Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Behaviours specific to communication networks
- Introduction
- 2 Eavesdropping in communication networks
- 3 Public, private or anonymous? Facilitating and countering eavesdropping
- 4 Performing in front of an audience: signallers and the social environment
- 5 Fighting, mating and networking: pillars of poeciliid sociality
- 6 The occurrence and function of victory displays within communication networks
- Part II The effects of particular contexts
- Part III Communication networks in different taxa
- Part IV Interfaces with other disciplines
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Behaviours specific to communication networks
- Introduction
- 2 Eavesdropping in communication networks
- 3 Public, private or anonymous? Facilitating and countering eavesdropping
- 4 Performing in front of an audience: signallers and the social environment
- 5 Fighting, mating and networking: pillars of poeciliid sociality
- 6 The occurrence and function of victory displays within communication networks
- Part II The effects of particular contexts
- Part III Communication networks in different taxa
- Part IV Interfaces with other disciplines
- Index
Summary
The reason for grouping together the chapters that appear in this part of the book is that each of them concerns communication behaviours that are best viewed from a communication network perspective, rather than from the more common dyadic (one signaller to one receiver) standpoint. It is a fact that, with the exception of choruses, most studies to date have implicitly or explicitly considered communication between a dyad. Although the communication network perspective of several signalling and receiving individuals seems to follow logically from what we know of natural communication, the dyadic viewpoint has historical precedence and considerable inertia. A network perspective will become more commonly adopted only if it is clearly better able to explain communication behaviours than a dyadic approach. It is for this reason that a network perspective has long been adopted in studies of choruses; the effect on an individual's signal timing of the signals of nearby conspecifics can be striking patterns, such as signal synchrony in the chorus (e.g. Greenfield, 2002; Ch. 13). Such patterns cannot be explained by considering communication as a dyad. All of the chapters in this book demonstrate the value of adopting a network perspective; however, it gives this demonstration more emphasis to begin with a section covering communication behaviours that are particularly suited to, or associated with, a network perspective.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Animal Communication Networks , pp. 9 - 12Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005