PSYC 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Aposematism, Stotting, Waggle Dance
15 Jun 2018
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Week 11/Lecture 10: Communication
Lecture Outline
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Introduction
Influencing Behaviour
Influencing Understanding
Evolution of Communication
Communication as Cooperation
Communication as Manipulation
1 Introduction
NATURAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Examples:
‘Dances’ of honeybees
Indicate where food (pollen, nectar) is
Gazelle stotting
Mostly males will do a jumping behaviour
Chimpanzee pant-hoots
Dog play bows
Skunk fur patterns
Other species know to avoid the animal
ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
Signals – dog bark
Sender—dog
Receiver—mail carrier (or anyone who is picking up on the signal)
Elements of communication in frogs
Signals – red skin
Sender – rain forest frog
Receiver – potential predators (aposematism)
[Sidenote on aposematism]
- The idea that the colouration can be indicative of toxicity
2 Influencing Behaviour
EXAMPLE: STICKLEBACK FISH
- Lone male stickleback fish
- Sees female fish, swims in zig zag pattern
- He has a red underside
- He leads the female back to his nest
- She goes to the nest and lays eggs
- He releases sperm
One animal provides the stimulus for partner’s response
EXAMPLE: POISON DART FROG
3 Influencing Understanding
It’s presently debated whether certain examples of natural communication systems can
be said to ‘influence understanding. We’ll cover two well-studied systems in lecture.
e.g.
-“ sometimes a signaler has the intention of informing you – of teaching you a new
concept”
Trying to influence the understanding of the world
Document Summary
Mostly males will do a jumping behaviour (cid:858)da(cid:374)(cid:272)es(cid:859) of ho(cid:374)e(cid:455)(cid:271)ees. Receiver mail carrier (or anyone who is picking up on the signal) The idea that the colouration can be indicative of toxicity. Sees female fish, swims in zig zag pattern. He leads the female back to his nest. She goes to the nest and lays eggs. O(cid:374)e a(cid:374)i(cid:373)al pro(cid:448)ides the sti(cid:373)ulus for part(cid:374)er(cid:859)s respo(cid:374)se. Trying to influence the understanding of the world. Finds food, goes back to hive and does a dance such that the middle part (squiggly line) is the waggle part. The distance of the waggle is analogous to the distance to the food. The angle of the dance is analogous to the angle that you would exit the hive to go in the direction of the food. We know a lot about bee dances because of the work done by von frisch. Did work on whether the direction conveys information on where food is located.
