Attention and tool-use in the evolution of language

It is argued that the capacity to focus attention is crucial for intentional communication. Intentional communication is goal-intended; directed at changing mental states and as a consequence behaviour; about a referential object common to sender and recipient; and about objects that may be context-and referent-independent. Three different kinds of attention is discerned: scanning, attention attraction, and attention-focusing. The focus of attention can, depending on the abilities of the subject, be on objects or subjects that either are contextual or stable, and it can be individual or shared. For language use, subject-subject focusing along with shared attention are necessary. This does not require Gricean metarepresentations, but basically only attention contact between the subjects and behavioral co-ordination. Language use can be compared with tool use to bring out the characteristics that distinguish informational from intentional communication. The capacities required for tool use are in several cases similar to those required for language use. A basic similarity is that both activities are used as means to an end

Semantic Flexibility and Grounded Language Learning

International audienceWe explore the way that the flexibility inherent in the lexicon might be incorporated into the process by which an environmentally grounded artificial agent-a robot-acquires language. We take flexibility to indicate not only many-to-many mappings between words and extensions, but also the way that word meaning is specified in the context of a particular situation in the world. Our hypothesis is that embodiment and embededness are necessary conditions for the development of semantic representations that exhibit this flexibility. We examine this hypothesis by first very briefly reviewing work to date in the domain of grounded language learning, and then proposing two research objectives: 1) the incorporation of high-dimensional semantic representations that permit context-specific projections, and 2) an exploration of ways in which non-humanoid robots might exhibit language-learning capacities. We suggest that the experimental programme implicated by this theoretical investigation could be situated broadly within the enactivist paradigm, which approaches cognition from the perspective of agents emerging in the course of dynamic entanglements within an environment

Gestural communication in orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii) : a cognitive approach

While most human language is expressed verbally, the gestures produced concurrent to speech provide additional information, help listeners interpret meaning, and provide insight into the cognitive processes of the speaker. Several theories have suggested that gesture played an important, possibly central, role in the evolution of language. Great apes have been shown to use gestures flexibly in different situations and to modify their gestures in response to changing contexts. However, it has not previously been determined whether ape gestures are defined by structural variables, carry meaning, are used to intentionally communicate specific information to others, or can be used strategically to overcome miscommunication. To investigate these questions, I studied three captive populations of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and P. abelii) in European zoos for 10 months. Sixty-four different gestures, defined through similarities in structure and use, were included in the study after meeting strict criteria for intentional usage. More than half of the gesture types were found to coincide frequently with specific goals of signallers, and were accordingly identified as having meanings. Both structural and social variables were found to determine gesture meaning. The recipient’s gaze in both the present and the past, and the recipient’s apparent understanding of the signaller’s gestures, affected the strategies orangutans employed in their attempts to communicate when confronted with different types of communicative failure (e.g. not seeing, ignoring, misunderstanding, or rejecting a gesture). Maternal influence affected the object-directed behaviour and gestures of infants, who shared more gestures with their mothers than with other females. These findings demonstrate that gesture can be used as a medium to investigate not only the communication but also the cognition of great apes, and indicate that orangutans are more sensitive to the perceptions and knowledge states of others than previously thought

Social evolution of pragmatic behaviour

Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that addresses the relationship between language and its external environment – in particular the communicative context. Social evolution (or sociobiology) is the branch of the biological sciences that studies the social behaviour of organisms, particularly with respect to the ecological and evolutionary forces with which it must interact. These two disciplines thus share a natural epistemic link, one that is concerned with the relationship between behaviour and the environment. There has, however, historically been no dialogue between them. This thesis attempts to fill that void: it examines pragmatics from the perspective of social evolution theory. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the two fields and their key ideas, and also discusses why an evolutionary understanding of pragmatics is crucial to the study of language origins. In chapter 2 the vexed question of the biological function of language is discussed. Responses are given to the claims, common in the evolutionary linguistics literature, that the processes of exaptation, self‑organisation and cultural transmission provide alternatives to natural selection as a source of design in nature. The intuitive conclusion that the function of language is communication is provisionally supported, subject to a proper definition of communication. Chapter 3 reviews previous definitions and consequently argues for an account predicated on the designedness of signals and responses. This definition is then used to argue that an evolutionarily coherent model of language should recognise the pragmatic realities of ostension and inference and reject the code‑like idealisation that is often used in its place. Chapter 4 observes that this fits the argument that the biological function of language is communication and then addresses the key question faced by all evolved communication systems – that of evolutionary stability. The human capacity to record and remember the past behaviour of others is seen to be critical. Chapter 5 uses the definition of communication from chapter 3 to describe a very general model of evolved communication, and then uses the constraints of that model to argue that Relevance Theory, or at least some theory of pragmatics with a very similar logical structure, must be correct. Chapter 6 then applies the theoretical apparatus constructed in chapters 2 to 5 to a crucial and topical issue in evolutionary linguistics: the emergence of learnt, symbolic communication. It introduces the Embodied Communication Game, an experimental tool whose basic structure is significantly informed by both social evolutionary and, in particular, pragmatic theory. The novelty of the game is that participants must find a way to communicate not just the content that they wish to convey, but also the very fact that a given behaviour is communicative in nature, and this constraint is found to fundamentally influence the type of system that emerges. Chapter 7, which concludes the thesis, recounts and clarifies what it tells us about the origins and evolution of language, and suggests a number of possible avenues for future research

Spatial communication systems across languages reflect universal action constraints

The extent to which languages share properties reflecting the non-linguistic constraints of the speakers who speak them is key to the debate regarding the relationship between language and cognition. A critical case is spatial communication, where it has been argued that semantic universals should exist, if anywhere. Here, using an experimental paradigm able to separate variation within a language from variation between languages, we tested the use of spatial demonstratives—the most fundamental and frequent spatial terms across languages. In n = 874 speakers across 29 languages, we show that speakers of all tested languages use spatial demonstratives as a function of being able to reach or act on an object being referred to. In some languages, the position of the addressee is also relevant in selecting between demonstrative forms. Commonalities and differences across languages in spatial communication can be understood in terms of universal constraints on action shaping spatial language and cognition

A psychobiographical study of Theodore Robert Bundy

This study is a psychobiographical study aiming to explore and describe the life of Theodore Robert Bundy, a serial killer who confessed to approximately 30 homicides committed in various states of America between 1974 and 1978. The study used Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development to examine Bundy’s life and to understand his unique character and personality development. The subject was chosen based on interest value through purposive sampling and the study utilises a qualitative single case study approach. Archival data were collected from primary and secondary sources in order to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of the study. All materials collected and analysed, were published and publically available. Data were analysed by first organising and reducing the information obtained, and then displaying it for a discussion of Bundy’s life. Themes of discussion centred around Bundy’s lack of resolution of psychosocial crises and the development of malignancies and maladaptations which impacted negatively on his later development and identity formation. The study emphasises the importance of psychobiographical research studies and the value of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development in understanding personality development. Recommendations for future research in this field were made in the hope of further uncovering and understanding personality and its development

Identifiering av ansiktsuttryck relaterade till positiva känslotillstånd hos hund

Positive emotional states have not been studied in animals to any higher extent, but are of great importance in contributing to welfare research. Emotions are to a high degree reflected in facial expressions. The aim of this study was to investigate detailed facial expressions, in order to find indicators of positive emotional states in subtle changes of facial expressions in dogs. This was done by trying to induce dogs to a positive emotional state by presenting two kinds of stimuli presumed to be of positive valence to the dogs, the face of a familiar human talking to the dog in a friendly voice, and a presumed preferred food item consisting of a meatball. Additionally, a wooden block acting as a neutral or slightly negative stimulus was presented, and a small food pellet, assumed to be of neutral valence and used as a baseline stimulus. The dogs were standing in a cubicle and the face of the dogs was recorded five seconds before and five seconds after the different stimuli were revealed. The facial expressions analysed were lip licking, mouth opening and gaze direction. Nine dogs were used in the study and each dog was presented with a sequence of stimuli six times. One-zero sampling was used, with one second intervals. A matched block design was applied, and the test was balanced for the order of stimuli presentations and for morning and afternoon. The results were compared with paired t-tests in three different ways. The lip licking behaviour was assumed to have different meanings depending on how it was performed and which stimulus was presented. The Face stimulus elicited most lip lickings, and investigations showed that the category that was dominant when the Face was presented was the lip lickings not reaching the corner of the mouth. Among these, lip lickings front/up were the most frequent. The lip lickings not reaching the corner of the mouth were probably mostly due to communicative responses, most likely signalling submissive behaviours, but could also indicate displays of positive emotions, or both. The lip lickings observed when the Meatball was presented, on the other hand, could be expected to be a grooming behaviour, consisting of lip lickings reaching the corner of the mouth, due to the sight or smell of food, or the anticipation of it. The Meatball provoked no special changes in facial features, presumably because of the difficulties in detecting non-communicative responses. The mouth opening behaviour had similar results to that of the total lip lickings, and could also be interpreted as a communicative response or an interrupted lip licking. The gaze towards stimuli was difficult to interpret since the different tests were not in accordance with each other, but a tendency towards less gazing at the neutral or slightly negative stimulus was observed in one test. The two assumed positive stimuli did not provoke any general behaviour, which suggests that there is a need to have separate indicators for communicative and non-communicative behaviours. Furthermore, dog behaviours are often ambiguous and should be seen in an environmental context and with other facial expressions and body language included. Further analyses of additional facial expressions, body postures and tail wagging, also recorded during the experiment, will hopefully lead to a higher understanding of the expressions of positive emotions in dogs

Communication and cooperation in evolutionary biology

How can the concepts and results of communication theory aid evolutionary biology? This thesis argues for an explanatory framework, evolutionary communication theory, that interprets and illuminates scientific research into the phenomenon of biological signalling. By expanding the theory beyond the models and goals familiar to Claude Shannon and other engineers, real insight is gained into how strategic interplay between senders and receivers shapes signal form. Furthermore, interpreting artificial and natural signals in terms of sender-receiver teleosemantics demonstrates the explanatory role of relations borne between signals and world affairs. One of the major results of the thesis is a rejection of the orthodox distinction between Shannon and semantic information. While there are at least two useful distinctions to be drawn -- between cues and signals, and between statistical and functional content -- the terminological confusion that gave rise to the phrase `Shannon information' should be put aside for good. Chapter 1 outlines a way to capture the relationships between signals and other signal-like interactions using a multi-dimensional conceptual space called a hypercube. I argue that sender-receiver teleosemantics is uniquely well suited to capturing those aspects of communication theory that render it a viable mathematical framework for evolutionary biology. Chapter 2 discusses an early attempt to apply communication theory in evolutionary biology. Haldane & Spurway's informational interpretation of the honeybee waggle dance has recently been criticised on mathematical grounds. These criticisms lend support to scepticism about the relevance of information for evolutionary biology. I argue that the criticisms are themselves mathematically erroneous, so one route to scepticism about information is undercut. Chapter 3 explores a related line of scepticism. It is common in the philosophy of biology to treat the concepts and tools of communication theory as insufficient or irrelevant for analysing semantic content. I argue that the grounds of this supposition are based on misinterpretations of some features of communication theory. In chapter 4 I reconstruct Millikan's teleosemantics in a causal-modelling setting, highlighting the explanatory role of semantic content. In chapter 5 I respond to objections to the teleosemantic account, including the claim that the theory renders explanations of success that appeal to semantic content circular. I also argue for an interpretation of important features of communication-theoretic models in terms of teleosemantics. Chapter 6 explores another challenge to applying teleosemantics to biological signals. The theory places emphasis on cooperation between senders and receivers, but biological signals are often fraught with evolutionary conflict. I discuss recent formal work, and argue that prospects for teleosemantics are good. Finally, in chapter 7 I argue that an explanatory framework that draws on communication-theoretic concepts would be beneficial to evolutionary biology. I present case studies of communicative behaviour for which biologists offer explanations that are well interpreted through the principles of communications engineering