An intentional vocalization draws others’ attention: A playback experiment with wild chimpanzees

• Published in: Animal cognition Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 581 - 591
• Main Authors: Crockford, Catherine, Wittig, Roman M., Zuberbühler, Klaus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.05.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal behavior; Animal cognition; Animal communication; Animals; Attention; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Evolution; Intention; Language; Life Sciences; Monkeys & apes; Original Paper; Pan troglodytes; Pan troglodytes - physiology; Pan troglodytes - psychology; Psychology Research; Uganda; Vocalization, Animal; Zoology; Directed attention; Intention; Alarm calls; Evolution of language; Reference; Chimpanzee

A vital step in the evolution of language is likely to have been when signalers explicitly intended to direct recipients’ attention to external objects with the use of referential signals. Although animal signals can direct the attention of others to external events, such as in monkey predator alarm...