Louis Herman
Encyclopedia
Louis Herman is a researcher of dolphin sensory abilities, dolphin cognition, and humpback whales. He is currently professor in the Department of Psychology
and a cooperating faculty member of the Department of Oceanography
at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
. He founded the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory (KBMML) in Honolulu, Hawaii
in 1970 to study bottlenose dolphin
perception
, cognition
, and communication. In 1975, he pioneered the scientific study of the annual winter migration
of humpback whale
s into Hawaiian waters. Together with Adam Pack, he founded The Dolphin Institute in 1993, a non-profit corporation dedicated to dolphin
s and whale
s through education, research, and conservation.
Herman currently serves as a member of the Sanctuary Advisory Council for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. In total, he has published over 120 scientific papers.
and echolocation
, and more recently on the topic of imitation. The Atlantic bottlenosed dolphins involved in the research programs were Pua, Kea, Akeakamai, Phoenix, Elele, and Hiapo. Akeakamai is perhaps the best-known of the "language" dolphins, and was inserted as a character in David Brin
's science fiction
novel Startide Rising
. In the Hawaiian language
, Akeakamai roughly corresponds to: lover (ake) of wisdom (akamai
).
(Herman, Richards, & Wolz, 1984) was published in the human psychology journal Cognition
, during the anti-animal language backlash generated by the skeptical critique of primate animal language programs by Herbert Terrace in 1979. The key difference with previous primate work was that the dolphin work focused on language comprehension only. The problem with researching language production was the issue of scientific parsimony: it is essentially impossible to verify that an animal truly understands its own artificial language production. This problem is eliminated with language comprehension studies, because the researchers control the form of the artificial language, and need only observe the behavior of the animal in response to the symbol sequence. Other controls included the use of a blinded observer who was not aware of the sentence given to the dolphin, as well as the balanced presentation of possible word/symbol combinations. Most importantly, the dolphins were tested on their responses to novel sentences they had never before been given, to test for concept generalization. Also, the dolphins were tested in novel sentence grammars and anomalous grammars as well, demonstrating that the dolphins' comprehension was limited to a finite-state (slot-based) syntax
.
The dolphins in this research were named Akeakamai
, and Phoenix.
and vision
. In other words if the dolphin viewed an unfamiliar object visually, it could recognize that same object and pick it out amongst dissimilar alternatives when presented to the echoic sense only through the use of an "anechoic chamber", a box submerged underwater with a window of black acrylic glass
that is opaque to light, but transparent to echolocation. The objects used for generalization trials were controlled for overall size (and therefore echo strength) and composition (all objects were constructed of PVC
). These abilities were measured to be equally strong in both directions, echoic-to-visual, and visual-to-echoic. The dolphin used in this research was named Elele.
s into Hawaiian waters, focusing on distribution, abundance, behavior, social organization, song, and individual life histories. He coined the term "escort" to designate male whale(s) trailing a mother-calf pair in the wintering waters. He was one of the first researchers to collect a photographic catalog of individually-identifying tail flukes in the Pacific Ocean
.
In 1985, an errant humpback whale, dubbed "Humphrey"
by national television media, swam up the Sacramento River
in California
from San Francisco Bay
. Herman's idea was to lure it out by playing acoustic recordings of vocalizations from the whales' summer feeding grounds in Alaska
.
and dolphin intelligence
: acoustic mimicry, behavioral mimicry (inter- and intra-specific), memory
, monitoring of self behaviors (including reporting on these, as well as avoiding or repeating them), reporting on the presence and absence of objects, object categorization
, discrimination and matching (identity matching to sample, delayed matching to sample, arbitrary matching to sample, synchronous creative behaviors between two animals, and comprehension of symbols for various body parts, and the comprehension of the pointing gesture and gaze (as made by dolphins or humans).
was relatively poor. Herman et al. (1975) hypothesized that the double-slit pupil shape enabled useful focusing in both underwater and in-air use, despite the difference in density of these media: the lens was used for focusing underwater, whereas the double-slit pupil, when contracted in the bright above-water environment, acted to focus via small aperture, essential in the same manner as a pinhole-camera. Herman et al. (1989) demonstrated the dolphin's equivalent ability in matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks in both the acoustic and visual domains. Pack & Herman (1995) explored cross-modal matching of objects between echolocation and vision, and did not report differential performance ability when comparing the visual-to-echoic and echoic-to-visual directions.
National Geographic's Dolphins with Robin Williams
, BBC
's Wildlife on One's Dolphins: Deep Thinkers with David Attenborough
, ABC's Touched by a Dolphin with Sharon Lawrence
, The Discoverers IMAX
, Dolphins IMAX
, and NOVA.
Listings in Internet Movie Database
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and a cooperating faculty member of the Department of Oceanography
Oceanography
Oceanography , also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean...
at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
. He founded the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory (KBMML) in Honolulu, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
in 1970 to study bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
, cognition
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
, and communication. In 1975, he pioneered the scientific study of the annual winter migration
Fish migration
Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres...
of humpback whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
s into Hawaiian waters. Together with Adam Pack, he founded The Dolphin Institute in 1993, a non-profit corporation dedicated to dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s and whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s through education, research, and conservation.
Herman currently serves as a member of the Sanctuary Advisory Council for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. In total, he has published over 120 scientific papers.
Dolphin research
Herman is most known for his research into sensory perception, animal languageAnimal language
Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems. While the term is widely used, researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language....
and echolocation
Animal echolocation
Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals.Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects...
, and more recently on the topic of imitation. The Atlantic bottlenosed dolphins involved in the research programs were Pua, Kea, Akeakamai, Phoenix, Elele, and Hiapo. Akeakamai is perhaps the best-known of the "language" dolphins, and was inserted as a character in David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
's science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel Startide Rising
Startide Rising
Startide Rising is a 1983 science fiction novel by David Brin and the second book of six set in his Uplift Universe . It earned both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel...
. In the Hawaiian language
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
, Akeakamai roughly corresponds to: lover (ake) of wisdom (akamai
Akamai
Akamai may refer to:* Akamai Technologies, a company that develops software for web content and application delivery** Akamai Foundation, a sponsor of the American Mathematics Competitions, founded by Akamai Technologies...
).
Animal language
His 1984 paper on animal languageAnimal language
Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems. While the term is widely used, researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language....
(Herman, Richards, & Wolz, 1984) was published in the human psychology journal Cognition
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
, during the anti-animal language backlash generated by the skeptical critique of primate animal language programs by Herbert Terrace in 1979. The key difference with previous primate work was that the dolphin work focused on language comprehension only. The problem with researching language production was the issue of scientific parsimony: it is essentially impossible to verify that an animal truly understands its own artificial language production. This problem is eliminated with language comprehension studies, because the researchers control the form of the artificial language, and need only observe the behavior of the animal in response to the symbol sequence. Other controls included the use of a blinded observer who was not aware of the sentence given to the dolphin, as well as the balanced presentation of possible word/symbol combinations. Most importantly, the dolphins were tested on their responses to novel sentences they had never before been given, to test for concept generalization. Also, the dolphins were tested in novel sentence grammars and anomalous grammars as well, demonstrating that the dolphins' comprehension was limited to a finite-state (slot-based) syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
.
The dolphins in this research were named Akeakamai
Akeakamai
Akeakamai was a female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, who along with a companion female dolphin named Phoenix, as well as tankmates Elele and Hiapo, were the subjects of Louis Herman's animal language studies at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii...
, and Phoenix.
Echolocation
Pack & Herman (1995) demonstrated the bottlenosed dolphin's ability to recognize the shapes of novel objects across the senses of echolocationAnimal echolocation
Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals.Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects...
and vision
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
. In other words if the dolphin viewed an unfamiliar object visually, it could recognize that same object and pick it out amongst dissimilar alternatives when presented to the echoic sense only through the use of an "anechoic chamber", a box submerged underwater with a window of black acrylic glass
Acrylic glass
Poly is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate...
that is opaque to light, but transparent to echolocation. The objects used for generalization trials were controlled for overall size (and therefore echo strength) and composition (all objects were constructed of PVC
Polyvinyl chloride
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
). These abilities were measured to be equally strong in both directions, echoic-to-visual, and visual-to-echoic. The dolphin used in this research was named Elele.
Humpback whale
In 1975, Herman pioneered the scientific study of the annual winter migration of humpback whaleHumpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
s into Hawaiian waters, focusing on distribution, abundance, behavior, social organization, song, and individual life histories. He coined the term "escort" to designate male whale(s) trailing a mother-calf pair in the wintering waters. He was one of the first researchers to collect a photographic catalog of individually-identifying tail flukes in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
In 1985, an errant humpback whale, dubbed "Humphrey"
Humphrey the Whale
Humphrey the Whale is arguably the most widely publicized humpback whale in history, having errantly entered San Francisco Bay twice, departing from his Mexico to Alaska migration. This behavior is not normal for any Humpback whale, and Humphrey became well known on national television and press...
by national television media, swam up the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
from San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. Herman's idea was to lure it out by playing acoustic recordings of vocalizations from the whales' summer feeding grounds in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
Cognition and communication
Herman has also published on the following topics in animal cognitionAnimal cognition
Animal cognition is the title given to the study of the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, but has also been strongly influenced by the approach of ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology...
and dolphin intelligence
Cetacean intelligence
Cetacean intelligence denotes the cognitive capabilities of the Cetacea order of mammals, which includes whales, porpoises, and dolphins.-Brain size:...
: acoustic mimicry, behavioral mimicry (inter- and intra-specific), memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
, monitoring of self behaviors (including reporting on these, as well as avoiding or repeating them), reporting on the presence and absence of objects, object categorization
Categorization
Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge...
, discrimination and matching (identity matching to sample, delayed matching to sample, arbitrary matching to sample, synchronous creative behaviors between two animals, and comprehension of symbols for various body parts, and the comprehension of the pointing gesture and gaze (as made by dolphins or humans).
Vision
Conventional wisdom in the 70's once dictated that dolphins were acoustic specialists, and that visual perceptionVisual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
was relatively poor. Herman et al. (1975) hypothesized that the double-slit pupil shape enabled useful focusing in both underwater and in-air use, despite the difference in density of these media: the lens was used for focusing underwater, whereas the double-slit pupil, when contracted in the bright above-water environment, acted to focus via small aperture, essential in the same manner as a pinhole-camera. Herman et al. (1989) demonstrated the dolphin's equivalent ability in matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks in both the acoustic and visual domains. Pack & Herman (1995) explored cross-modal matching of objects between echolocation and vision, and did not report differential performance ability when comparing the visual-to-echoic and echoic-to-visual directions.
Video media
Herman's research has been featured in:National Geographic's Dolphins with Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Wildlife on One's Dolphins: Deep Thinkers with David Attenborough
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...
, ABC's Touched by a Dolphin with Sharon Lawrence
Sharon Lawrence
Sharon Elizabeth Lawrence is an American television actress. She is best known for the role of Sylvia Costas Sipowicz in the Television series NYPD Blue...
, The Discoverers IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
, Dolphins IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
, and NOVA.
Listings in Internet Movie Database
- Dr. Louis Herman
- Dolphins (2000)
- In the Wild: Dolphins with Robin Williams (1997, 2005) Amazon.com
- Touched by a Dolphin (1996)
- The Discoverers (1993)
Selected Scientific Publications
- Mercado III, E., Herman, L. M., & Pack, A. A. (2005). Song copying by humpback whales: Themes and variations. Animal Cognition. 8, 93-102.
- Pack, A.A. & Herman, L.M. (2004). Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) comprehend the referent of both static and dynamic human gazing and pointing in an object choice task. Journal of Comparative Psychology. 118, 160-171.
- Mercado, E. III, Herman, L. M., & Pack, A. A. (2003). Stereotypical sound patterns in humpback whale songs: usage and function. Aquatic Mammals, 29, 37-52.
- Herman, L. M. (2002). Vocal, social, and self-imitation by bottlenosed dolphins. In C. Nehaniv & K. Dautenhahn (Eds.). Imitation in Animals and Artifacts. Pp. 63-108. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press
- Herman, L. M., Matus, D., Herman, E.Y.K., Ivancic, M., & Pack, A. A. (2001). The bottlenosed dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) understanding of gestures as symbolic representations of body parts. Animal Learning and Behavior, 29, 250-264.
- Calambokidis, J., Steiger, G. H., Straley, J. M., Herman, L. M., Cerchio, S., Salden, D. R., Urban R., J., Jacobsen, J. K., von Ziegesar, O., Balcomb, K. C., Gabriele, C. M., Dahlheim, M. E., Uchida, S., Ellis, G., Miyamura, Y., De Guevara P., P. L., Yamaguchi, M., Sato, F., Mizroch, S. A., Schlender, L., Rasmussen, K., Barlow, J., & Quinn II, T. J. (2001). Movements and population structure of humpback whales in the North Pacific. Marine Mammal Science 17, 769-794.
- Pack, A. A. & Herman L. M. (1995). Sensory integration in the bottlenosed dolphin: Immediate recognition of complex shapes across the senses of echolocation and vision. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 98, 722-733.
- Herman, L. M. (1994). Hawaiian Humpback Whales and ATOC: A Conflict of Interests. The Journal of Environment and Development, 3, 63-76.
- Herman, L.M., Kuczaj, S. A. II, & Holder, M. D. (1993). Responses to Anomalous Gestural Sequences by a Language-Trained Dolphin: Evidence for Processing of Semantic Relations and Syntactic Information. Journal of Experimental Psychology, General, 122, 184-194.
- Herman, L. M., Hovancik, J.R., Gory, J.D. & Bradshaw, G.L. (1989). Generalization of visual matching by a bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): Evidence for invariance of cognitive performance with visual or auditory materials. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 15, 124-136.
- Herman, L. M. and Forestell, P. H. (1985). Reporting presence or absence of named objects by a language-trained dolphin. Neuroscience and Bioehavioral Reviews, 9, 667-691.
- Herman, L. M., Richards, D. G. & Wolz, J. P. (1984). Comprehension of sentences by bottlenosed dolphins. Cognition, 16, 129-219.
- Richards, D. G., Wolz, J. P. & Herman, L. M. (1984). Vocal mimicry of computer generated sounds and vocal labeling of objects by a bottlenosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 98, 10-28.
- Herman, L. M. (1989) In which Procrustean bed does the sea lion sleep tonight? Psychological Record, 39, 19-49.
- Mobley, J. R., Jr., Herman, L. M., and Frankel, A. S. (1988) Responses of wintering humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to playback of recordings of winter and summer vocalizations and synthetic sound. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 23, 211-223.
- Baker, C. S., Herman, L. M., Perry, A., Lawton, W. S., Straley, J. M., Wolman, A. A., Kaufman, G. D., Winn, H. E., Hall, J. D., Reinke, J. M., & Ostman, J. (1986). Migratory movement and population structure of Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Central and Eastern North Pacific. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 31, 105-119.
- Baker, C. S. and Herman, L. M. (1984). Aggressive behavior between humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) wintering in Hawaiian waters. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 62, 1922-1937.
- Herman, L. M. and Thompson, R. K. R. (1982) Symbolic, identity, and probe delayed matching of sounds by the bottlenosed dolphin. Animal Learning and Behavior, 10, 22-34.
- Herman, L. M. and Antinoja, R. C. (1977). Humpback whales in the Hawaiian breeding waters: Population and pod characteristics. Scientific Reports of the Whales Research Institute (Tokyo), 29, 59-85.
- Herman, L. M., Peacock, M. F., Yunker, M. P. & Madsen, C. (1975). Bottlenosed dolphin: Double-slit pupil yields equivalent aerial and underwater diurnal acuity. Science, 189, 650-652.
- Herman, L. M., Beach, F. A. III, Pepper, R. L. & Stalling, R. B. (1969). Learning-set formation in the bottlenose dolphin. Psychonomic Society, 14, 3, 98-99.
See also
- AkeakamaiAkeakamaiAkeakamai was a female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, who along with a companion female dolphin named Phoenix, as well as tankmates Elele and Hiapo, were the subjects of Louis Herman's animal language studies at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii...
- Animal cognitionAnimal cognitionAnimal cognition is the title given to the study of the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, but has also been strongly influenced by the approach of ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology...
- Animal EcholocationAnimal echolocationEcholocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals.Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects...
- Animal languageAnimal languageAnimal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems. While the term is widely used, researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language....
- Animal trainingAnimal trainingAnimal training refers to teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli. Training may be for the purpose of companionship, detection, protection, entertainment or all of the above....
- Bottlenose DolphinBottlenose DolphinBottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
- Cetacean intelligenceCetacean intelligenceCetacean intelligence denotes the cognitive capabilities of the Cetacea order of mammals, which includes whales, porpoises, and dolphins.-Brain size:...
- Great Ape languageGreat Ape languageResearch into non-human great ape language has involved teaching chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans to communicate with human beings and with each other using sign language, physical tokens, and lexigrams; see Yerkish...
- Humpback WhaleHumpback WhaleThe humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
- John C. LillyJohn C. LillyJohn Cunningham Lilly was an American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher and writer....
- LinguisticsLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
- Operant conditioningOperant conditioningOperant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...
- Irene PepperbergIrene PepperbergIrene Maxine Pepperberg is a scientist noted for her studies in animal cognition, particularly in relation to parrots. She is an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University and a lecturer at Harvard University...
- David PremackDavid PremackDavid Premack is currently emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the University of Minnesota when logical positivism was in full bloom. The departments of Psychology and Philosophy were closely allied...
- Sue Savage-RumbaughSue Savage-RumbaughSue Savage-Rumbaugh , also known by the lexigram , is a primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their use of "Great Ape language" using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards...