Deck 16: Communications: Channels and Functions

Question 1

One way to define communication is as something that happens when a sender produces a signal that contains information that is transmitted through the environment, that is then detected by a receiver, who then interprets the signal and decides how to respond. This sort of definition may create some problems because it may inappropriately include the transmission of information that might more appropriately be described as a

A) cue.
B) display.
C) intention movement.
D) signal.

Answer 1

cue.

Question 2

Many believe that a definition of communication must include

A) all instances of dishonest signals as well as honest ones.
B) all instances of information transfer, regardless of the benefit or lack thereof to either the sender or to the receiver.
C) the idea that receivers must benefit from the transmission of information.
D) the idea that the sender benefits from transmitting the information by altering the behavior of the receiver.

Answer 2

the idea that the sender benefits from transmitting the information by altering the behavior of the receiver.

Question 3

A signal transmitted literally at the speed of light would have to be a _____ signal.

A) auditory
B) chemical
C) tactile
D) visual

Answer 3

visual

Question 4

The presence and relative importance of one type of visual stimulus or another can be influenced by environmental conditions. For example, some species of shark possess conspicuous markings on their pectoral fins that enhance the visibility of a particular postural display. These species usually live

A) deep below the surface of the water.
B) in clear water habitats.
C) in large groups.
D) in water containing a lot of sedimentary material.

Question 5

Animals that are most active at dusk and at dawn may make use of visual displays. These signals tend to rely heavily on

A) color.
B) contrast.
C) rapid transmission.
D) repetition.

Question 6

Courting male fiddler crabs adjust temporal and structural elements of their claw-waving display in relation to female distance. As the female gets closer, the claw-waving display

A) appears to become more intense as the interval between each wave decreases.
B) becomes more idiosyncratic to that particular male.
C) is presented with increasingly large horizontal movements.
D) slows as the male's chance of a successful mating appears to increase.

Question 7

Auditory signals usually allow

A) faster transmission times than visual signals.
B) rapid modification of information.
C) signals to linger for a long period of time.
D) transmission of only relatively simple types of information.

Question 8

A method of producing sounds called stridulation results from

A) rubbing appendages together.
B) striking an object in the environment.
C) use of a larynx.
D) use of a syrinx.

Question 9

Some animals make sounds that humans cannot hear. Which of the following would NOT be likely to produce ultrasounds?

A) bats
B) cetaceans
C) elephants
D) rodents

Question 10

Some animals make sounds that humans cannot hear. Some of these sounds fall below the frequency threshold for human hearing, i.e., at frequencies less than about 20 Hz. These are usually described as

A) infrasound.
B) substrate vibration.
C) "tings."
D) ultrasound.

Question 11

Most elephant calls are infrasonic, which works well for them because, when compared with ultrasound, infrasound

A) allows for the production of less attention-getting signals.
B) is more easily degraded by reflection, refraction, and absorption.
C) travels well over long distances.
D) travels well over short distances.

Question 12

Substrate vibration can create seismic signals that can be used to convey information about

A) danger.
B) sex identification.
C) territorial defense.
D) all of the above.

Question 13

If a signal of relatively long duration is needed, an ideal candidate might be which of the following?

A) auditory
B) chemical
C) tactile
D) visual

Question 14

Chemical signals, such as scent marks, often differ in terms of their odor mosaic, meaning that they each contain

A) different chemicals.
B) different proportions of the same chemicals.
C) only three or four highly distinctive chemicals.
D) primarily nonvolatile chemicals.

Question 15

A queen honeybee produces a chemical known as trans-9-keto-decenoic acid that, when distributed through the hive by workers, serves to inhibit the development of additional queens. The same chemical, however, in a different context can also serve as a(n)

A) alarm call.
B) sex attractant.
C) source of food.
D) way to uniquely mark individual workers.

Question 16

Many amphibians, reptiles, and mammals posses a vomeronasal organ that is important in chemical communication. It is used primarily in association with

A) complex odor mosaics.
B) nonvolatile chemicals.
C) remote chemoreception.
D) volatile chemicals.

Question 17

Bombykol (produced by a silk moth), alarm substances, and the mammary pheromone (e.g., produced by lactating rabbits) are examples of

A) inhibitory pheromones.
B) primer pheromones.
C) releaser pheromones.
D) vomeronasal pheromones.

Question 18

Releaser pheromones

A) alter the recipient's physiology.
B) frequently have strong reproductive regulatory functions.
C) have an immediate effect on the recipient.
D) have a comparatively delayed effect on the recipient.

Question 19

Which of the following would NOT be characteristic of a tactile message? Tactile messages

A) are not effective around barriers.
B) can be sent quickly.
C) can be varied in a number of ways.
D) make it rather difficult to locate the sender.

Question 20

Herntenstein and colleagues (2006) describe a study in which human subjects were asked to send a tactile signal to another person that conveyed one of 12 different emotions. The recipient of the signal was then supposed to choose which of the 12 the sender was trying to communicate. Study participants performed above chance for each of the following emotions except

A) anger.
B) embarrassment.
C) fear.
D) sympathy.

Question 21

Herntenstein and colleagues (2006) describe a study in which human subjects were asked to send a tactile signal to another person that conveyed one of 12 different emotions. The recipient of the signal was then supposed to choose which of the 12 the sender was trying to communicate. Subjects tended to associate specific types of touch with specific emotions. For example, pushing tended to be associated with

A) disgust.
B) fear.
C) gratitude.
D) love.

Question 22

Since electrical signals are not carried away from the sender, they

A) are effective for only short distances.
B) are not distorted during transmission.
C) may be a reliable indicator of the sender's identity.
D) all of the above.

Question 23

Electrical signals, such as those produced by weakly electric fish,

A) are easily distorted by obstacles.
B) are fairly crude as communication tools.
C) are undisturbed by suspended particles in water.
D) result in a tremendous amount of electrical "noise".

Question 24

If it were crucial that you quickly communicate with one particular conspecific in a way that would guarantee that you would not attract the attention of a nearby predator, you should probably use a(n) ______ signal.

A) auditory
B) chemical
C) tactile
D) visual

Question 25

Presenting each component of a multimodal display individually to a recipient and seeing how the recipient responds will allow you to determine whether the messages conveyed in the display are

A) conspicuous or cryptic.
B) redundant or nonredundant.
C) simultaneous or sequential.
D) waves or pulses.

Question 26

Uetz and colleagues (2002, 2008) presented isolated visual and seismic components of the male brush-legged wolf spider's multimodal courtship display to females and concluded that the components in both channels appear to contain largely redundant information. They concluded this because

A) presentation of neither of the isolated visual or seismic components alone elicited sexual receptivity in the female.
B) presentation of the isolated visual and seismic components each elicited sexual receptivity in the female.
C) presentation of the seismic component elicited sexual receptivity in the female, but presentation of the visual component did not.
D) presentation of the visual component elicited sexual receptivity in the female, but presentation of the seismic component did not.

Question 27

Which of the following would NOT be considered a cost of multimodal communication?

A) being able to send more information per unit time, particularly for nonredundant signals
B) devoting more sensory infrastructure to signaling conspecifics rather than predator detection
C) receivers requiring more energy to receive and process multiple signals
D) senders requiring more energy to signal over multiple channels

Question 28

There is some research evidence that natural selection for distinctly different signals has been strongest

A) in diurnal species.
B) in nocturnal species.
C) where a single species has been able to stake out a territory for its exclusive use.
D) where related but different species occur in the same place.

Question 29

When animals that spend most of their time alone need to find a mate, they need to send a signal that is easy to locate and effective over long distances. For this reason, ________ signals are frequently used for mate attraction.

A) chemical and auditory
B) seismic and electrical
C) tactile and electrical
D) tactile and visual

Question 30

When a female common tern (Sterna hirundo) compares the quantities of fish provided by her various suitors, she is most likely using his courtship fishing display as a means of

A) assessing his quality as a mate.
B) coordinating their behavior and physiology.
C) determining whether the individual is male or female.
D) maintaining social bonds.

Question 31

A male mountain dusky salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus) normally injects a courtship pheromone into the female's circulatory system with his teeth. When Houck and Reagan (1990) artificially treated females with either a pheromone-containing elixir or a saline solution, they found that the females that received the pheromone

A) actually took longer to become sexually receptive and to mate than the females that received the saline.
B) became sexually receptive and mated faster than did the females that received the saline.
C) did not become sexually receptive at that time. It turned out that the visual signals the male produced were responsible for the receptivity.
D) were no longer attractive to the male since he was not the one that applied the pheromone.

Question 32

Pairs of monogamous pipefish (Corythoichthys haematopterus) perform an elaborate greeting ceremony every morning, even during the nonreproductive season, and then have no further contact the rest of the day. It has been suggested that this "off-season" greeting ritual provides a means of

A) assessing their quality as mates.
B) coordinating their behavior and physiology.
C) determining whether the individual is, in fact, their mate.
D) maintaining their pair bond.

Question 33

Members of a social group, such as wild dogs or chimpanzees, not just mated pairs, frequently engage in communicative behaviors that serve to reinforce their social bonds. Many of these signals serve as an assurance of nonaggression. These signals are frequently

A) auditory.
B) chemical.
C) tactile.
D) visiual.

Question 34

Many alarm signals cause those who hear them to flee or take cover. They tend to be

A) easy to locate.
B) fairly difficult to produce.
C) responded to by other species as well.
D) all of the above.

Question 35

If you were a vervet monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) and heard an adult perform a "leopard" call, you would probably

A) run underneath heavy brush.
B) run up into the crown of a tree.
C) stand upright and look around quickly to locate the leopard.
D) any of the above is equally likely.

Question 36

Some alarm calls cause those who hear it to congregate into a group to defend a resource or drive off a predator rather than causing the others to flee. These assembly calls, when compared to "flee" signals, tend to be

A) easier to localize.
B) longer-lasting.
C) repetitive.
D) all of the above.

Question 37

The name most closely associated with the study of bee communication is

A) Emlen.
B) Marler.
C) Trivers.
D) von Frisch.

Question 38

If honeybees are provided with a scented sucrose solution only 10 meters east of the hive, the scout will return to the hive and performed a round dance. During the test period, if scented plates are placed north, south, east, and west of the hive, the recruits are likely to arrive

A) almost exclusively at the east plate.
B) at none of the plates, since none of them actually contain food.
C) equally at all four plates.
D) equally at the east and west plates.

Question 39

If honeybees are provided with a scented sucrose solution 150 meters east of the hive, the scout will return to the hive and performed a waggle dance. During the test period, if scented plates are placed north, south, east, and west of the hive, the recruits are likely to arrive

A) almost exclusively at the east plate.
B) at none of the plates, since none of them actually contain food.
C) equally at all four plates.
D) equally at the east and west plates.

Question 40

Srinivasa and colleagues (2000) found that bees use visual cues to estimate how far they have traveled so that information regarding distance to the food source can be communicated to the other bees once they return to the hive. The researchers determined this by training bees to fly into tunnels in order to reach a feeder and then manipulated the

A) color of the tunnels.
B) diameter of the tunnels.
C) length of the tunnels.
D) pattern of stripes within the tunnels.