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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Human-Animal Communication In Captive Species: Dogs, Horses, And Whales, Mackenzie K. Kelley May 2015

Human-Animal Communication In Captive Species: Dogs, Horses, And Whales, Mackenzie K. Kelley

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

My hopes for this project are to collect and analyze the current research in the field of animal communication. In the first part, my goal is to define animal communication, specifically within human contexts. I will look at how the history of humans and certain species have intertwined to result in their modern day relationships. I will also explain why we should care about animal communication. In the second part, I will look at three specific species I have chosen to study: dogs, horses, and cetaceans. I will provide a brief history of our roles as humans in the evolution …


Orangutan Pantomime: Elaborating The Message, Anne Russon, Kristin Andrews May 2015

Orangutan Pantomime: Elaborating The Message, Anne Russon, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

We present an exploratory study of forest-living orangutan pantomiming, i.e. gesturing in which they act out their meaning, focusing on its occurrence, communicative functions, and complexities. Studies show that captive great apes may elaborate messages if communication fails, and isolated reports suggest that great apes occasionally pantomime. We predicted forest-living orangutans would pantomime spontaneously to communicate, especially to elaborate after communication failures. Mining existing databases on free-ranging rehabilitant orangutans’ behaviour identified 18 salient pantomimes. These pantomimes most often functioned as elaborations of failed requests, but also as deceptions and declaratives. Complexities identified include multimodality, re-enactments of past events and several …


Pantomime In Great Apes: Evidence And Implications, Ann E. Russon, Kristin Andrews Apr 2015

Pantomime In Great Apes: Evidence And Implications, Ann E. Russon, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

We recently demonstrated, by mining observational data, that forest-living orangutans can communicate using gestures that qualify as Pantomime. Pantomimes, like other iconic gestures, physically resemble their referents. More elaborately, pantomimes involve enacting their referents. Holding thumb and finger together at the lips and blowing between them to mean balloon is one example. Here we sketch evidence of pantomime in other great apes, methodological concerns, and sophisticated cognitive capabilities that great ape pantomimes suggest.