Psychology 485 March 2, 2010

 Introduction Difference between communication and language Why learn to communicate? Why learn language?  What is learned? Different types of communication Animals learning language  How is it learned? Innate or learned?

 Passing of information from one individual to another A two-way process: must consider both the signaller and the receiver  Cues & Signals Cue  animate or inanimate feature of the world that can be used as a guide for behaviour Signal  an act or structure that evolved to alter the behaviour of another organism, and is effective because receiver’s response

 4 main properties of language: Semantic Arbitrariness Productivity Displacement

 4 main properties of language: Semantic  Language has meaning Arbitrariness Productivity Displacement

 4 main properties of language: Semantic Arbitrariness  There is no rational relationship between the signal and its meaning  There is nothing “housy” about the word “house” Productivity Displacement

 4 main properties of language: Semantic Arbitrariness Productivity  A finite number of units can be used to create an infinite number of utterances  “The dog bit the man”  “The man bit the dog” Displacement

 4 main properties of language: Semantic Arbitrariness Productivity Displacement  Communicate ideas that are not in immediate vicinity (spatially or temporally)  “I ate lunch at the A&W in HUB”

 Can animal communication be classed as language? Semantics  By definition, “signals” have meaning Arbitrariness  Not always – e.g. Vervet monkeysVervet monkeys Productivity  Some evidence of animal “syntax”

 Chickadees A, B, C, D note calls Notes always in right order, but different combinations D notes may indicate predators or danger  Putty-nosed monkeys “pyow” means leopard “hack” means eagle Males utter up to 3 pyows and up to 4 hacks in sequence; means “get the hell outta here!”

 Can animal communication be classed as language? Semantics  By definition, “signals” have meaning Arbitrariness  Not always – e.g. Vervet monkeysVervet monkeys Productivity  Some evidence of animal “syntax” Displacement  Bee dance shows spatial displacement Bee dance  But, to be language, all 4 properties must be met... Not just 1 or 2

 Communication is the backbone of all social activity Mating Caring for offspring Foraging Safety  Cooperation? Deception? How has evolution shaped communication patterns? More on this when we talk about morality

 What is adaptive about language? Why evolve language as opposed to relying on (simpler) communication?  Hard to address this issue since only humans are agreed to have language Memes and social/cultural transmission Effect of language on cognitive abilities

 Memes Cultural analogue of genes “unit” of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another  Did language evolve to allow for social and cultural transmission? More efficient social learning

 Social/cultural transmission can occur without language Japanese macaques  Potato washing behaviour  Started by 1 monkey, now common New Caledonian Crows  Tool manufacture  Pandanus tool varies according to geographic area

 Study adaptiveness of language by looking at how it affects various abilities How to “get rid” of language during an experiment? Verbal shadowing tasks

 Example: Geometric module Rats, children adults Does spatial language (e.g. “left”, “right”) affect use of feature? Adults doing a verbal shadowing task revert to geometry Hermer-Vazquez, Spelke, and Katsnelson (1999) But... Some animals without language (e.g. fish) can use both geometry and features

 Is language and communication distinct processes, or is language just a specialized form of communication? Is there a continuum?  To what extent does language affect our cognitive abilities? Does this make us significantly different from other species?

Forms of communication Teaching animals human language

 “If a lion could talk, we could not understand him”  Wittgenstein,1919, Philsophical Investigations

 Olfactory communication

 Visual communication Handicapping signals Colour changes Body language Bee waggle dance

 Vocal communication Vocal calls  Alarm, roars, hisses, etc Songs Human language

 Initial attempts to teach apes language failed Anatomical constraints Lack of vocal cords, different control of lips and tongue  Later attempts used other formats American Sign Language Lexigrams

 Washoe Raised by husband-wife researcher team; Gardners Trained with ASL 250 signs Novel combinations?  Swan = water bird  Nim Chimpsky Herb Terrace ~150 signs Long utterances, but repetitive No linguistic grammar or structure

 Kanzi Bonobo Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was teaching Kanzi’s mother to use lexigram Kanzi learned symbols Able to answer novel questions

 Critical Periods  Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour Changes in language and “verbal behaviour” can result from reinforcement histories  Language Acquisition Device Postulated brain “organ” for learning language An innate capacity to learn language

 Several animals learn communication through exposure to parents/conspecifics Humans, bats, parrots, hummingbirds, songbirds, elephants, cetaceous whales and dolphins  Cross-fostered birds will learn songs of foster species  Physical interaction is important