8 research outputs found
Sea lions’ (Zalophus californianus) use of human pointing gestures as referential cues
Human attention affects facial expressions in domestic dogs
Abstract Most mammalian species produce facial expressions. Historically, animal facial expressions have been considered inflexible and involuntary displays of emotional states rather than active attempts to communicate with others. In the current study, we aimed to test whether domestic dog facial expressions are subject to audience effects and/ or changes in response to an arousing stimulus (e.g. food) alone. We presented dogs with an experimental situation in which a human demonstrator was either attending to them or turned away, and varied whether she presented food or not. Dogs produced significantly more facial movements when the human was attentive than when she was not. The food, however, as a non-social but arousing stimulus, did not affect the dogs’ behaviour. The current study is therefore evidence that dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state when producing facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions are not just inflexible and involuntary displays of emotional states, but rather potentially active attempts to communicate with others
Not here, there! Possible referential gesturing during allogrooming by wild bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata
Intentional referential gestures, a fundamental
building block of symbolic human language, have been
reported from a range of species, including non-human
primates. While apes are known to spontaneously use
intentional gestures, only captive macaques, amongst nonape
primates, appear to intentionally display learnt gestures.
On the other hand, referential gestures have so far
been reported only in chimpanzees, amongst non-human
primates. We document here, for the first time, potentially
referential gesturing, used intentionally as well, in a monkey
species, the bonnet macaque Macaca radiata, in the
wild. Bonnet macaques use four distinct actions during
allogrooming, possibly to indicate a particular body part
intended to be groomed. These acts were successful in
drawing the recipients’ attention to the indicated part,
which they began to groom subsequently. This study
enriches our understanding of non-ape primate gestural
communication and adds to the growing evidence for early
human language-like capacities in non-human species