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Research Project
Developmental processes underlying language evolution: a comparative study of early communicative gestures in humans and chimpanzees.
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Operationalizing intentionality in primate communication: Social and ecological considerations
Publication . Rodrigues, Evelina Daniela; Fröhlich, Marlen
An intentional transfer of information is central to human communication. When
comparing nonhuman primate communication systems to language, a critical challenge
is to determine whether a signal is used in intentional, goal-oriented ways. As it is not
possible to directly observe psychological states in any species, comparative researchers
have inferred intentionality via behavioral markers derived from studies on
prelinguistic human children. Recent efforts to increase consistency in nonhuman
primate communication studies undervalue the effect of possible sources of bias: some
behavioral markers are not generalizable across certain signal types (gestures, vocalizations,
and facial expressions), contexts, settings, and species. Despite laudable
attempts to operationalize first-order intentionality across signal types, a true “multimodal”
approach requires integration across their sensory components (visual-silent,
contact, audible), as a signal from a certain type can comprise more than one sensory
component. Here we discuss how the study of intentional communication in nonlinguistic
systems is hampered by issues of reliability, validity, consistency, and generalizability.
We then highlight future research avenues that may help to understand the use
of goal-oriented communication by opting, whenever possible, for reliable, valid, and
consistent behavioral markers, but also taking into account sampling biases and
integrating detailed observations of intraspecific communicative interactions.
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Funding agency
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
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Funding Award Number
SFRH/BD/138406/2018