Current Topics in Primate Vocal Communication

✍ Scribed by Michael J. Owren, Christopher D. Linker (auth.), Elke Zimmermann, John D. Newman, Uwe Jürgens (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 291
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

More than 25 years ago, the first major review of primate communication appeared (Altmann, 1967). Since then, information on the communicative abilities of primates increased rapidly, resulting, 15 years later, in the appearance of the first volume in which signaling systems were analyzed in a broader variety of primate groups within an evolutionary perspective (Snowdon, Brown and Petersen, 1982). Seven years later, the first volume dedicated solely to primate vocal communication appeared (Todt, Goedeking and Symmes, 1988) and another four years later a volume followed in which nonverbal vocal communication in non-human primates and human infants was compared (Papousek, Jurgens and Papousek, 1992). None of these volumes, however, provided information about current technical advances in the field of bioacoustics, especially in digital sound analyzing systems, which offer primatologists, anthropologists and linguists nowadays a variety of rapid methods for analyzing human speech and non-human primate vocalizations in a quantitative and comparative way. Choosing the right method is difficult if a synopsis of these tools is lacking. Furthermore, information was particularly lacking on the natural signaling systems of two important primate groups, the prosimians and the apes. Likewise, new and unexpected insights into the ontogeny and evolution of vocal communication were gained during the past few years by the use of highly sophisticated sound analysis and statistical techniques.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Some Analysis Methods That May be Useful to Acoustic Primatologists....Pages 1-27
Artificial Neural Networks for Analysis and Recognition of Primate Vocal Communication....Pages 29-46
Loud Calls in Nocturnal Prosimians: Structure, Evolution and Ontogeny....Pages 47-72
Vocal Ontogeny in Macaques and Marmosets: Convergent and Divergent Lines of Development....Pages 73-97
Vocal Ontogeny of the Squirrel Monkey, Saimiri boliviensis peruviensis ....Pages 99-120
Temporal and Acoustic Flexibility in Vocal Exchanges of Coo Calls in Japanese Macaques ( Macaca fuscata )....Pages 121-140
The Vocal Behavior of Barbary Macaques ( Macaca Sylvanus ): Call Features and Their Performance in Infants and Adults....Pages 141-160
Loud Calls in Great Apes: Sex Differences and Social Correlates....Pages 161-184
A Comparative Approach to the Non-Human Primate Vocal Tract: Implications for Sound Production....Pages 185-198
Neuronal Control of Vocal Production in Non-Human and Human Primates....Pages 199-206
Role of Auditory Cortex in the Perception of Vocalizations by Japanese Macaques....Pages 207-219
Amplitude Envelope Encoding as a Feature for Temporal Information Processing in the Auditory Cortex of Squirrel Monkeys....Pages 221-233
Representational Signaling in Non-Human Primate Vocal Communication....Pages 235-252
Linguistic Capacity: An Ontogenetic Theory with Evolutionary Implications....Pages 253-272
What Primate Calls Can Tell Us about Human Evolution....Pages 273-282
Back Matter....Pages 283-286

✦ Subjects

Evolutionary Biology; Zoology; Neurosciences; Archaeology