Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Behaviours specific to communication networks
- Part II The effects of particular contexts
- Part III Communication networks in different taxa
- Part IV Interfaces with other disciplines
- Introduction
- 20 Perception and acoustic communication networks
- 21 Hormones, social context and animal communication
- 22 Cooperation in communication networks: indirect reciprocity in interactions between cleaner fish and client reef fish
- 23 Fish semiochemicals and the evolution of communication networks
- 24 Cognitive aspects of networks and avian capacities
- 25 Social complexity and the information acquired during eavesdropping by primates and other animals
- 26 Communication networks in a virtual world
- Index
20 - Perception and acoustic communication networks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Behaviours specific to communication networks
- Part II The effects of particular contexts
- Part III Communication networks in different taxa
- Part IV Interfaces with other disciplines
- Introduction
- 20 Perception and acoustic communication networks
- 21 Hormones, social context and animal communication
- 22 Cooperation in communication networks: indirect reciprocity in interactions between cleaner fish and client reef fish
- 23 Fish semiochemicals and the evolution of communication networks
- 24 Cognitive aspects of networks and avian capacities
- 25 Social complexity and the information acquired during eavesdropping by primates and other animals
- 26 Communication networks in a virtual world
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Traditionally, the analysis of acoustic communication has been based on a model system composed of a sender, the transmission channel and a receiver (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). Since the early 1990s, this view has been extended to communication networks, in which several signallers and receivers are involved (e.g. McGregor & Peake, 2000). Two general approaches have been adopted in order to investigate communication behaviour. First, measurements of physical modifications to the signal during transmission (e.g. Wiley & Richards, 1978; Dabelsteen et al., 1993; Holland et al., 1998) have been used to assess the feasibility of communication (e.g. estimating maximum communication distances) or to evaluate which features of signals might be adaptive in a certain context. Second, playback studies have been used to conclude which features may be of importance for signal discrimination: different behavioural responses can be elicited by playback of signals that have been modified by physical properties of the environment or by the experimenter. Often the physical properties of signals are manipulated in ways that are informed by studies of signal transmission in the animal's environment. However, behavioural responses can be understood more fully if the animal's perceptual abilities are taken into account (Wiley & Richards, 1982; Klump, 1996). Perception includes the transduction process by the animal's sensory organs and the subsequent processing by the nervous system. However, perception can only be inferred indirectly from the animal's responses.
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- Animal Communication Networks , pp. 451 - 480Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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