Language and Communication: Comparative Perspectives (COMPARATIVE COGNITION AND NEUROSCIENCE)

The result of a conference on language and related cognitive processes in animals, this book brings together scientists working on language and communication, reviews research done on language in apes and dolphins, and places this work in a larger perspective of animal communication and cognition. The conference convened an international group of distinguished scientists interested in exploring the neurological, cognitive, social, and behavioral aspects of communication in animals. A broad spectrum of perspectives was represented, including naturalistic investigations of animals in their natural habitat as well as strictly controlled laboratory investigations. Similarly, a broad range of species was described including rats, parrots, monkeys, apes, dolphins, and humans.

New methodologies and perspectives are continuously emerging that allow consideration of issues that previously could not be resolved. Emerging technology such as video equipment and advanced database systems allow one to exhaustively record in an accessible format the evidence on which scientific conclusions must be based. Investigation of animal language and communication is a small, but vigorously exciting area of scientific investigation as the chapters in this volume clearly attest.

...provides an excellent summary of the key conceptual issues in comparative language studies....graduate students shopping around for a thesis project relevant to language evolution should read this volume.
—Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

The editors are to be congratulated on recruiting and organizing a first-rate crew of authors. Every single chapter held my interest....Old-time comparative psychologists would be utterly amazed by the data.
—Contemporary Psychology