PSY274H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Animal Communication, Alarm Call, Fixed Action Pattern
Document Summary
Readings for today"s lecture: chapters 1, 3, 6. One organism transmits information: to another: but this too vague. Vocal-auditory: predominant in terms of communication (particularly in human history) There are different ways to approach this: consider the function of communication. What is the effect of this information: consider the form the information takes. Non-human animals communication = very limited in terms of effect produced: ie. Mating call + potential response: threads related to territory. Human communication extremely broad range of effects possible: social effects hierarchy, emotional effects, requesting information, disputing information, confirming information. A helpful distinction here: peirce"s classification of signs . Peirce*: philosopher (1839-1914: in his view: sign = stimulus pattern that has some meaning. Pierce clarified how meaning comes to be attached to the stimulus pattern: he came up with three kinds of signs. Icon stimulus pattern physically resembles what it stands for: example: images in mirror, symbol on print button, walk symbol on streetlights etc.
