Jennie Caskey

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Keywords

Dolphin, Vocalization, Phonation, Inter-Species, Communication

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

In 1961, John Lilly's claim that dolphins were "kind, cooperative, intelligent�" beings that were likely candidates for inter-species communication was met with incredulity in the scientific and popular communities of the time. However, in the decades since, both inter-species communication and dolphin cognitive and behavioral research have progressed significantly, and evidence suggests that dolphins do, in fact, possess the traits and mechanisms that have so far been shown to correlate with the most successful inter-species communication. Dolphins, as a family, are highly gregarious, and utilize contextually flexible vocal behaviors to coordinate, communicate, and perceive their environment. Historically, they have had a uniquely sympatric relationship with humans, and in captivity have demonstrated inter-species communication mechanisms such as point-gesture comprehension and modified production, response to human attentional states, and vocal labeling. However, before more complex forms of inter-species communication between humans and dolphins can be explored, it is necessary to demonstrate bidirectionality of communication from the direction of dolphin to human. To do this, changes in the phonation behaviors of five captive dolphins (Tursiops truncatus and Stenella attenuata) were observed through a within-subject design comparing their phonation behavior when no training session occurred (and therefore no trainer interaction) to rates before, during, and after a training session occurred. The results support the previous research that suggests that there is individual variability within a species' capacities for inter-species communication with humans based on levels of enculturation. One subject, Moonshine, showed the greatest variability in his overall phonation behavior with specific pattern differences that might be explained by the occurrence, or lack thereof, of a training session. The two bottlenose subject pairs demonstrated less variation between conditions, but Khyber and Ranier did exhibit a difference overall, whereas Calvin and Malabar showed no significant difference between conditions. More robust data must be collected from all five subjects to support strongly any conclusions that might be drawn from this study, but these early results suggest that there is more to investigate, and that dolphins' vocal behaviors may provide a quantifiable measure of bidirectionality in individual dolphins' communication with humans.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

Download

Share

COinS