3 results on '"Zürcher, Yvonne"'
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2. The function and mechanism of vocal accommodation in humans and other primates.
- Author
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Ruch, Hanna, Zürcher, Yvonne, and Burkart, Judith M.
- Subjects
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ACCOMMODATION (Hermeneutics) , *PHONETICS , *LINGUISTIC analysis , *MATERIAL plasticity , *PRIMATES - Abstract
ABSTRACT: The study of non‐human animals, in particular primates, can provide essential insights into language evolution. A critical element of language is vocal production learning, i.e. learning how to produce calls. In contrast to other lineages such as songbirds, vocal production learning of completely new signals is strikingly rare in non‐human primates. An increasing body of research, however, suggests that various species of non‐human primates engage in vocal accommodation and adjust the structure of their calls in response to environmental noise or conspecific vocalizations. To date it is unclear what role vocal accommodation may have played in language evolution, in particular because it summarizes a variety of heterogeneous phenomena which are potentially achieved by different mechanisms. In contrast to non‐human primates, accommodation research in humans has a long tradition in psychology and linguistics. Based on theoretical models from these research traditions, we provide a new framework which allows comparing instances of accommodation across species, and studying them according to their underlying mechanism and ultimate biological function. We found that at the mechanistic level, many cases of accommodation can be explained with an automatic perception–production link, but some instances arguably require higher levels of vocal control. Functionally, both human and non‐human primates use social accommodation to signal social closeness or social distance to a partner or social group. Together, this indicates that not only some vocal control, but also the communicative function of vocal accommodation to signal social closeness and distance must have evolved prior to the emergence of language, rather than being the result of it. Vocal accommodation as found in other primates has thus endowed our ancestors with pre‐adaptations that may have paved the way for language evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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3. Trade-offs between vocal accommodation and individual recognisability in common marmoset vocalizations
- Author
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Erik P. Willems, Judith M. Burkart, Yvonne Zürcher, University of Zurich, and Zürcher, Yvonne
- Subjects
10207 Department of Anthropology ,Science ,Biological anthropology ,Closeness ,Identity (social science) ,10104 Department of Comparative Linguistics ,Article ,biology.animal ,Animals ,Social Behavior ,Close contact ,1000 Multidisciplinary ,Multidisciplinary ,Behavior, Animal ,biology ,300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology ,business.industry ,Trade offs ,Marmoset ,Contrast (statistics) ,Callithrix ,Recognition, Psychology ,Animal behaviour ,EVOL NCCR Evolving Language ,Medicine ,Vocal learning ,Vocalization, Animal ,Psychology ,business ,Accommodation ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
Recent studies find increasing evidence for vocal accommodation in nonhuman primates, indicating that this form of vocal learning is more prevalent than previously thought. Convergent vocal accommodation (i.e. becoming more similar to partners) indicates social closeness. At the same time, however, becoming too similar may compromise individual recognisability. This is especially problematic if individual recognisability is an important part of the call function, like in long-distance contact calls. In contrast, in calls with a different function, the trade-off between signalling social closeness and individual recognisability might be less severe. We therefore hypothesized that the extent and consequences of accommodation depend on the function of a given call, and expected (1) more accommodation in calls for which individual identity is less crucial and (2) that individual identity is less compromised in calls that serve mainly to transmit identity compared to calls where individual recognisability is less important. We quantified vocal accommodation in three call types over the process of pair formation in common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus, n = 20). These three call types have different functions and vary with the degree to which they refer to individual identity of the caller. In accordance with our predictions, we found that animals converged most in close contact calls (trill calls), but less in calls where individual identity is more essential (phee- and food calls). In two out of three call types, the amount of accommodation was predicted by the initial vocal distance. Moreover, accommodation led to a drop in statistical individual recognisability in trill calls, but not in phee calls and food calls. Overall, our study shows that patterns of vocal accommodation vary between call types with different functions, suggestive of trade-offs between signalling social closeness and individual recognisability in marmoset vocalizations.
- Published
- 2021
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