Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences.
Human communication relies heavily on pragmatic competence. Speech utterances are often ambiguous requiring listeners to use interaction history, shared knowledge, presumed intention and other contextual variables to make inferences about a speaker's meaning. To probe the evolutionary origins o...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267574 |
| _version_ | 1811294933511831552 |
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| author | Gladez Shorland Emilie Genty Christof Neumann Klaus Zuberbühler |
| author_facet | Gladez Shorland Emilie Genty Christof Neumann Klaus Zuberbühler |
| author_sort | Gladez Shorland |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Human communication relies heavily on pragmatic competence. Speech utterances are often ambiguous requiring listeners to use interaction history, shared knowledge, presumed intention and other contextual variables to make inferences about a speaker's meaning. To probe the evolutionary origins of pragmatic competence we tested whether bonobos (Pan paniscus) can make inferences about the type of food available from listening to other group members' food calls. We trained two group members to either prefer blue or pink chow and demonstrated these preferences to observers. A third group member served as an untrained control. In playback experiments, we broadcast the food calls of a trained demonstrator and the untrained group member to investigate whether subjects were able to infer which coloured chow was most likely available, based on the callers' trained food preferences or lack thereof. As predicted, when hearing the untrained group member's calls, subjects did not exhibit a bias, whereas they responded with a significant foraging bias when hearing a trained group member's calls. These findings suggest that bonobos may take into account the idiosyncratic food preferences of others, although subjects probably differed in what they remembered. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:24:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-99851ce8ee1e4fa6ad2bcd0a95aaf17e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:24:50Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-99851ce8ee1e4fa6ad2bcd0a95aaf17e2022-12-22T03:00:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01176e026757410.1371/journal.pone.0267574Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences.Gladez ShorlandEmilie GentyChristof NeumannKlaus ZuberbühlerHuman communication relies heavily on pragmatic competence. Speech utterances are often ambiguous requiring listeners to use interaction history, shared knowledge, presumed intention and other contextual variables to make inferences about a speaker's meaning. To probe the evolutionary origins of pragmatic competence we tested whether bonobos (Pan paniscus) can make inferences about the type of food available from listening to other group members' food calls. We trained two group members to either prefer blue or pink chow and demonstrated these preferences to observers. A third group member served as an untrained control. In playback experiments, we broadcast the food calls of a trained demonstrator and the untrained group member to investigate whether subjects were able to infer which coloured chow was most likely available, based on the callers' trained food preferences or lack thereof. As predicted, when hearing the untrained group member's calls, subjects did not exhibit a bias, whereas they responded with a significant foraging bias when hearing a trained group member's calls. These findings suggest that bonobos may take into account the idiosyncratic food preferences of others, although subjects probably differed in what they remembered.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267574 |
| spellingShingle | Gladez Shorland Emilie Genty Christof Neumann Klaus Zuberbühler Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. PLoS ONE |
| title | Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. |
| title_full | Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. |
| title_fullStr | Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. |
| title_short | Bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences. |
| title_sort | bonobos assign meaning to food calls based on caller food preferences |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267574 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gladezshorland bonobosassignmeaningtofoodcallsbasedoncallerfoodpreferences AT emiliegenty bonobosassignmeaningtofoodcallsbasedoncallerfoodpreferences AT christofneumann bonobosassignmeaningtofoodcallsbasedoncallerfoodpreferences AT klauszuberbuhler bonobosassignmeaningtofoodcallsbasedoncallerfoodpreferences |