TY - JOUR
T1 - An introduction to multimodal communication
AU - Higham, James P.
AU - Hebets, Eileen A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The present paper serves as an introduction to the field of multimodal communication, as well as to the present issue. The origins of this issue lie in a symposium that took place at the Animal Behavior Society (ABS) meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, on the 25th–29th of July 2010. This was funded by ABS, and we are extremely grateful to them for their commissioning and support of the symposium. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology very kindly offered to host this resulting special issue—thankfully almost all speakers were able to contribute, and we have taken the opportunity to invite other names in the field to add additional contributions. The overall aims of the issue are: (1) to serve as a defining reference for the current state of research on multimodal communication; (2) to stimulate more research in the field; and (3) to help promote the further multidisciplinary collaboration necessary to achieve breakthroughs in our understanding of complex communication systems. More specific aims are: (1) to highlight the importance of multimodal communication in animal signaling; (2) to present and discuss new models of signal evolution; (3) to present ways of studying multimodal systems, and of teasing apart the effects of specific signals using experimental approaches; (4) to investigate case studies of signaling systems, and explore the ecological and social pressures and constraints that influence their evolution; (5) to explore the extent to which information from multiple-signals is received, interpreted, and integrated into decision-making; and (6) to develop suggestions for future areas of research likely to prove fruitful.
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - Though it has long been known that animal communication is complex, recent years have seen growing interest in understanding the extent to which animals give multicomponent signals in multiple modalities, and how the different types of information extracted by receivers are interpreted and integrated in animal decision-making. This interest has culminated in the production of the present special issue on multimodal communication, which features both theoretical and empirical studies from leading researchers in the field. Reviews, comparative analyses, and species-specific empirical studies include manuscripts on taxa as diverse as spiders, primates, birds, lizards, frogs, and humans. The present manuscript serves as both an introduction to this special issue, as well as an introduction to multimodal communication more generally. We discuss the history of the study of complexity in animal communication, issues relating to defining and classifying multimodal signals, and particular issues to consider with multimodal (as opposed to multicomponent unimodal) communication. We go on to discuss the current state of the field, and outline the contributions contained within the issue. We finish by discussing future avenues for research, in particular emphasizing that 'multimodal' is more than just 'bimodal', and that more integrative frameworks are needed that incorporate more elements of efficacy, such as receiver sensory ecology and the environment.
AB - Though it has long been known that animal communication is complex, recent years have seen growing interest in understanding the extent to which animals give multicomponent signals in multiple modalities, and how the different types of information extracted by receivers are interpreted and integrated in animal decision-making. This interest has culminated in the production of the present special issue on multimodal communication, which features both theoretical and empirical studies from leading researchers in the field. Reviews, comparative analyses, and species-specific empirical studies include manuscripts on taxa as diverse as spiders, primates, birds, lizards, frogs, and humans. The present manuscript serves as both an introduction to this special issue, as well as an introduction to multimodal communication more generally. We discuss the history of the study of complexity in animal communication, issues relating to defining and classifying multimodal signals, and particular issues to consider with multimodal (as opposed to multicomponent unimodal) communication. We go on to discuss the current state of the field, and outline the contributions contained within the issue. We finish by discussing future avenues for research, in particular emphasizing that 'multimodal' is more than just 'bimodal', and that more integrative frameworks are needed that incorporate more elements of efficacy, such as receiver sensory ecology and the environment.
KW - Animal signals
KW - Multimodal communication
KW - Receiver sensory perception
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U2 - 10.1007/s00265-013-1590-x
DO - 10.1007/s00265-013-1590-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84883820657
SN - 0340-5443
VL - 67
SP - 1381
EP - 1388
JO - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
JF - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
IS - 9
ER -