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Food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia): Design features for representational communication
Abstract
This dissertation presents evidence that representational information exists in the vocalizations of golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia). Chapter 1 reviews work in communication, especially in representational communication, and cites reasons to investigate lion tamarin vocalizations for the existence of representational information. Chapter 2 demonstrates sex differences in four types of tamarin calls (long calls, trills, chirps, and chucks), and demonstrates that chirps, chucks, and long calls (but not trills) can be reliably classified according to sex using discriminant function analysis (DFA). Chapter 3 investigates tamarins' preferences for six foods (apple, carrot, commercial marmoset diet, egg, raisin, mealworm) using the method of paired comparisons. Preference hierarchies were constructed for each tamarin, as was a general preference hierarchy. The six foods fell into two preference groups: mealworm and raisin are highly preferred, and carrot, diet, apple, and egg are less preferred. Two high preference foods (mealworm, raisin) and two low preference foods (apple, egg) were used to evoke vocalizations from six tamarins, but presenting the foods in sight but out of reach. Using MANOVA, the calls to the different foods were found to be significantly different. Using DFA, the vocalizations to each food type were classified. The DFA maximally discriminated apples from the rest of the foods, and secondarily, discriminated mealworm from raisin and egg. Chapter 4 investigates the tamarins' preferences for 12 food types that comprised four different groups, again using paired comparisons. Using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), I discovered that tamarins may perceive their foods along three dimensions. The first dimension corresponds to preference; the second and third are unclear, due to error in the sample. Chapter 5 explores the features of the vocalizations to the 12 food types used in the previous chapter, using MANOVA and DFA. Five of the 12 foods (raisin, dried pineapple, mealworm, cricket, grape) were vocalized to by all tamarins. MANOVA indicated significant differences between the foods, and DFA indicated enough information in the calls to permit significant reclassification.
Subject Area
Psychology|Experiments|Psychobiology|Zoology
Recommended Citation
Benz, Joseph J, "Food-elicited vocalizations in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia): Design features for representational communication" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9030106.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9030106