Deck 17: The Evolution of Communication

Question 1

Through the 1970s, communication would have been characterized as

A) deceptive
B) dishonest
C) manipulative
D) reliable

Answer 1

reliable

Question 2

Views of communication since the 1970s have incorporated the idea that on some occasions an individual might gain by sending a signal that was

A) dishonest
B) efficient
C) reliable
D) unambiguous

Answer 2

unambiguous

Question 3

Dawkins and Krebs (1978) suggested that animals communicate, not to convey information, but to produce or receive signals that ______ result in an increase in their own reproductive success.

A) must always
B) nearly always
C) on average
D) will only infrequently

Answer 3

on average

Question 4

We expect to see honest signals when

A) assessing or challenging a signal is costly.
B) dishonest signalers can be identified.
C) signals indicate something about the sender that cannot be faked.
D) all of the above.

Question 5

We expect the coordination of mating activities to favor the production of signals that are

A) ambiguous.
B) deceptive.
C) honest.
D) manipulative.

Question 6

Chicks' begging calls are graded in intensity. This is a signal that appears to be

A) dishonest, because each chick will always benefit by out-begging its sibling, whether it is really hungry or not.
B) dishonest, because there is little cost associated with begging too much.
C) honest, because research has shown that the vigor of begging increases with hunger.
D) honest, because the parents can always detect a manipulative message by a chick.

Question 7

When two male stalk-eyed fly opponents face one another head-to-head in a threat display, one usually retreats without a fight. The one that retreated did so because

A) he has longer eyestalks than his opponent.
B) he has shorter eyestalks than his opponent.
C) his opponent was able to detect that he was faking longer eyestalks than he actually has.
D) any of the above is likely.

Question 8

Factors that favor an honest communicative signal are frequently associated with

A) low signal production cost.
B) physical or physiological condition.
C) signals that are difficult for the receiver to discriminate.
D) size of territorial holdings.

Question 9

Since carotenoids cannot be synthesized by vertebrates, if you are a female bird and have a choice between a brightly colored male and dull colored male, you are more likely to choose the brighter colored male because he is likely to be

A) a better parent.
B) healthier.
C) the better forager.
D) all of the above.

Question 10

Zahavi (1975, 1977) suggested that if a signal is costly and is related to the quality of the sender, and the receiver is interested in the quality of the sender and will benefit from attending to an honest signal, then the signal may evolve as a(n)

A) dishonest signal.
B) dynamic signal.
C) handicap.
D) ritual.

Question 11

Which of the following signals would be LEAST likely to be regarded as a necessarily honest signal of the sender's quality?

A) a male blue gourami spreading his fins when his territory is invaded.
B) a male blue-footed booby displaying his bright blue-green feet to a female.
C) a male common loon's "yodel" call when a rival male encroaches on his territory.
D) a male red deer's constant roaring during the rut.

Question 12

Honest signaling is generally thought to be favored

A) in a stable social group.
B) in groups that form temporary aggregations rather than stable social units.
C) when the signal is easy to produce.
D) when the signaler is unlikely to be recognized individually.

Question 13

Mantis shrimp (Gonodactylus bredini) give a threat display called the meral spread even immediately after molting when they are actually virtually defenseless. This bluff is likely to remain effective in the population because

A) a signaler that is not newly molted can inflict serious, even lethal, injury on an opponent.
B) it is identical in form to meral spread displays given by individuals that are not newly molted.
C) on average, the signal is honest.
D) all of the above.

Question 14

The ideas that signals are costly in general, that a signal may be in flux within a particular population, or that any given signal might be perceived by different receivers, some of which have the same and some of which have different goals as the sender, have been offered as explanations for why

A) dishonest signals will inevitably become predominant throughout a population.
B) only honest signals can be maintained within a population.
C) the terms "honest" and "dishonest" really don't apply within the context of animal communication.
D) we see populations with both honest and dishonest signals.

Question 15

Huxley (1923) suggested that many signals get their start as part of another behavior or physiological response and called the process

A) receiver bias.
B) ritualization.
C) sender bias.
D) shaping.

Question 16

Characteristic movements that prepare an animal to perform a particular behavior pattern are often referred to as

A) autonomic responses.
B) displacement activities.
C) intention movements.
D) unreliable signals.

Question 17

An apparently irrelevant behavior performed by an animal experiencing conflicting motivations, such as fighting and fleeing, is often referred to as a(n)

A) autonomic response.
B) displacement activity.
C) intention movement.
D) unreliable signal.

Question 18

Vasodilation, changes in respiration, and piloerection are responses that have become part of many courtship and aggressive displays and are examples of

A) autonomic responses.
B) displacement activities.
C) intention movements.
D) unreliable signals.

Question 19

Display flights of birds differ from ordinary flight in that display flights are

A) extremely quiet.
B) longer.
C) more conspicuous.
D) performed more routinely.

Question 20

Behaviors that have become freed from the internal and external factors that originally caused them were described by Tinbergen (1952) as

A) conflicted.
B) displaced.
C) emancipated.
D) rechanneled.

Question 21

Hypotheses regarding the ritualization process focus on characteristics of the _____ of a signal that influence its evolution.

A) receiver
B) sender
C) unintended audience
D) all of the above.

Question 22

Females of the túngara frog (Physalaemus coloradorum) prefer calls by males that have had "chucks" artificially added to them over the normal male calls of their own species. The chucks are a normal part of the male calls of another closely related frog species (P. pustulosus), in which females prefer males that produce low frequency chucks. This suggests that the female preference for chuck calls

A) developed after the chuck calls had evolved.
B) exploited an existing sensory bias.
C) is disappearing in this genus.
D) was the result of genetic drift.

Question 23

Diversity in signal forms both between and within species can be produced by differences in characteristics of the

A) environment.
B) receiver.
C) sender.
D) all of the above.

Question 24

Small bodied Central and South American primates known as tamarins and marmosets are LEAST likely to use signals that incorporate

A) erection of hair on different parts of their bodies.
B) facial expressions.
C) high frequency sounds.
D) whole body movements.

Question 25

The acoustic adaptation hypothesis proposes that the acoustic properties of bird song are shaped by habitat structure. More specifically, for example, which of the following characteristics would NOT be predicted for songs being produced by birds living in a habitat with dense foliage?

A) high frequencies
B) long notes
C) narrow bandwidths
D) whistles

Question 26

When Boncaraglio and Saino (2007) carried out a meta-analysis testing the general validity of the acoustic adaptation hypothesis, they found that habitat structure

A) does not significantly influence the overall acoustic properties of bird songs after all.
B) does significantly influence the acoustic properties of bird songs, and does so very strongly.
C) does significantly influence the acoustic properties of bird songs, but only weakly.
D) does significantly influence the acoustic properties of bird songs, but only within habitats that have not been disturbed by humans.

Question 27

An environmental characteristic that has been found to affect the speed with which some lizards perform a variety of displays (head bobs, push ups, dewlap extensions, etc.) is

A) rain.
B) temperature.
C) wind.
D) all of the above.

Question 28

Cummings (2004, 2007), studying the marine fish, surfperch, found that the visual pigments for deepwater and for shallow water surfperch differed in a way that matched the visual characteristics of their respective prey, and that those differences were also related to species typical differences in color patterns of males.

A) Deepwater surfperch are better at detecting brightness differences, and the males differ from one another more in brightness than color.
B) Deepwater surfperch are better at detecting color differences, and the males differ from one another more in brightness than color.
C) Shallow water surfperch are better at detecting brightness differences, and the males differ from one another more in brightness than color.
D) Shallow water surfperch are better at detecting color differences, and the males differ from one another more in brightness than color.

Question 29

Chimpanzee Viki, reared by Keith and Cathy Hayes (1951), was, in retrospect, doomed from the beginning to fail in her attempts to acquire a particular type of language, at least in part because she lacked a gene called FOXP2 and, thus, she couldn't

A) talk.
B) use lexigrams.
C) use plastic chips.
D) use sign language.

Question 30

Chimpanzees Washoe, Sarah, and Lana were all much more successful in their attempts at language learning than was chimpanzee Viki because their means of communication did NOT involve

A) lexigrams.
B) plastic chips.
C) sign language.
D) vocal speech.

Question 31

Herbert Terrace was highly critical of the ape/language work, concluding that the animals were simply imitating their trainers. Later work by others suggested that

A) all the other language-trained apes had also failed to use sign language any more spontaneously than did Terrace's chimpanzee Nim.
B) language-trained apes can use their signs or lexigrams as true symbols rather than simply as labels.
C) language-trained apes would sign only to their trainers rather than ever sign to other animals or to themselves.
D) Terrace was right.

Question 32

Chimpanzees Austin and Sherman (Savage-Rumbaugh et al. 1978), when tested for their ability to use lexigrams to specify which of several foods was in a container when only one of them had observed the container being baited,

A) could still convey the correct information to one another even when they were prevented from using the keyboard.
B) were able to communicate the information effectively to one another regardless of which of them was the observer.
C) were successful in their communication attempt only if the experimenter also knew the identity of the food.
D) were successful only when they were kept in separate rooms so they didn't fight over the food.

Question 33

Bonobo Kanzi's (Pan paniscus) use of language (Savage-Rumbaugh et al. 2001) is unique in that he

A) has demonstrated an understanding of spoken English by correctly carrying out requests, even if they are rather bizarre.
B) spontaneously produces vocalizations many times a day that differ in content and are associated with items or actions in his environment.
C) was never explicitly trained to use lexigrams. He simply acquired the skill by observing his mother's training sessions.
D) all of the above.

Question 34

Donald Griffin (1978, 1981, 1984) has suggested that it might be possible to discover something about animals' thoughts and feelings by

A) acquiring an understanding of animals' natural means of communicating among themselves.
B) avoiding teaching them languages humans can understand because of their artificiality.
C) studying their brain activity by means of fMRIs.
D) all of the above.

Question 35

Marc Hauser (1998) used habituation to determine how rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) classify food calls. He found that when they hear food calls they classify them

A) by their meaning, but only when the food is of high quality.
B) by their meaning; the calls convey information regarding food quality being high or low.
C) by their sound; they have more sounds for low quality food than for high quality food.
D) by their sound; they have up to 25 sounds for both low and high quality food.