From collocations to call-ocations: using linguistic methods to quantify animal call combinations

Ab, Bosshard; Mm, Leroux; Na, Lester; Bickel, Balthasar; Stoll, Sabine; Sw, Townsend

doi:10.1101/2021.06.16.448679

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The absolute value of the pbin values indicate the strength of these relationships. Pbin values >|1.3| indicate a nonrandom relationship: the higher the absolute value, the stronger the relationship between the units in the bigram (see Bosshard et al, 2021). More information on “Interpreting pbin Outputs from Collocation Analysis” can be found in the Supporting Information Materials.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collocation analysis is a constructional-based technique which compares the cooccurrence of specific items with one another (most frequently individual words in linguistic analyses) (Gale et al, 1991;Gries & Stefanowitsch, 2004;Kennedy, 1991;Nesselhauf, 2005) There are two types of collocation analysis, MDCA and mutual information collocation analysis (MICA) (see Bosshard et al, 2021;Church & Hanks, 1990;Leroux et al, 2021 for more information on MICA). MICA was not used in this study as the sample size is relatively large for this analysis (n = 1409 for V1 and n = 466 V2).…”

Section: Multiple Distinctive Collocation Analysis (Mdca) Of Resource...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MICA was not used in this study as the sample size is relatively large for this analysis (n = 1409 for V1 and n = 466 V2). MDCA tests the attraction between units using one-tailed exact binomial tests applied to each possible bigram combination (Gries, 2014) indicate a nonrandom relationship: the higher the absolute value, the stronger the relationship between the units in the bigram (see Bosshard et al, 2021). More information on "Interpreting pbin Outputs from Collocation Analysis" can be found in the Supporting Information Materials.…”

Section: Multiple Distinctive Collocation Analysis (Mdca) Of Resource...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Applying collocation and APRIORI analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication

Freymann,

d'Oliveira Coelho,

Hobaiter

et al. 2024

American J Primatol

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Identifying novel medicinal resources in chimpanzee diets has historically presented challenges, requiring extensive behavioral data collection and health monitoring, accompanied by expensive pharmacological analyses. When putative therapeutic self‐medicative behaviors are observed, these events are often considered isolated occurrences, with little attention paid to other resources ingested in combination. For chimpanzees, medicinal resource combinations could play an important role in maintaining well‐being by tackling different symptoms of an illness, chemically strengthening efficacy of a treatment, or providing prophylactic compounds that prevent future ailments. We call this concept the self‐medicative resource combination hypothesis. However, a dearth of methodological approaches for holistically investigating primate feeding ecology has limited our ability to identify nonrandom resource combinations and explore potential synergistic relationships between medicinal resource candidates. Here we present two analytical tools that test such a hypothesis and demonstrate these approaches on feeding data from the Sonso chimpanzee community in Budongo Forest, Uganda. Using 4 months of data, we establish that both collocation and APRIORI analyses are effective exploratory tools for identifying binary combinations, and that APRIORI is effective for multi‐item rule associations. We then compare outputs from both methods, finding up to 60% agreement, and propose APRIORI as more effective for studies requiring control over confidence intervals and those investigating nonrandom associations between more than two resources. These analytical tools, which can be extrapolated across the animal kingdom, can provide a cost‐effective and efficient method for targeting resources for further pharmacological investigation, potentially aiding in the discovery of novel medicines.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multiple Distinctive Collocation Analysis (Mdca) Of Resource...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multiple Distinctive Collocation Analysis (Mdca) Of Resource...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Applying collocation and APRIORI analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication

Freymann,

d'Oliveira Coelho,

Hobaiter

et al. 2024

American J Primatol

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show abstract

“…To test which elements followed which antecedent, we created a null model of ‘expected’ transitions using permutations of observed patterns. We chose this resampling approach over collocation analysis ( Bosshard et al, 2022 ) to account for the regular co-occurrence of play elements that is usually not seen in single-modularity communication; however, using collocation analysis instead did not alter the results. We repeatedly randomized the order of elements across bouts: while the number of elements per bout, the probability of elements to occur across bouts, and the position of Breaks and missing data in each bout were kept the same, we randomly assigned element positions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimpanzee play sequences are structured hierarchically as games

Mielke

Carvalho

2022

PeerJ

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Social play is ubiquitous in the development of many animal species and involves players adapting actions flexibly to their own previous actions and partner responses. Play differs from other behavioural contexts for which fine-scale analyses of action sequences are available, such as tool use and communication, in that its form is not defined by its function, making it potentially more unpredictable. In humans, play is often organised in games, where players know context-appropriate actions but string them together unpredictably. Here, we use the sequential nature of play elements to explore whether play elements in chimpanzees are structured hierarchically and follow predictable game-like patterns. Based on 5,711 play elements from 143 bouts, we extracted individual-level play sequences of 11 Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of different ages from the Bossou community. We detected transition probabilities between play elements that exceeded expected levels and show that play elements form hierarchically clustered and interchangeable groups, indicative of at least six games that can be identified from transition networks, some with different roles for different players. We also show that increased information about preceding play elements improved predictability of subsequent elements, further indicating that play elements are not strung together randomly but that flexible action rules underlie their usage. Thus, chimpanzee play is hierarchically structured in short games which limit acceptable play elements and allow players to predict and adapt to partners’ actions. This “grammar of action” approach to social interactions can be valuable in understanding cognitive and communicative abilities within and across species.

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“…To test which elements followed which antecedent, we created a null model of ‘expected’ transitions using permutations of observed patterns. We chose this resampling approach over collocation analysis (Bosshard et al, 2021) to account for the regular co-occurrence of play elements that is usually not seen in single-modularity communication. We repeatedly randomized the order of elements across bouts: while the number of elements per bout, the probability of elements to occur across bouts, and the position of Breaks and missing data in each bout were kept the same, we randomly assigned element positions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimpanzee play sequences are structured hierarchically as games

Mielke

Carvalho

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social play is ubiquitous in the development of many animal species and involves players adapting actions flexibly to their own previous actions and partner responses. Play differs from other behavioural contexts for which fine-scale analyses of action sequences are available, such as tool use and communication, in that its form is not defined by its functions, making it potentially more unpredictable. In humans, play is often organised in games, where players know context-appropriate actions but string them together unpredictably. Here, we use the sequential nature of play elements to explore whether play elements in chimpanzees are structured hierarchically and follow predictable game-like patterns. Based on 5711 play elements from 143 bouts, we extracted individual-level play sequences of 11 Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of different ages from the Bossou community. We detected transition probabilities between play elements that exceeded expected levels and show that play elements form hierarchically clustered and interchangeable groups, indicative of at least six games that can be identified from transition networks, some with different roles for different players. We also show that increased information about preceding play elements improved predictability of subsequent elements, further indicating that play elements are not strung together randomly but that flexible action rules underlie their usage. Thus, chimpanzee play is hierarchically structured in short games which limit acceptable play elements and allow players to predict and adapt to partners' actions. This "grammar of action" approach to social interactions can be valuable in understanding cognitive and communicative abilities within and across species.

show abstract

From collocations to call-ocations: using linguistic methods to quantify animal call combinations

Cited by 5 publications

References 27 publications

Applying collocation and APRIORI analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication

Applying collocation and APRIORI analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self‐medication

Chimpanzee play sequences are structured hierarchically as games

Chimpanzee play sequences are structured hierarchically as games

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