Playback and Studies of Animal Communication

Playback is the technique of rebroadcasting natural or synthetic signals to animals and observing their response. The ability to present a putative signal in isolation, without the potential confounding effects of other activities of the signaller, is the main reason for the depth and range of our knowledge of communication systems. To date, playback of sound signals has predominated, but playback of electric signals and even video playback of visual signals suggests that playback will become just as prevalent in studies of communication in other sensory modalities. This book is one of the outcomes of a workshop on playback held at Thombridge Hall in the Peak District National Park, England during August 1991. There were two reasons for organising the workshop. First, the considerable and lively debate in the literature about the design and analysis of playback experiments -the pseudoreplication debate -was in danger of generating more heat than light. A workshop forum seemed the obvious place to clarify and, if possible, resolve the debate. Second, with the number of new playback and analysis techniques increasing rapidly, it seemed an opportune moment to discuss these techniques and to review some rapidly developing areas of interest in sound communication.

Inhalt

Design of Playback Experiments; P.K. McGregor, et al. Playback; J.B. Falls. Integrating Playback; C.K. Catchpole. What Studies on Learning Can Teach Us About Playback Design; I.M. Pepperberg. Conducting Playback Experiments and Interpreting their Results; H.C. Gerhardt. Quantifying Responses to Playback; P.K. McGregor. Interactive Playback; T. Dabelsteen. Playback as a Tool for Studying Contests Between Social Groups; K. McComb. Song Overproduction, Song Matching, and Selective Attrition During Development; D.A. Nelson. Male Quality and Playback in the Great Tit; M.M. Lambrechts. Mechanisms and Function of Call-Timing in Male-Male Interactions in Frogs; G.M. Klump, H.C. Gerhardt. Measuring Responses of Female Birds to Male Song; W.A. Searcy. Field Experiments on the Perception of Song Types by Birds; A.G. Horn. 2 additional articles. Index.