Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:13:54.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bottlenose dolphins understand relationships between concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2008

Louis M. Herman ,
Robert K. Uyeyama  and
Adam A. Pack
Louis M. Herman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and The Dolphin Institute, Honolulu, HI 96814. [email protected]://[email protected]://[email protected]://www.dolphin-institute.org
Robert K. Uyeyama
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and The Dolphin Institute, Honolulu, HI 96814. [email protected]://[email protected]://[email protected]://www.dolphin-institute.org
Adam A. Pack
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and The Dolphin Institute, Honolulu, HI 96814. [email protected]://[email protected]://[email protected]://www.dolphin-institute.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We dispute Penn et al.'s claim of the sharp functional discontinuity between humans and nonhumans with evidence in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) of higher-order generalizations: spontaneous integration of previously learned rules and concepts in response to novel stimuli. We propose that species-general explanations that are “bottom-up” in approach are more plausible than Penn et al.'s innatist approach of a genetically prespecified supermodule.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 139 - 140
Copyright
Copyright ©Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clausner, T. C. & Croft, W. (1999) Domains and image schemas. Cognitive Linguistics 10:1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connor, R. C., Wells, R., Mann, J. & Read, A. (2000) The bottlenose dolphin: Social relationships in a fission-fusion society. In: Cetacean societies: Field studies of whales and dolphins, ed. Mann, J., Connor, R., Tyack, P. & Whitehead, H., pp. 91–126. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Herman, L. M. (1980) Cognitive characteristics of dolphins. In: Cetacean behavior: Mechanisms and functions, ed. Herman, L. M., pp. 363–429. Wiley Interscience.Google Scholar
Herman, L. M. (1986) Cognition and language competencies of bottlenosed dolphins. In: Dolphin cognition and behavior: A comparative approach, ed. Schusterman, R. J., Thomas, J. A. & Wood, F. G., pp. 221–51. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Herman, L. M. (2002a) Exploring the cognitive world of the bottlenosed dolphin. In: The cognitive animal: Empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition, ed. Bekoff, M., Allen, C. & Burghardt, G., pp. 275–83. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, L. M. (2002b) Vocal, social, and self-imitation by bottlenosed dolphins. In: Imitation in animals and artifacts, ed. Nehaniv, C. & Dautenhahn, K., pp. 63–108. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, L. M. (2006) Intelligence and rational behavior in the bottlenosed dolphin. In: Rational animals?, ed. Hurley, S. & Nudds, M., pp. 439–67. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, L. M., Abichandani, S. L., Elhajj, A. N., Herman, E. Y. K., Sanchez, J. L. & Pack, A. A. (1999) Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) comprehend the referential character of the human pointing gesture. Journal of Comparative Psychology 113:1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, L. M. & Forestell, P. H. (1985) Reporting presence or absence of named objects by a language-trained dolphin. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 9:667–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, L. M., Kuczaj, S. III, & Holder, M. D. (1993a) Responses to anomalous gestural sequences by a language-trained dolphin: Evidence for processing of semantic relations and syntactic information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122:184–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, L. M., Matus, D. S., Herman, E. Y., Ivancic, M. & Pack, A. A. (2001) The bottlenosed dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) understanding of gestures as symbolic representations of its body parts. Animal Learning and Behavior 29:250–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, L. M., Pack, A. A. & Morrel-Samuels, P. (1993b) Representational and conceptual skills of dolphins. In: Language and communication: Comparative perspectives, ed. Roitblat, H. R., Herman, L. M. & Nachtigall, P., pp. 273–98. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Herman, L. M., Richards, D. G. & Wolz, J. P. (1984) Comprehension of sentences by bottlenosed dolphins. Cognition 16:129–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holder, M. D., Herman, L. M. & Kuczaj, S. III (1993) A bottlenosed dolphin's responses to anomalous gestural sequences expressed within an artificial gestural language. In: Language and communication: Comparative perspectives, ed. Roitblat, H. R., Herman, L. M. & Nachtigall, P., pp. 299–308. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Turner, M. (1989) More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marino, L. (2002) Convergence of complex cognitive abilities in cetaceans and primates. Brain, Behavior and Evolution 59:21–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marino, L., Connor, R. C., Ewan Fordyce, R., Herman, L. M., Hof, P. R., Lefebvre, L., Lusseau, D., McCowan, B., Nimchinsky, E. A., Pack, A. A., Rendell, L., Reidenberg, J. S., Reiss, D., Uhen, M. D., Vander Gurcht, E., & Whitehead, H. (2007) Cetaceans have complex brains for complex cognition. PLoS Biology 5:966–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mercado, E. III, Murray, S. O., Uyeyama, R. K., Pack, A. A. & Herman, L. M. (1998) Memory for recent actions in the bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): Repetition of arbitrary behaviors using an abstract rule. Animal Learning and Behavior 26:210–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercado, E. III, Uyeyama, R. K., Pack, A. A. & Herman, L. M. (1999) Memory for action events in the bottlenosed dolphin. Animal Cognition 2:17–25.Google Scholar
Richards, D. G., Wolz, J. P. & Herman, L. M. (1984) Vocal mimicry of computer generated sounds and vocal labeling of objects by a bottlenosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus. Journal of Comparative Psychology 98:10–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed