Psychological Mechanisms in Animal Communication

This book analyzes the psychological mechanisms critical to animal communication. The topics covered range from single neurons to broad-scale phylogenetic patterns, shedding new light on the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes that underlie the communicative behaviors of signalers and receivers alike. In so doing, the contributing authors collectively integrate research questions and methods from behavioral ecology, cognitive ethology, comparative psychology, evolutionary biology, sensory ecology, and neuroscience. No less broad is the volume's taxonomic coverage, which spans bees to blackbirds to baboons. The ultimate goal of the book is to stimulate additional research into the diversity and evolution of the psychological mechanisms that make animal communication possible.

Autorentext

Mark A. Bee

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA

email: mbee@umn.edu, phone: ++1-612-624-6749

Cory T. Miller

Department of Psychology, Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

email: corymiller@ucsd.edu, phone: ++1-858-361-9191

Inhalt

Signaler and Receiver Psychology.- Avian Auditory Processing at Four Different Scales: Variation Among Species, Seasons, Sexes and Individuals.- Perceptual and Neural Mechanisms of Auditory Scene Analysis in the European Starling.- Mate Searching Animals as Model Systems for Understanding Perceptual Grouping.- Why Complex Signals Matter, Sometimes.- Communication through a Window of Error: Proportional Processing and Signal Categorization.- Social Recognition in Anurans.- Referents and Semantics in Animal Vocalizations.- Social Concepts and Communication in Non-human Primates.- Decisions to Communicate in Primate Ecological and Social Landscapes.- Overcoming Sensory Uncertainty: Factors Affecting Foraging Decisions in Frog-eating Bats.