The different roles of social learning in vocal communication

Janik, Vincent M.; Slater, Peter J.

doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1410

Cited by 465 publications

(415 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) display individual recognition signature whistles, 45 humpback whales (Megaptera novaengliae) produce songs where some elements persist while 46 others evolve over generations, and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) possess group-specific 47 coda repertoires [4,10,11]. It has been suggested that imitative learning can underpin these 48 behaviours with experimental evidence for the ability for sound imitation demonstrated mainly in 49 the bottlenose dolphin [11,12,13] and recently in the beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) [14,15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)

et al. 2018

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)

et al. 2018

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“…The ease of manipulating the social environment of captive animals and testing for convergence suggest that this is a useful method for comparative studies of vocal production learning. Janik and Slater (2000) highlight the importance of discriminating between vocal production learning, in which an animal modifies the acoustic structure of its vocalization to create a signal that is more or less similar to the model, versus contextual usage learning, in which an animal learns to produce an existing signal in a new context as a result of learning about usage of the signal by other individuals. The production of chirps typical of Asian elephants by an African elephant that was housed with Asian elephants seems to be a clear case of vocal production learning, because the chirp sound does not seem to be part of the normal repertoire of African elephants.…”

Section: Vocal Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Tyack¹

2008

Journal of Comparative Psychology

135

146

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

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“…Vocal production learning occurs when an animal modifies its acoustic signals due to experience with other individuals to render these signals either more or less similar to the model that it hears (Janik & Slater, 1997;Janik & Slater, 2000). It is a social process that can lead to the transmission of an acoustic repertoire between signalers and receivers.…”

Section: Vocal Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Shapiro¹

2008

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Studying the social and cultural transmission of behavior among animals helps to identify patterns of interaction and information content flowing between individuals. Killer whales are likely to acquire traits culturally based on their population-specific feeding behaviors and group-distinctive vocal repertoires. I used digital tags to explore the contributions of individual Norwegian killer whales to group carousel feeding and the relationships between vocal and non-vocal activity.Periods of tail slapping to incapacitate herring during feeding were characterized by elevated movement variability, heightened vocal activity and call types containing additional orientation cues. Tail slaps produced by tagged animals were identified using a rapid pitch change and occurred primarily within 20m of the surface. Two simultaneously tagged animals maneuvered similarly when tail slapping within 60s of one another, indicating that the position and composition of the herring ball influenced their behavior.Two types of behavioral sequence preceding the tight circling of carousel feeding were apparent. First, the animals engaged in periods of directional swimming. They were silent in 2 of 3 instances, suggesting they may have located other foraging groups by eavesdropping. Second, tagged animals made broad horizontal loops as they dove in a manner consistent with corralling. All 4 of these occasions were accompanied by vocal activity, indicating that this and tail slapping may benefit from social communication. No significant relationship between the call types and the actual movement measurements was found.Killer whale vocalizations traditionally have been classified into discrete call types. Using human speech processing techniques, I considered that calls are alternatively comprised of shared segments that can be recombined to form the stereotyped and variable repertoire. In a classification experiment, the characterization of calls using the whole call, a set of unshared segments, or a set of shared segments yielded equivalent performance. The shared segments required less information to parse the same vocalizations, suggesting a more parsimonious system of representation.This closer examination of the movements and vocalizations of Norwegian killer 3 whales, combined with future work on ontogeny and transmission, will inform our understanding of whether and how culture plays a role in achieving population-specific behaviors in this species. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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The different roles of social learning in vocal communication

Cited by 465 publications

References 66 publications

Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)

Imitation of novel conspecific and human speech sounds in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)

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

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

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