama and Somiya, 1998;Mass and Supin, 1995;Mass et al., 2013]. ...
... 17-20 cycles/degree) [Coimbra et al., 2012], and seals (approx. 8-12 cycles/degree) [Hanke et al. 2009; Brain Behav Evol DOI: 10.1159/000495285 Mass and Supin, 2003, 2010. Furthermore, anatomical SRP in cetaceans is generally low when compared with values for large-eyed terrestrial mammals (calculated using similar methods), such as rhinoceroses (6-7 cycles/degree) [Pettigrew and Manger, 2008;, the river hippopotamus (8 cycles/degree) , the camel (approx. ...
Little is known about the visual systems of large baleen whales (Mysticeti: Cetacea). In this study, we investigate eye morphology and the topographic distribution of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in two species of mysticete, Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) and the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia). Both species have large eyes characterised by a thickened cornea, a heavily thickened sclera, a highly vascularised fibro-adipose bundle surrounding the optic nerve at the back of the eye, and a reflective blue-green tapetum fibrosum. Using stereology and retinal whole mounts, we estimate a total of 274,268 and 161,371 RGCs in the Bryde’s whale and humpback whale retinas, respectively. Both species have a similar retinal topography, consisting of nasal and temporal areas of high RGC density, suggesting that having higher visual acuity in the anterior and latero-caudal visual fields is particularly important in these animals. The temporal area is larger in both species and contains the peak RGC densities (160 cells mm–2 in the humpback whale and 200 cells mm–2 in Bryde’s whale). In the Bryde’s whale retina, the two high-density areas are connected by a weak centro-ventral visual streak, but such a specialisation is not evident in the humpback whale. Measurements of RGC soma area reveal that although the RGCs in both species vary substantially in size, RGC soma area is inversely proportional to RGC density, with cells in the nasal and temporal high-density areas being relatively more homogeneous in size compared to the RGCs in the central retina and the dorsal and ventral retinal periphery. Some of the RGCs were very large, with soma areas of over 2,000 µm². Using peak RGC density and eye axial diameter (Bryde’s whale: 63.5 mm; humpback whale: 48.5 mm), we estimated the peak anatomical spatial resolving power in water to be 4.8 cycles/degree and 3.3 cycles/degree in the Bryde’s whale and the humpback whale, respectively. Overall, our findings for these two species are very similar to those reported for other species of cetaceans. This indicates that, irrespective of the significant differences in body size and shape, behavioural ecology and feeding strategy between mysticetes and odontocetes (toothed whales), cetacean eyes are adapted to vision in dim light and adhere to a common “bauplan” that evolved prior to the divergence of the two cetacean parvorders (Odontoceti and Mysticeti) over 30 million years ago.
... Dolphins-Despite being highly recognized for their echolocation capabilities, dolphins have roughly equivalent visual and acoustic acuity (Herman et al. 1975, Herman 1990, Pack and Herman 1995; except for the river dolphins that have poor visual acuity). With vision capabilities comparable to dogs and cats, dolphins can see farther in air (approximately 8.2 min of arc at 1 m)-potentially useful to detect surface cues regarding feeding opportunities, such as seabird activity-than in water (approximately 12.5 min of arc at 2.5 m) where nearby prey capture is critical (Herman et al. 1975, Herman 2010. Overall, dolphins have good visual resolution, acuity, brightness and contrast sensitivity, motion detection, rudimentary color sensitivity, and distance perception that serves important biological functions, including prey Table 1. ...
... Although matrilineal inheritance likely cannot account for sub-meso scale environmental variability that drives prey dynamics, this mechanism may also be used as meso, macro, and large scale guides to foraging grounds, especially in migratory baleen whales. There is strong empirical evidence of high memory capacity of dolphins (Herman 2010). Therefore, it is probable that dolphins memorize features within their home-range seascape that are associated with foraging opportunities, such as particular channels, mudbanks, or seagrass beds. ...
Research on cetacean foraging ecology is central to our understanding of their spatial and behavioral ecology. Yet, functional mechanisms by which cetaceans detect prey across different scales remain unclear. Here, I postulate that cetaceans utilize a scale-dependent, multimodal sensory system to assess and increase prey encounters. I review the literature on cetacean sensory systems related to foraging ecology, and hypothesize the effective scales of each sensory modality to inform foraging opportunities. Next, I build two “scale-of-senses” schematics for the general groups of dolphins and baleen whales. These schematics illustrate the hypothetical interchange of sensory modalities used to locate and discriminate prey at spatial scales ranging from 0 m to 1,000 km: (1) vision, (2) audition (sound production and sound reception), (3) chemoreception, (4) magnetoreception, and somatosensory perception of (5) prey, or (6) oceanographic stimuli. The schematics illustrate how a cetacean may integrate sensory modalities to form an adaptive foraging landscape as a function of distance to prey. The scale-of-senses schematic is flexible, allowing for case-specific application and enhancement with improved cetacean sensory data. The framework serves to improve our understanding of functional cetacean foraging ecology, and to develop new hypotheses, methods, and results regarding how cetaceans forage at multiple scales.
... About 40 years ago, it could have been diffi cult to imagine that animals can learn to associate arbitrary signs with meanings, to generate new symbols with new meanings, and to use these signs to communicate simple statements, requests and questions; to refer to objects and events displaced in time and space; to classify novel objects into appropriate semantic categories; and to transmit their knowledge to peers and offspring. There are many excellent books and reviews written by researchers who carried out projects on teaching sign languages to apes (Patterson and Linden 1981 ;SavageRumbaugh and Lewin 1994 ;Fields et al. 2007 ), dolphins (Herman 2010 ;Herzing and Johnson 2015 ), and an African grey parrot (Pepperberg 2008 ). In this Section, we briefl y consider how this method has infl uenced the development of animal lan- guage behaviour studies. ...
... He answers cor- rectly an astonishing number of questions regarding these objects, such as "What object is blue?", "What shape is wood?", "How many are wool?". Herman and colleagues studied dolphins' linguistic skills focusing on their lan- guage comprehension rather than on language production (Herman 1980(Herman , 2010Herman et al. 1999 ). The researchers concentrated on dolphins' receptive compe- tencies, mainly on their capabilities of processing both semantic and syntactic infor- mation. ...
Experimental evidence of information transmission in ants is considered, from early experimental results to the general experimental paradigm elaborated later in the long-term “binary tree” study. Methodological details are presented, as well as the results of experiments in which ants were confronted with a rather complex life-or-death task: they could obtain food only in a “binary tree” maze by means of distant homing, lacking a possibility to use odour trails. Only scouting ants appeared to be capable of remembering sequences of turns towards the target and sharing this information with members of their constant team of foragers. A new battery of tests revealed characteristic features of scouts, such as intelligence, exploratory activity, bravery without self-sacrifice, high frequency of switching between activities and faithful interest to the variety of stimuli.
... Along the way, Lou coauthored a catalog of North Pacific humpback whale tail fluke images and life-history data (Perry et al. 1988); coedited a book, "Language and Communication: Comparative Perspectives" (Roitblat et al. 1993); traveled to Ecuador to carry out field research on the Amazon river dolphin in the Rio Largarto Cocha ; published various syntheses of his work (Herman 1991(Herman , 2000(Herman , 2002c(Herman , 2006(Herman , 2009b(Herman , 2010Pack 1994, 2001;Herman et al. 2008); worked with his daughter Elia to deploy National Geographic's Crittercam (suction cup mounted video, audio, and data logging tags) on humpback whales for the first time in a breeding ground (E. Herman et al. 2007); was awarded with Adam Pack and Matthias Hoffmann-Kuhnt the American Psychological Association's Division 6's F. A. Beach Comparative Psychology Award for the Best Paper published in 1998 in the Journal Comparative Psychology ; and saw KBMML's work featured in the United States and internationally in scores of newspaper and magazine articles such as National Geographic (1979,2008,2015), People Magazine (1979) In December of 2005, Lou retired from the University of Hawaii, but not from writing and research. ...
... In tribute to the dolphins, Lou returned to the question he started with all those years ago: What is the large dolphin brain capable of? This led him to publish insightful works on dolphin rational behavior (Herman 2006), dolphin cognition (Herman 2010), and dolphin awareness of body and self (Herman 2012b). He also tackled the 32 yr of accumulated data on individually photographed humpback whales in Hawaii and in 2011 produced a seminal paper on long-term resightings of humpbacks . ...
... About 40 years ago, it could have been diffi cult to imagine that animals can learn to associate arbitrary signs with meanings, to generate new symbols with new meanings, and to use these signs to communicate simple statements, requests and questions; to refer to objects and events displaced in time and space; to classify novel objects into appropriate semantic categories; and to transmit their knowledge to peers and offspring. There are many excellent books and reviews written by researchers who carried out projects on teaching sign languages to apes (Patterson and Linden 1981 ;SavageRumbaugh and Lewin 1994 ;Fields et al. 2007 ), dolphins (Herman 2010 ;Herzing and Johnson 2015 ), and an African grey parrot (Pepperberg 2008 ). In this Section, we briefl y consider how this method has infl uenced the development of animal lan- guage behaviour studies. ...
... He answers cor- rectly an astonishing number of questions regarding these objects, such as "What object is blue?", "What shape is wood?", "How many are wool?". Herman and colleagues studied dolphins' linguistic skills focusing on their lan- guage comprehension rather than on language production (Herman 1980(Herman , 2010Herman et al. 1999 ). The researchers concentrated on dolphins' receptive compe- tencies, mainly on their capabilities of processing both semantic and syntactic infor- mation. ...
Most of the literature that uses information-theoretic methods to study animal communications represents the signals emitted by animals as “texts”. This chapter focuses on the conceptually distinct experimental method based on fundamental ideas of information theory, such as the Shannon entropy, the Kolmogorov complexity, and the Shannon’s equation connecting the length of a message l and its frequency of occurrence p, i.e., l = − log p. This approach enabled us to discover a developed symbolic “language” in highly social ant species based on their ability to transfer abstract information about remote events, and to estimate the rate of information transmission. These insects are demonstrated to be able to grasp regularities and to use them for compression of data they communicate to each other.
... About 40 years ago, it could have been diffi cult to imagine that animals can learn to associate arbitrary signs with meanings, to generate new symbols with new meanings, and to use these signs to communicate simple statements, requests and questions; to refer to objects and events displaced in time and space; to classify novel objects into appropriate semantic categories; and to transmit their knowledge to peers and offspring. There are many excellent books and reviews written by researchers who carried out projects on teaching sign languages to apes (Patterson and Linden 1981 ;SavageRumbaugh and Lewin 1994 ;Fields et al. 2007 ), dolphins (Herman 2010 ;Herzing and Johnson 2015 ), and an African grey parrot (Pepperberg 2008 ). In this Section, we briefl y consider how this method has infl uenced the development of animal lan- guage behaviour studies. ...
... He answers cor- rectly an astonishing number of questions regarding these objects, such as "What object is blue?", "What shape is wood?", "How many are wool?". Herman and colleagues studied dolphins' linguistic skills focusing on their lan- guage comprehension rather than on language production (Herman 1980(Herman , 2010Herman et al. 1999 ). The researchers concentrated on dolphins' receptive compe- tencies, mainly on their capabilities of processing both semantic and syntactic infor- mation. ...
Communication it too broad a concept and speech is too narrow to consider as the form of information transfer in animals. A polymorphous concept of language is more useful for reasoning about animal communication. I suggest to distinguish between the concepts of “language” and “language behaviour”. The latter concept considers the highest form of animal communication and includes referential signals and means for transferring information about remote events.
... About 40 years ago, it could have been diffi cult to imagine that animals can learn to associate arbitrary signs with meanings, to generate new symbols with new meanings, and to use these signs to communicate simple statements, requests and questions; to refer to objects and events displaced in time and space; to classify novel objects into appropriate semantic categories; and to transmit their knowledge to peers and offspring. There are many excellent books and reviews written by researchers who carried out projects on teaching sign languages to apes (Patterson and Linden 1981 ;SavageRumbaugh and Lewin 1994 ;Fields et al. 2007 ), dolphins (Herman 2010 ;Herzing and Johnson 2015 ), and an African grey parrot (Pepperberg 2008 ). In this Section, we briefl y consider how this method has infl uenced the development of animal lan- guage behaviour studies. ...
... He answers cor- rectly an astonishing number of questions regarding these objects, such as "What object is blue?", "What shape is wood?", "How many are wool?". Herman and colleagues studied dolphins' linguistic skills focusing on their lan- guage comprehension rather than on language production (Herman 1980(Herman , 2010Herman et al. 1999 ). The researchers concentrated on dolphins' receptive compe- tencies, mainly on their capabilities of processing both semantic and syntactic infor- mation. ...
The majority of models consider cognitive skills and individual interactions in social insects redundant, and assume that their behaviour is governed mainly by collective decision making. However, social hymenopterans are capable of abstraction, extrapolation and solving rather sophisticated discrimination tasks at the individual level, and this is closely connected with their mode of communication. In ants, the distribution of cognitive responsibilities among individuals depends on which recruitment strategies they use, as well as on the level of social organisation within their family. Unlike mass-recruiting and solely foraging ant species, highly social group-retrieving species can transfer exact information between colony members by means of distant homing, that is, transfer messages about remote events.
... Arbitrariness . Conceptual learning within artificial sign or sound language systems, within several paradigms including learning to recognize a set of images and to compare images, has been demonstrated experimentally [33] . This indirectly proves that there is no direct link between the number of spectral extrema of a word and what the words mean in the hypothetical natural spoken language of the dolphin. ...
... It has been demonstrated that the dolphin correctly understood the commands of the artificial sign language system when they were transmitted as a televised image of the trainer as reliably as when the trainer directly issued them. The words of this language were referentially understood by the dolphin, including the ability to show the presence or absence of the referential object in the pool [33,39] . These facts indirectly prove that dolphins can refer to objects in space and time in their natural spoken communication and to 'discuss' things that are cur-rently absent. ...
... Arbitrariness . Conceptual learning within artificial sign or sound language systems, within several paradigms including learning to recognize a set of images and to compare images, has been demonstrated experimentally [33] . This indirectly proves that there is no direct link between the number of spectral extrema of a word and what the words mean in the hypothetical natural spoken language of the dolphin. ...
... It has been demonstrated that the dolphin correctly understood the commands of the artificial sign language system when they were transmitted as a televised image of the trainer as reliably as when the trainer directly issued them. The words of this language were referentially understood by the dolphin, including the ability to show the presence or absence of the referential object in the pool [33,39] . These facts indirectly prove that dolphins can refer to objects in space and time in their natural spoken communication and to 'discuss' things that are cur-rently absent. ...
This paper continues studies in the problem of animal language by registering acoustic signals from two quasi-stationary Black Sea bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) using a two-channel system in the frequency band up to 220 kHz with a dynamic range of 81dB. The packs of mutually noncoherent pulses (NP) generated by the dolphins were matched to the animals. The waveforms and the spectra of these impulses changed from one impulse to another in each pack. In this connection, a suggestion was made that the set of spectral components of each pulse is a ‘word’ of the dolphin's spoken language and a pack of NPs is a sentence. The paper studied the NP pecularities in the context of the characteristics of the human spoken language.
... Convergent evolution of large brain size in different mammalian and avian groups invites comparative work on cognition, including communication systems (e.g., Connor, 2007;Emery et al., 2007). Along these lines, both non-human primates and marine mammals have developed similar complex behavioural and cognitive abilities that involve social relationships, cultural transmission of information, and sophisticated communication systems (Marino, 2002;Janik, 2009Janik, , 2014Herman, 2010;Whitehead & Rendell, 2015). Of all marine mammals, none has been more thoroughly studied than the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops spp.). ...
... Of all marine mammals, none has been more thoroughly studied than the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops spp.). Bottlenose dolphins have complex social structure and impressive cognitive skills that include learned vocalizations and a remarkable ability to imitate in the vocal and motor domains (Connor, 2007;Marino et al., 2007;Janik, 2009Janik, , 2014Herman, 2010;Bruck, 2013;. Indeed, a combination of traits, including complex nested alliances, synchronous behaviour by allies, and the social use of vocal labelling, may be found only in humans and bottlenose dolphins (Connor, 2007;. ...
Pops are a low-frequency, pulsed vocalization produced by Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiopscf. aduncus) in Shark Bay, Western Australia and are often heard when male alliances are consorting or 'herding' a female. Previous research indicated that pops produced in this context are an agonistic 'come-hither' demand produced by males and directed at female consorts. Here we examine pop occurrence during focal follows on bottlenose dolphin alliances with and without female consorts present. Regression analysis was conducted to determine if pop numbers were higher in the presence of female consorts, and if variables including group size alone and the interaction between presence/absence of a consortship and group size, influenced pop production. While the presence or absence of a consortship significantly affected the number of pops, average group size had no significant effect on pop production. Our research provides further evidence that the pop vocalization plays an important role in consortships.
... Rapid speciation and adaptation to an aquatic environment has led to a range of novel neurobehavioral characteristics in the marine mammals (Cook and Berns, 2022;Cook et al., 2021;Herman, 2010;Kendall-Bar et al., 2023;Lyamin and Siegel, 2019;Oelschläger, 2008;Ridgway and Hanson, 2014). While substantial research has been conducted on the cognition 1 of marine mammals (primarily cetaceans and pinnipeds), relatively little research has been conducted on manatees (Bauer and Reep, 2022;Henaut et al., 2022;Reep and Bauer, 2023), and that which has been done lies primarily in the area of sensory processes. ...
The nervous systems of manatees are strikingly unique across multiple dimensions. Manatees have the largest lissencephalic (smooth) brains in the animal kingdom, and demonstrate unusual somatosensory anatomy and physiology in the peripheral and central nervous system. As a rare aquatic herbivore sharing ancestry with modern elephants, manatee evolutionary history and behavioral ecology diverges substantially from that of other marine mammal clades, and their nervous system has adapted to the specific challenges they face. Although they are difficult to access for controlled behavioral study, prior neurobiological work has provided insight into manatee cognition. Here we review the evidence on manatee peripheral and central nervous function and present novel preliminary post-mortem diffusion MRI findings on whole-brain patterns of connectivity. Compared to another marine mammal, the California sea lion, manatee brains show apparently reduced corticocortical complexity. This may help explain their lissencephaly and relate to hypothesized reduced radial glial cell activity during neurodevelopment. Despite this apparently “simple” brain, manatees in the wild show some cognitively sophisticated behaviors, particularly in the realm of navigation. Future work in manatees should examine local and global brain connectivity related to spatial navigation and other complex cognitive capabilities.
... With socio-ecological backgrounds comparable to that of chimpanzees (including fission-fusion groups, social learning and culture, and complex cooperation 16 ) bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) are often placed among the most cognitively advanced species, with abilities rivalling that of the non-human primates [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] . As highly social animals, bottlenose dolphin live in pods ranging in size from pairs to around 100 individuals 25 . ...
The ability to attribute attentional states to other individuals is a highly adaptive socio-cognitive skill and thus may have evolved in many social species. However, whilst humans excel in this ability, even chimpanzees appear to not accurately understand how visual attention works, particularly in regard to the function of eyes. The complex socio-ecological background and socio-cognitive skill-set of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.), alongside the specialised training that captive dolphins typically undergo, make them an especially relevant candidate for an investigation into their sensitivity to human attentional states. Therefore, we tested 8 bottlenose dolphins on an object retrieval task. The dolphins were instructed to fetch an object by a trainer under various attentional state conditions involving the trainer’s eyes and face orientation: ‘not looking’, ‘half looking’, ‘eyes open’, and ‘eyes closed’. As the dolphins showed an increased latency to retrieve the object in conditions where the trainer’s head and eyes cued a lack of attention to the dolphin, particularly when comparing ‘eyes open’ vs ‘eyes closed’ conditions, we demonstrate that dolphins can be sensitive to human attentional features, namely the functionality of eyes. This study supports growing evidence that dolphins possess highly complex cognitive abilities, particularly those in the social domain.
... Ex-situ research is considered one of the pillars of contemporary animal management (Association of Zoos & Aquariums, AZA). Zoos and aquariums provide invaluable opportunities for scientific advancement in a variety of fields including cognition (e.g., Herman, 2010;Pack, 2010). The novel application of a special group of Environmental Enrichment Devices (EEDs), referred to as cognitive enrichments, created a bridge between cognitive experimental testing and animal welfare. ...
Ex-situ research in aquariums and zoological settings not only support scientific advancement, they also provide opportunities for education, facilitating both mental and physical stimulation, consequently improving welfare. This study aimed to investigate the impact of cognitive testing on the well-being of a group of male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. The occurrence of affiliative, aggressive and potentially stereotypical behaviors was assessed based on seven monitored behavior types and compared between “Session days” and “Non-session days.” The consistency of the impact was assessed over a three-year period. The analyses revealed that “Play with enrichment,” “Affiliative tactile,” “Social play” and “Synchronous swim” were significantly higher, while “Aggression” was significantly lower on Session days than on Non-session days. Individual analysis showed significant increase in the positive welfare indicators in all dolphins during Session days. The social network analysis of aggressive interactions between group members also supported an overall decrease of aggression during Session days. These results indicate that dolphin groups that voluntarily participate in cognitive tests under human care benefit from the testing and show an improvement in animal welfare while contributing to scientific advancement.
... Dolphins and other cetaceans are often noted as being among the most cognitively complex taxa, rivaling the abilities of nonhuman primates. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Despite this, research investigating memory and mental time travel in dolphins is scarce. Nevertheless, the limited literature sometimes cited in this context 8,[21][22][23][24] suggests that bottlenose dolphins are able to recall and repeat their own novel behaviors. ...
Episodic memory involves the conscious recollection of personally experienced events, which has often been argued to be a uniquely human ability.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 However, evidence for conscious episodic recall in humans is centered around language-based reports. With no agreed upon non-linguistic behavioral makers of consciousness,⁶ episodic-like memory⁷ therefore represents the behavioral characteristics of human episodic memory, in the absence of evidence for subjective experience during recall. Here, we provide compelling evidence for episodic-like memory in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), based on the incidental encoding and unexpected question paradigm.⁸ This methodology aims to capture the incidental encoding characteristic of human episodic memory, in that when we recall an experience, we remember information that was trivial at the time of encoding, but was encoded automatically.⁹ We show that dolphins are able to use incidentally encoded spatial (“where”) and social (“who”) information to solve an unexpected memory task, using only a single test trial per test type, which ensured that the dolphins did not have the opportunity to semantically learn “rules” to pass the test. All participating dolphins made correct choices in both the “where” and “who” tests. These results suggest that dolphins are capable of encoding, recalling, and accessing incidental information within remembered events, which is an ability indicative of episodic memory in humans. We argue that the complex socio-ecological background of dolphins may have selected for the ability to recall both spatial and social information in an episodic-like manner.
... In many cases, dolphins have been shown to match object shapes across visual and acoustic senses even the first time they are presented with an object 7,40 . Some hypotheses have been put forward that echolocation yields some mental pictorial representation of the object 41 . In any case, it is obvious that the dolphin's echoes during EV-MTS trials contain enough information to reconstruct the shapes that it acoustically interrogates, or at least features that allow target discrimination. ...
Underwater imaging sonars are widely used for oceanic exploration but are bulky and expensive for some applications. The sonar system of dolphins, which uses sound pulses called clicks to investigate their environment, offers superior shape discrimination capability compared to human-derived imaging sonars of similar size and frequency. In order to gain better understanding of dolphin sonar imaging, we train a dolphin to acoustically interrogate certain objects and match them visually. We record the echoes the dolphin receives and are able to extract object shape information from these recordings. We find that infusing prior information into the processing, specifically the sparsity of the shapes, yields a clearer interpretation of the echoes than conventional signal processing. We subsequently develop a biomimetic sonar system that combines sparsity-aware signal processing with high-frequency broadband click signals similar to that of dolphins, emitted by an array of transmitters. Our findings offer insights and tools towards compact higher resolution sonar imaging technologies. Hari Vishnu and colleagues use signal processing that exploits sparsity information to visualise dolphin echolocation signals during object interrogation. The approach is then combined with transmission of dolphin-like click signals towards a compact acoustic imaging tool.
... 53 Dolphins, despite having no hands or fingers of their own, also easily understand the symbolic significance of a human's pointing gesture without any explicit training, another feat unknown in primates and demonstrated elsewhere only in dogs, which have a long history of domestication. 54 Careful study of cetaceans in their natural habitats could reveal a host of other social and cognitive abilities so far unsuspected. ...
Though separated from human beings by tens of millions of years of independent evolution, whales and dolphins are highly intelligent and social animals, recognizably like human beings, if only in ways that we can sense but cannot quite measure. Kieran Fox reviews historical attitudes toward cetaceans, studies of cetacean communication, and links between brain size and sociability.
... The primacy effect is a hallmark of LTM and the recency effect is a hallmark of WM (Düzel et al., 1996;Wright, 1989). This cognitive phenomenon has also been documented in different species of non-humans, including, for instance, monkeys (Botvinick et al., 2009;Castro and Larsen, 1992;Scarf et al., 2018;Wright, 2007), rats (Reed et al., 1991), rabbits (Wagner and Pfautz, 1978), dolphins (Herman, 2010), and pigeons (Wright, 2007). Among these studies, of particular interest for the present purposes are the studies of Wright (1989Wright ( , 2007, because they examined the performance of different species, including humans, in the same task. ...
Working memory and its components are among the most determinant factors in human cognition. However, in spite of their critical importance, many aspects of their evolution remain underinvestigated. The present study is devoted to reviewing the literature of memory studies from an evolutionary, comparative perspective, focusing particularly on short term memory capacity. The findings suggest the limited capacity to be the common attribute of different species of birds and mammals. Moreover, the results imply an increasing trend of capacity from our non-human ancestors to modern humans. The present evidence shows that non-human mammals and birds, regardless of their limitations, are capable of performing memory strategies, although there seem to be some differences between their ability and that of humans in terms of flexibility and efficiency. These findings have several implications relevant to the psychology of memory and cognition, and are likely to explain differences between higher cognitive abilities of humans and non-humans. The adaptive benefits of the limited capacity and the reasons for the growing trend found in the present study are broadly discussed.
... Research on teaching animals simple human language indicate that at least some animals appear to have the cognitive capacity to decode language or language-like expressions. Herman's dolphins could comprehend a sign language command such as "take the ball to the hoop" and to distinguish it from a similar but syntactically different command like "take the hoop to the ball" (Herman, 2010). Kanzi the bonobo could respond correctly to novel verbal commands such as "Can you put the pine needles in the refrigerator?" ...
Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language. How is it, then, that some animals can master a version of language, yet none of them deploy this capacity in their own communication system? I first examine the key design features that are often used to evaluate language-like properties of natural animal communication systems. I then consider one candidate animal system, bird song, because it has several of the key design features or their precursors, including social learning and cultural transmission of their vocal signals. I conclude that although bird song communication is nuanced and complex, and has the acoustic potential for productivity, it is not productive – it cannot be used to say many different things. Finally, I discuss the debate over whether animal communication should be viewed as a cooperative information transmission process, as we typically view human language, or as a competitive process where signaler and receiver vie for control. The debate points to a necessary condition for the evolution of a simple language that has generally been overlooked: the degree of to which the interests of the signaler and receiver align. While strong cognitive and signal production mechanisms are necessary pre-adaptations for a simple language, they are not sufficient. Also necessary is the existence of identical or near-identical interests of signaler and receiver and a socio-ecology that requires high-level cooperation across a range of contexts. In the case of our hominid ancestors, these contexts included hunting, gathering, child care and, perhaps, warfare. I argue that the key condition for the evolution of human language was the extreme interdependency that existed among unrelated individuals in the hunter-gatherer societies of our hominid ancestors. This extreme interdependency produced multiple prosocial adaptations for effective intragroup cooperation, which in partnership with advanced cognitive abilities, set the stage for the evolution of language.
... Lastly, the serial position effect, first defined by Ebbinghaus (1902) and later elaborated upon by Murdock (1962), is characterized by high rates of recall of the first and last items in a list, also known as the effects of primacy and recency. This cognitive phenomenon has been documented in humans (e.g., Jensen, 1962;Murdock, 1962), rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta; Sands & Wright, 1980), and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus; Herman, 2010;Kuczaj & Eskelinen, 2014;Pearce, 2008;Thompson & Herman, 1977). As such, it is possible that behaviors rehearsed most recently by bottlenose dolphins are more commonly exhibited under a positively reinforced create paradigm when compared to those with longer periods of nonrehearsal. ...
When analyzing animal behavior, it is important to consider the influence of learning principles. The create response of bottlenose dolphins, elicited by a discriminative stimulus, or an SD (visual cue presented to an animal by a trainer), has been described as an elective, often novel response based on arbitrary preferences of individual animals. The goal of this study was to identify the potential influence of reinforcement theory, response class, and primacy and recency on the create responses of bottlenose dolphins. Three, male subjects with an established mastery of the create paradigm, identified in this study as a non-specific, non-repeat contingency, were assessed over the course of two months while under stimulus control (pre-assessment), followed by evaluations of the create response (create assessment) using a double-blind sampling model. During the pre- and create assessments, each response was quantified regarding response class, frequency of request, and reinforcement type, frequency, and magnitude. When presented with the create SD, the dolphins elected to produce behaviors predominantly associated with the more recent training context (create assessment) versus behaviors associated with training that occurred months prior (pre-assessment), which may demonstrate the effects of primacy versus recency. Additionally, the create trials were associated with reinforcement on a high frequency and magnitude, fixed, low ratio schedule, and the subjects most often performed the behaviors associated with the greatest magnitude of primary reinforcement, which highlights the influence of reinforcement and the law of effects. Lastly, two subjects never responded with high energy behaviors in the create contingency, and one subject performed significantly more low and medium energy responses when compared to high energy behaviors, capturing the effects of a response class characterized by intensity under a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule. Thus, the create response was not represented by arbitrary elective preferences but rather, partially driven by the learning theories examined.
... These issues are particularly pertinent for dolphin cognitive research, which currently finds itself in a replication bias or crisis state. First, many of the original cognitive studies were conducted with a handful of dolphins in a limited number of laboratories (Herman, 2010;Pack, 2015). Since these original studies, diversity across the facilities that conduct cognitive research in odontocetes has increased but is still very limited to a handful of researchers and limited subjects. ...
Critical to advanced social intelligence is the ability to take into consideration the thoughts and feelings of others, a skill referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM) or mindreading. In this article, we present a critical review of the comparative methodology and utility of the nonverbal FBT along with a description of an attempted FBT replication conducted with a bottlenose dolphin prior to the implementation of the more successful approaches used currently. Attempting to replicate Tschudin’s (2001, 2006) methodology with dolphins highlighted several flaws that may explain the failures of socially complex mammals to display competency: (1) reliance on a containment invisible displacement procedure that is difficult for non-human animals and especially dolphins to follow, (2) a complex procedure which demands extensive training time, (3) a long trial duration with several moving parts which taxes the animal’s memory and attention, and (4) a restricted number of two-choice FBT test trials, which limits statistical power given the small pool of trained animals. Although recent research paradigms for primates have corrected for some of these flaws, it is critical that comparative psychologists address these limitations for other species or taxa to be tested validly. Future research in ToM understanding through a false belief approach should move toward more ecologically valid designs and appropriate implicit measures that facilitate comparative approaches that can be replicated.
... They can visually discriminate 2-D objects (Tomonaga, Uwano, & Saito, 2014;von Fersen, Schall, & Güntürkün, 2000), 3-D objects (Harley, Roitblat, & Nachtigall, 1996), different quantities of objects (Jaakkola, Fellner, Erb, Rodriguez, & Guarino, 2005;Kilian, von Fersen, & Güntürkün, 2005), human gestural signs presented in person or displayed on a 2-D TV screen (Herman, Morrel-Samuels, & Pack, 1990;Herman, Richards, & Wolz, 1984), and their human trainers when they were wearing different outfits (Tomonaga et al., 2015). Using vision, dolphins have responded to human gestures to perform a variety of cognitively complex tasks (for a review, see Herman, 2010). However, to date, there have been no published studies of visual object constancy in dolphins. ...
Aquatic species such as bottlenose dolphins can move in 3 dimensions and frequently view objects from different orientations. This study examined their ability to identify 2-D objects visually despite changes in orientation across 2 rotation planes. A dolphin performed a matching-to-sample task in which a sample was presented at a different orientation from its match in a 3-alternative choice array. Samples were presented at 6 aspect angles in the picture plane (0°, ±45°, ±135°, 180°) and 6 aspect angles in the depth plane (0°, -45°, ±90°, +135°, 180°). Alternatives were always presented at 0°. Performance was significantly better than chance for all aspect angles in both rotation plane tests. There was a significant linear decline in accuracy as the sample object was rotated from 0° toward 180° in the picture plane. Performance with familiar objects (M = 97.1%) exceeded performance with novel objects (M = 76.9%). In the depth plane rotation test, there was a significant quadratic trend in accuracy as the sample object was rotated from 0° toward 180°, in which performance was significantly lower at ±90° than at all other orientations. Performance in the picture plane where all object features were available irrespective of orientation was significantly better than performance in the depth plane where the availability of visible features were dependent upon orientation (M = 81.2% vs. M = 63.0%). The dolphin's performance in this study shows evidence of both viewpoint-independent and viewpoint-dependent processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... In general, studies on instrumental helping in species other than primates are scarce and further research is needed. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are excellent candidates for this endeavour as they are a highly social species endowed with sophisticated cognitive abilities (Herman, 2010;Pack and Herman, 2006). In the wild, bottlenose dolphins perform diverse prosocial behaviours such as epimeletic care and rescue behaviour (Caldwell and Caldwell, 1966;Cockcroft, 1990;Kuczaj et al., 2001;Siebenaler and Caldwell, 1956). ...
Although bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are known for being a highly social species that live in complex societies that rely on coalition formation and cooperative behaviours, experimental studies on prosocial behaviour in this species are scarce. Helping others reach their goals (instrumental helping) is considered as an example of prosocial behaviour. Thus, in this pilot study, we examined whether a group of five captive bottlenose dolphins would behave prosocially in an instrumental helping task. Dolphins were given the opportunity to share tokens that allow their partners to obtain a preferred toy. Dolphins were tested in their free time and they could choose to share the tokens or do nothing. None of the dolphins shared the tokens, instead, they preferred to play with them, ignoring their partners. They did transfer the tokens to other sides of the pool but out of the reach of their partners. Therefore, this group of dolphins did not spontaneously help their partners in this task, showing no preference for other-regarding behaviour in this context.
... Bottlenose dolphins naturally produce signature whistles when they are separated from their companions and they appear to use signature whistles referentially to address each other . However, there is no evidence in wild for the referential use of nonsignature whistles or non-whistle sounds, or for the use of syntax (Herman, 2010). ...
Bottlenose dolphins are highly social cetaceans that strongly rely on acoustic communication and signaling. The diversity of sounds emitted by the species has been structurally classified in whistles, clicks and burst-pulsed sounds, with some whistles called « signature whistles » that are used as cohesion calls. During this thesis, we developed an easily deployable system that identifies the animal producing sound and allows simultaneous underwater behavioral observations. We tested this methodology with bottlenose dolphins infreedom and in captivity. The present doctoral thesis aims to better understand the communication of bottlenose dolphins within their social group. First, I developed two studies to describe how the signature and non-signature whistle rate of captive dolphins varies in relation to behavior and interaction with humans. Secondly, I present the design and implementation of an innovative methodology (BaBeL system) that allows the localization of vocalizing dolphins in a three-dimensional environment, and which can be used in captivity and with free-range dolphins. Finally, I present two applications of this location methodology to address research questions regarding the exploratory behavior of a young dolphin and the use of vocalizations for coordinated movements in bottlenose dolphins.
... 23 24 Therefore, we set out to examine the brain of the aged dolphin in order to see if we can reinforce it as a natural model for neurodegenerative diseases, like AD. Even though the dolphins' cognitive skills have been studied, [25][26][27][28] we are unaware of any published data referring to the clinical signs, related to AD-like pathology. In our case, there is no correspondence between the clinical neurological signs and the histopathological and immunohistochemical findings indicative of early or elderly AD. ...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder causing dementia. AD-like pathological lesions have been described in human and in several other animal species. In this study, we report AD-like pathological changes observed in the brain of a 40-year-old dolphin ( Tursiups truncatus ), boosting dolphins as a promising natural model of AD. The amyloid β (Aβ) was detected immunohistochemically as intraneuronal depositions, parenchymal accumulations and limited deposits in the wall of meningeal and parenchymal vessels. Also, neuronal tau positive labelling was noticed. This is the first report to show ΑpoE immunopositive reaction in dolphins. Glial fibrillary acidic protein positive astrocytes were also observed. Our findings are indicative of early AD or mild cognitive impairment pathology. So, they strongly reinforce the statement that dolphins could be a natural animal model of AD due to their lifespan, brain lesions and Αβ homology with the human peptide.
... 23 24 Therefore, we set out to examine the brain of the aged dolphin in order to see if we can reinforce it as a natural model for neurodegenerative diseases, like AD. Even though the dolphins' cognitive skills have been studied, [25][26][27][28] we are unaware of any published data referring to the clinical signs, related to AD-like pathology. In our case, there is no correspondence between the clinical neurological signs and the histopathological and immunohistochemical findings indicative of early or elderly AD. ...
... 27:10 Präriehunde ihre eigene Wahrnehmung der Objekte weitergeben und keine "genetisch vordefinierten" Begriffe verwenden (Slobodchikoff, 2002, p. 262). Es zeigt sich auch, dass ein großer Teil der Präriehund-Sprache tradiert wird 31 und sich unterschiedliche Dialekte entwickelt haben (Slobodchikoff, 2002, p. 259 (Dudzinski, 1996(Dudzinski, , 1998Herman, 2010). Sie können, dank der sehr tiefen Frequenzen (unter 20 Hz) über weite Distanzen kommunizieren (2-4 km). ...
Some people think that humans would be distinct from animals. Humans would be better, smarter, and more evolved than any other animal. Due to our language, our mind would be more developed, our brain more evolved, and our moral status would be higher than the moral status of every other animal. Humans, and only humans, would be moral agents.
In this thesis, I will take a short historical look at the development of the essentials of man, so called Anthropina, created in the last 2,000 years. I criticize the current and historically grown top-down view and instead adopt a bottom-up perspective. This takes into account various aspects and interdisciplinary findings. Using the example of morality, I show how linguistic mechanisms contribute to arbitrarily pulling the human-animal-border. Instead, I show a bottom-up view of morality, which is free of speciesism and lets us think of morality independent of theological and speciesistic arguments. This view is a tool to understand why conscious beings act in their free will as they act. This approach also means that we have to see many animals as morally acting agents, which inevitably raises questions about language and consciousness.
Language and consciousness today are being seen as the distinguishing features of humans from animals. Both features are inseparably connected. In this work I shed light on this dichotomy between the ontological categories of man and animal with regard to these two arguments. I show a bottom-up approach of language that proposes three levels of communication. The first level is the associative signal transmission, which is widespread in the animal kingdom. The second level is communication, which can take place both intra- and interpersonal, and which builds a bridge to consciousness. The third level is substantial (gehaltvolle) communication. This level of communication is more or less what was seen as "language" in the history of the human-animal-border. However, such a bottom-up view of language requires conscious experience, conscious processing of impressions, ideas or feelings.
Therefore, in the last part of the work, I study the nature of consciousness. I discuss different definitions of consciousness, from philosophical to linguistic views. In order to approach the phenomenon of consciousness, I then follow Antonio Damasio's representationalist model. In a critique of his model, I show how his top-down view can be rethought bottom-up in order to approach the question of consciousness in non-human animals. I do not claim to explain consciousness, but instead evaluate a model with which we can describe different levels of consciousness and with which we can make well-founded statements on the question of the human-animal-border. It turns out that the highest form of consciousness, the extended consciousness, is not directly observable, but cognitive concepts such as the theory of mind are examinable. Because those cognitive concepts are a result of the extended consciousness in its highest form, they are crucial for our research question.
In this thesis I show that a strict bottom-up view combined with recent scientific findings and a modern understanding of evolution and mind can only lead to the insight that some animals are moral agents and that language and consciousness are very likely no Anthropina anymore.
... Ez a felismerés jelentette az alapvető inspirációt arra, hogy az összehasonlító elmekutatás művelőinek figyelme olyan, az embertől törzsfejlődésileg távol eső fajok felé forduljon, mint a delfinek (pl. Marino, 2004;Herman, 2010) vagy a varjúfélék (pl. Taylor, 2014), és végső soron ez vezetett a kognitív tudomány egyik, sajátosan magyar gyökerekkel bíró sikertörténetéhez, a kutya mint modellfaj bevezetéséhez az emberi társas kognitív képességek vizsgálatában. ...
Az elmúlt 20 év kutatásai egyértelműen igazolták, hogy a kutya (Canis familiaris) az emberrel való hosszú együttélésnek és az emberi környezethez való alkalmazkodásnak köszönhetően az emberszabásúakkal egyenértékű modellfajként szolgálhat az emberi társas viselkedési készségek kialakulásának vizsgálatában. Ez a sajátos domesztikációs utat bejárt faj ugyanis mindamellett, hogy egyedülállóan érzékeny az emberi vizuális jelzésekre, kötődik a gazdájához, a nyelv használata nélkül is jól megérteti magát, és megérti az ember szándékait, a legkülönbözőbb helyzetekben képes együttműködni az emberrel és társas-kommunikációs készségeit tekintve összességében „csecsemőszerű” jellegzetességeket mutat.
Ehhez képest meglepő, hogy a kutya viselkedésének tudományos vizsgálata csak az 1990-es években kezdődött. A viselkedéskutatók kutya iránti érdeklődése egyrészt összefügg az etológia és a kognitív pszichológia történetének összefonódásával, másrészt a háziasításról mint viselkedésevolúciós folyamatról való tudományos gondolkodás megváltozásával. Ezek nyomán jelentek meg ugyanis azok a kísérleti paradigmák, melyek lehetővé tették, hogy új hipotézisek által inspirált magyarázatokat keressünk a kutya és ember közötti interakciók sajátosságaira, a kutya kivételes szociális érzékenységére és a kommunikációs jelzések tanulásban betöltött szerepére.
A közelmúlt tudománytörténeti mozzanatait is felelevenítő áttekintésünk a kutyaelme-kutatás elmúlt két évtizedének legfontosabb motivációit és főbb fordulatait mutatja be. A kísérletező kutató szemével ismerteti azt a történetet, melynek során a kutya a viselkedéstudomány számára a „farkas elbutult változatá”-ból az „emberi viselkedést egyedülálló módon szimuláló” fajjá vált. Mára már nem kétséges, hogy a kutya viselkedésének és elmeképességeinek elemzése elvezethet minket ahhoz, hogy jobban megértsük az emberré válás során fontos szerepet játszó adaptációs kihívások kognitív képességekre gyakorolt hatását.
... Cognitive processes in animals have been extensively studied in several primate species (Tomasello & Call, 1997;Whiten & Ham, 1992), yet most literature on cetacean cognition comes from studies on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) kept in laboratory environments (Herman, 2010). Furthermore, research on social-cognitive processes in wild populations may be slow due to the kind of data collection necessary for the analysis of behavior. ...
... " , " How many are wool? " .Herman and colleagues studied dolphins' linguistic skills focusing on their language comprehension rather than on language production (Herman 1980Herman , 2010Herman et al. 1999). The researchers concentrated on dolphins' receptive competencies, mainly on their capabilities of processing both semantic and syntactic information. ...
Communication systems of animals as well as their cognitive abilities have been a matter of special interest to biologists, psychologists, linguists, and researchers in many other fields including robotics and artificial intelligence. From time immemorial, people have been dreaming about understanding animal “languages”. However,
decoding the function and meaning of animal communications is a notoriously diffi cult problem. The problem of cracking animals’ codes have become especially attractive since the great “linguistic” potential was discovered in several highly social and intelligent species by means of intermediary artificial languages. Being applied to apes, dolphins, and gray parrots, this method has revealed astonishing mental skills in the subjects. However, surprisingly little is known as yet about natural communication systems even of those species that were involved in language-
training experiments based on adopted human languages. Explorers of animal “languages” thus have met a complex problem of resolving the contradiction between their knowledge about significant “linguistic” and cognitive potential in some species and limitations in understanding their natural communications.
In this book, I attempt to give a multifaceted panorama of the methods developed for studying animal communication and of the most fascinating results in this field, as well as to highlight a conceptually distinct approach that is based on ideas of information theory. The main point of this approach is not to decipher animal signals, but to study a language and evaluate its capabilities by means of measuring the rate of information transmission. The experimental paradigm underlying this approach is to provide a situation in which animals have to transmit information quantitatively known to the experimentalist. The experiments on ants were elabo-
rated and conducted together with the information theorist Boris Ryabko. The first results of this long-term work were reported at the International Information Theory Symposium in 1984, and then the obtained data were discussed at many conferences and published in biological and mathematical journals (see, e.g. Reznikova
and Ryabko 1990, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2011; Ryabko and Reznikova 1996, 2009).
This approach enabled us to discover a sophisticated symbolic “language” in highly social group–retrieving ant species. These insects were found to be able to transfer abstract information about remote events, to grasp regularities, and to use them to optimize their messages. These abilities distinguish ants among other “intellectuals”, such as counting primates, crows and parrots, as one of the smartest groups of species.
... To address this, Clark and colleagues (Clark & Smith, 2013; designed cognitive challenges for socially-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that were intended to provide abstract problems (3D vertical mazes solved using the hands or rostrum respectively) and could be tested with and without extrinsic rewards. They were inspired by laboratory cognitive tests (e.g., great ape trap tubes: Martin-Ordas, Call, & Colmenares, 2008; dolphin underwater modality apparatus: e.g., Herman, 2010), rather than by examples of previous enrichment for these taxa. Clark and Smith (2013) "point toward an area of research which has thus far been overlooked in zoos-in the middle-ground between highly complex and controlled laboratory tasks, and relatively simple food/object enrichment" (p. ...
“Cognitive enrichment” is a subset of enrichment that has gained interest from researchers over the past decade, particularly those working in zoos. This review explores the forms of cognitive enrichment that have been attempted for laboratory, farmed and zoo animals with a focus on the latter, including various definitions, aims, and approaches. This review reveals the fundamental theoretical and practical problems associated with cognitive enrichment, leading to recommendations for further research in this field. Critically, more research is needed to elucidate what makes challenges appropriate for certain taxa, acknowledging that individual differences exist. Going forward, we should be prepared to incorporate more computer technology into cognitive tasks, and examine novel welfare indicators such as flow, competence, and agency.
... Lastly, the serial position effect, first defined by Ebbinghaus (1902) and later elaborated upon by Murdock (1962), is characterized by high rates of recall of the first and last items in a list, also known as the effects of primacy and recency. This cognitive phenomenon has been documented in humans (e.g., Jensen, 1962;Murdock, 1962), rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta; Sands & Wright, 1980), and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus; Herman, 2010;Kuczaj & Eskelinen, 2014;Pearce, 2008;Thompson & Herman, 1977). As such, it is possible that behaviors rehearsed most recently by bottlenose dolphins are more commonly exhibited under a positively reinforced create paradigm when compared to those with longer periods of nonrehearsal. ...
When analyzing animal behavior, it is important to consider the influence of learning principles.
The create response of bottlenose dolphins, elicited by a discriminative stimulus, or an SD (visual
cue presented to an animal by a trainer), has been described as an elective, often novel response
based on arbitrary preferences of individual animals. The goal of this study was to identify the
potential influence of reinforcement theory, response class, and primacy and recency on the create
responses of bottlenose dolphins. Three, male subjects with an established mastery of the create
paradigm, identified in this study as a non-specific, non-repeat contingency, were assessed over
eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing
services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic
research platform to scholars worldwide.
the course of two months while under stimulus control (pre-assessment), followed by evaluations
of the create response (create assessment) using a double-blind sampling model. During the preand
create assessments, each response was quantified regarding response class, frequency of
request, and reinforcement type, frequency, and magnitude. When presented with the create SD,
the dolphins elected to produce behaviors predominantly associated with the more recent training
context (create assessment) versus behaviors associated with training that occurred months prior
(pre-assessment), which may demonstrate the effects of primacy versus recency. Additionally, the
create trials were associated with reinforcement on a high frequency and magnitude, fixed, low
ratio schedule, and the subjects most often performed the behaviors associated with the greatest
magnitude of primary reinforcement, which highlights the influence of reinforcement and the law of
effects. Lastly, two subjects never responded with high energy behaviors in the create contingency,
and one subject performed significantly more low and medium energy responses when compared
to high energy behaviors, capturing the effects of a response class characterized by intensity
under a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule. Thus, the create response was not represented by
arbitrary elective preferences but rather, partially driven by the learning theories examined.
... Almost all of the laboratories abandoned their studies of language per se, but the silver lining was that most shifted to using what we called "two-way communication systems" to examine various forms of cognitive processing that relied on symbolic representation-for example, studies on numerical concepts (e.g., Boysen, 1993 ;Boysen et al., 1993 ;Matsuzawa, 2009 ;Pepperberg, 2006 ;Pepperberg & Carey, 2012 ); rule-governed behavior, perception, and cognition (e.g., Herman, 1987Herman, , 1988Herman, , 2010Herman et al., 1993 ;Schusterman & Gisiner, 1988, 1989Schusterman & Krieger, 1984 ); relational concepts (Pepperberg & Brezinsky, 1991 ;Schusterman & Krieger, 1986 ); and symbolic equivalence (e.g., Kastak & Schusterman, 2002 ;Pepperberg & Gordon, 2005 ;Reiss & McCowan, 1993 ). Other researchers examined different forms of rule-governed behavior (and often social learning) that were the basis for syntax, such as the ordered sets of actions needed to solve puzzle boxes and how those ordered sets may be acquired (keas: Miyata, Gajdon, Huber, & Fujita, 2011 ;apes: Whiten, 1998 ;note Terrace, Son, & Brannon, 2003 , on other forms of serial learning in monkeys). ...
The extent to which nonhuman animals can learn actual human language is a controversial question, but many nonhuman species have acquired elements of a two-way communication system that is, and was, sophisticated enough to enable its use in evaluating cognitive capacities. This article is a personal view of the history of these animal language studies.
... Interestingly, the relative hippocampal volume of the large-brained L. africana (0.21-0.23 %; data from Patzke et al. 2013) more closely approaches this measure in cetaceans than do the relative hippocampal Rilling and Insel (1999a); 12 Rilling and Insel (1999b); 13 Fears et al (2009) volumes of obligatorily aquatic sirenians (0.93-1.07 %; data from Patzke et al. 2013;Reep et al. 2007;Pirlot and Kamiya 1985), or semi-aquatic pinnipeds (0.55-0.79 %; data from Patzke et al. 2013;Reep et al. 2007). The poor development of the cetacean hippocampus compared to other mammals (Table 4; Patzke et al. 2013) and its apparent lack of adult neurogenesis (Patzke et al. 2013) is enigmatic, given the high cognitive function (for review , Herman 2010;Würsig 2009;but cf. Manger 2013) and navigational prowess (Block et al. 2011;Durban and Pitman 2012) observed in Cetacea. ...
The evolutionary process of adaptation to an obligatory aquatic existence dramatically modified cetacean brain structure and function. The brain of the killer whale (Orcinus orca) may be the largest of all taxa supporting a panoply of cognitive, sensory, and sensorimotor abilities. Despite this, examination of the O. orca brain has been limited in scope resulting in significant deficits in knowledge concerning its structure and function. The present study aims to describe the neural organization and potential function of the O. orca brain while linking these traits to potential evolutionary drivers. Magnetic resonance imaging was used for volumetric analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction of an in situ postmortem O. orca brain. Measurements were determined for cortical gray and cerebral white matter, subcortical nuclei, cerebellar gray and white matter, corpus callosum, hippocampi, superior and inferior colliculi, and neuroendocrine structures. With cerebral volume comprising 81.51 % of the total brain volume, this O. orca brain is one of the most corticalized mammalian brains studied to date. O. orca and other delphinoid cetaceans exhibit isometric scaling of cerebral white matter with increasing brain size, a trait that violates an otherwise evolutionarily conserved cerebral scaling law. Using comparative neurobiology, it is argued that the divergent cerebral morphology of delphinoid cetaceans compared to other mammalian taxa may have evolved in response to the sensorimotor demands of the aquatic environment. Furthermore, selective pressures associated with the evolution of echolocation and unihemispheric sleep are implicated in substructure morphology and function. This neuroanatomical dataset, heretofore absent from the literature, provides important quantitative data to test hypotheses regarding brain structure, function, and evolution within Cetacea and across Mammalia.
... Males, however will form long-term alliances with other males, and individuals that are highly associated with each other will show subtle similarities between their signature whistles [45]. Bottlenose dolphins have excellent long-term memories [46,47], maintain long-term associations with other conspecifics [48], and must remember long-term complex social interaction between individuals in their fission-fusion societies [49,50]. The long-term stability of signature whistles, therefore not only provides a means for long-term recognition of individuals, but may potentially limit their ability to recognize frequency transposed sounds that are rare under natural conditions. ...
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use the frequency contour of whistles produced by conspecifics for individual recognition. Here we tested a bottlenose dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) ability to recognize frequency modulated whistle-like sounds using a three alternative matching-to-sample paradigm. The dolphin was first trained to select a specific object (object A) in response to a specific sound (sound A) for a total of three object-sound associations. The sounds were then transformed by amplitude, duration, or frequency transposition while still preserving the frequency contour of each sound. For comparison purposes, 30 human participants completed an identical task with the same sounds, objects, and training procedure. The dolphin's ability to correctly match objects to sounds was robust to changes in amplitude with only a minor decrement in performance for short durations. The dolphin failed to recognize sounds that were frequency transposed by plus or minus ½ octaves. Human participants demonstrated robust recognition with all acoustic transformations. The results indicate that this dolphin's acoustic recognition of whistle-like sounds was constrained by absolute pitch. Unlike human speech, which varies considerably in average frequency, signature whistles are relatively stable in frequency, which may have selected for a whistle recognition system invariant to frequency transposition.
... Bottlenose dolphins are acoustically specialized animals, capable of complex cognitive processes (Bruck 2013;Herman 2010;Marino et al. 2007), which live in dynamic fission-fusion societies (Connor et al. 2000;Wells 2014;Wells et al. 1987). This species presents a diverse repertoire of vocalizations associated with specific behavioural contexts: click trains used in sonar-related tasks (Au 2004;Herzing and dos Santos 2004;Jensen et al. 2009); burst-pulsed sounds emitted during social interactions, and during foraging/ feeding events (Díaz López and Shirai 2009;dos Santos et al. 1995;Herzing 2000); and narrow-band, frequencymodulated whistles used in a variety of contexts (Acevedo- Gutiérrez and Stienessen 2004;Caldwell and Caldwell 1965;Janik and Slater 1998). ...
Whistles are key elements in the acoustic repertoire of bottlenose dolphins. In this species, the frequency contours of whistles are used as individual signatures. Assessing the long-lasting stability of such stereotyped signals, and the abundant production of non-stereotyped whistles in the wild, is relevant to a more complete understanding of their biological function. Additionally, studying the effects of group size and activity patterns on whistle emission rate may provide insights into the use of these calls. In this study, we document the decades-long occurrence of whistles with stereotyped frequency contours in a population of wild bottlenose dolphins, resident in the region of the Sado estuary, Portugal. Confirmed stereotypy throughout more than 20 years, and positive identification using the signature identification (SIGID) criteria, suggests that the identified stereotyped whistles are in fact signature whistles. The potential roles of non-stereotyped whistles, which represent 68 % of all whistles recorded, are still unclear and should be further investigated. Emission rates were significantly higher during food-related events. Finally, our data show a comparatively high overall whistle production for this population, and no positive correlation between group size and emission rates, suggesting social or environmental restriction mechanisms in vocal production.
In this theme issue, our multidisciplinary contributors highlight the cognitive adaptations of marine mammals. The cognitive processes of this group are highly informative regarding how animals cope with specifics of and changes in the environment, because, not only did modern marine mammals evolve from numerous, non-related terrestrial animals to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle, but some of these species regularly move between two worlds, land and sea. Here, we bring together scientists from different fields and take the reader on a journey that begins with the ways in which modern marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and manatees) utilize their perceptual systems, next moves into studies of the constraints and power of individuals’ cognitive flexibility, and finally showcases how those systems are deployed in social and communicative contexts. Considering the cognitive processes of the different marine mammals in one issue from varying perspectives will help us understand the strength of cognitive flexibility in changing environments—in marine mammals and beyond.
We describe an art–science project called “Feral Interactions—The Answer of the Humpback Whale” inspired by humpback whale songs and interactions between individuals based on mutual influences, learning process, or ranking in the dominance hierarchy. The aim was to build new sounds that can be used to initiate acoustic interactions with these whales, not in a one-way direction, as playbacks do, but in real interspecies exchanges. Thus, we investigated how the humpback whales generate sounds in order to better understand their abilities and limits. By carefully listening to their emitted vocalizations, we also describe their acoustic features and temporal structure, in a scientific way and also with a musical approach as it is done with musique concrète, in order to specify the types and the morphologies of whale sounds. The idea is to highlight the most precise information to generate our own sounds that will be suggested to the whales. Based on the approach developed in musique concrète, similarities with the sounds produced by bassoon were identified and then were processed to become “concrete sound elements.” This analysis also brought us to design a new music interface that allows us to create adapted musical phrases in real-time. With this approach, interactions will be possible in both directions, from and to whales.
The study of intelligence in humans has been ongoing for over 100 years, including the underlying structure, predictive validity, related cognitive measures, and source of differences. One of the key findings in intelligence research is the uniform positive correlations among cognitive tasks. This has been replicated with every cognitive test battery in humans. Nevertheless, many other aspects of intelligence research have revealed contradictory lines of evidence. Recently, cognitive test batteries have been developed for animals to examine similarities to humans in cognitive structure. The results are inconsistent, but there is evidence for some similarities. This article reviews the way intelligence and related cognitive abilities are assessed in humans and animals and suggests a different way of devising test batteries for maximizing between-species comparisons.
Male Indo‐pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, have converged with humans in the formation of nested male alliances and the use of synchrony in alliance behavior. Further, the strength of association among allied male dolphins varies and the stability of alliances correlates with the rate that males consort with estrus females (and is thus a possible indicator of dominance). To examine the possibility that synchrony reflects alliance association strength and dominance relationships, we analyzed videotapes from focal follows of two groups of males that reflect the range of alliance size and the strength of association between individuals in the population. We examined two variables: leadership during synchronous behaviors, based on which animal in a synchronously surfacing pair surfaced first, and the degree of synchrony, based on temporal differences in synchronous surfacing. We predicted that closer associates would exhibit a greater degree of synchrony and that one dolphin in a dyad would consistently lead. Contrary to our predictions, the degree of synchrony was inversely related to strength of association within alliances. This surprising result suggests that individuals with less secure bonds may strive more to achieve synchrony. We found no evidence of leadership during synchronous surfacing or between synchrony and other behavioral variables. Proximate mechanisms for synchronous behavior, such as entrainment and mutual motor imitation (“the mirror game” paradigm), may inhibit leadership in this context. Our results show that synchrony during surfacing is not a useful behavior to examine for dominance relationships in wild dolphins but it may be a useful tool to examine variation in alliance relationships.
Humans share the planet with many wonderfully diverse animal species and human-animal interactions are part of our daily lives. An important part of understanding how humans do and should interact with other animals is understanding how humans think about other animals. In this thesis, I argue that how humans think about the minds of other animals is marked by prejudice and that this prejudice fosters epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical problems related to study of, the conception of, and the conclusions we draw about animal minds. I begin by examining conceptions and representations of animals in popular culture and arguing that they exhibit and foster a problematic prejudice, what I call “animal prejudice.” I then examine how this prejudice affects the general study of animal minds and argue that it leads to epistemological problems that interfere with the aims of science. After reviewing the effects of animal prejudice on the study of animal minds generally, I more closely examine the effects of animal prejudice on the scientific study of animal problem solving, learning, tool use, language, emotion, and empathy. In addition to identifying areas where animal prejudice is negatively affecting the study of animal minds, I also offer suggestions for avoiding and mitigating these effects. To conclude, I review the ethical implications of animal prejudice and its effects on the study of animal minds. Together, these chapters offer an important philosophical contribution to the understanding of animal minds and provide a basis for further discussion on how humans should interact with other animals.
The main experimental paradigms in animal intelligent communication are considered. (1) Direct decoding of animal signals enabled researchers to obtain exciting results in studying “semantic vocalisation”, wild “syntax” and the role of “cultural traditions” in animal language behaviour. However, due to methodological limitations, only two types of natural messages have been decoded up to now. (2) The use of intermediary artificial languages have revealed astonishing “linguistic potential” in several social and intelligent species. Nevertheless, the complexity of animals’ natural communications remains unclear. (3) The information-theoretic approach is designed to study quantitative characteristics of natural communicative systems by measuring the time duration that animals spend on transmitting messages of definite information content and complexity.
Talking to plants is believed to help them to grow. We name our boats, planes, and hurricanes, and sometimes even our genitalia. We yell at the car when it doesn’t work and swear at the chair when we stub our toe, but some believe that objects can talk back to us. Some religions believe that everything has a spirit or life force, including inanimate objects. This chapter is about talking to objects, and talking objects. We explore possessed possessions, and why we’re more likely to have a haunted watch than a haunted toaster. We also look at haunted items believed to have language abilities, including talking paintings, talking dolls, and a haunted dress that has a story to tell.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.