The effects of rapidity of fading on communication systems

The evolution of …, 2006

identified duality of patterning, that is, the fact that few meaningless units generate a large number of meaningful elements, as one of the critical design-features of human languages. Another design-feature identified by Hockett is rapidity of fading, that is, the fact that linguistic messages are transmitted in a medium over which signals quickly fade. We propose a link between the two design-features. In particular, we hypothesize that the more rapidly signals fade in a medium, the more likely it is that human communication systems emerging over that medium develop duality of patterning. To test this hypothesis, we ran an experiment using the method developed by one of us for studying the emergence of human communication systems in the laboratory.

Journal of Human Evolution, 1979

In this brief note it is suggested that gesture may have constituted Canada L8S 4M4 the dominant form of communication for humans during an intervening phase between the use of calls and spoken language. A Received 5 February 1979 and "dialectic" is also proposed to expose the dynamic interrelationship accepted 29 June 1979 between the controlled use of silence and sound in the evolution of human communications systems.

Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 2005

The emergence of human communication systems is typically investigated via 2 approaches with complementary strengths and weaknesses: naturalistic studies and computer simulations. This study was conducted with a method that combines these approaches. Pairs of participants played video games requiring communication. Members of a pair were physically separated but exchanged graphic signals through a medium that prevented the use of standard symbols (e.g., letters). Communication systems emerged and developed rapidly during the games, integrating the use of explicit signs with information implicitly available to players and silent behavior-coordinating procedures. The systems that emerged suggest 3 conclusions: (a) signs originate from different mappings; (b) sign systems develop parsimoniously; (c) sign forms are perceptually distinct, easy to produce, and tolerant to variations.

One can study communications by using Shannon's (1948) mathematical theory of communication. In social communications, however, the channels are not "fixed", but themselves subject to change. Communication systems change by communicating information to related communication systems; co-variation among systems if repeated over time, can lead to co-evolution. Conditions for stabilization of higher-order systems are specifiable: segmentation, stratification, differentiation, reflection, and self-organization can be distinguished in terms of developmental stages of increasingly complex networks. In addition to natural and cultural evolution, a condition for the artificial evolution of communication systems can be specified.

Presence, 1998

Information-transfer (IT) rates in bits/sec were estimated for a variety of methods of human communication and modalities of reception. Using previously published data, a range of communication rates for which transmission is highly accurate was established for each method and modality. These communication rates were converted into a normalized unit of transmission (words/sec). The normalized units were then converted into estimates of IT rate (bits/sec) using Shannon's (1951) calculations of the information content of a single letter of the alphabet. Maximal estimates of IT rates of roughly 40 to 60 bits/sec are observed for speech (through audition) and for reading and sign language (through vision). Maximal rates roughly 50 percent lower are obtained for reading through the tactual sense. Estimates of IT rates for motor output tasks are also considered. A close correspondence is generally observed between IT rates for receiving a given display and IT rates for the motor output task required for producing the display. These results have implications for the design of synthetic-environment systems and the displays and controls to be used in these systems, by providing examples of communication rates that have been achieved by humans in the area of language communication.

Cognition, 2015

Acta Biotheoretica, 2006

This book is the product of an interdisciplinary workshop, which by the editors' own admission failed to achieve its original goal-that of solving the problem of how to communicate about communication. The hope was to develop a common terminology among those with a shared interest in the evolution of communication, but as the editors note, "the outcome [of the workshop] yielded no improvement that we could discern" (p. vii). Although the conference was ostensibly about communication, the main focus was the evolution of human language, currently a hot topic, and the book suffers somewhat from the growing number of competing volumes, some of them also derived from conferences or workshops. Despite these handicaps, it does provide a useful snapshot of the current state of the art, and illustrates some of the ways in which the approach to the evolution of human language is changing.

Cognitive Science, 2010

This paper compares two explanations of the process by which human communication systems evolve: iterated learning and social collaboration. It then reports an experiment testing the social collaboration account. Participants engaged in a graphical communication task either as a member of a community, where they interacted with seven different partners drawn from the same pool, or as a member of an isolated pair, where they interacted with the same partner across the same number of games. Participants' horizontal, pair-wise interactions led ''bottom up'' to the creation of an effective and efficient shared sign system in the community condition. Furthermore, the communityevolved sign systems were as effective and efficient as the local sign systems developed by isolated pairs. Finally, and as predicted by a social collaboration account, and not by an iterated learning account, interaction was critical to the creation of shared sign systems, with different isolated pairs establishing different local sign systems and different communities establishing different global sign systems.

The Intensive Interaction Handbook

• How we communicate • How communication issues affect all of us. Is it not wonderful to be a communicator? Do you not think that human communication is a brilliant thing to take part in, or to watch other people doing? Do you like 'people watching'? Most of us find watching other people's communications to be fascinating don't we? Think about all the things you do in life that you enjoy. Yes, there are many. But is it not true that the best thing for nearly all of us is just being with other people and chit-chatting? Most of us do plenty of it, every day. This is a brief introductory chapter about communication in general. Before thinking specifically about communication issues for some people with special communication needs, let us spend a little time thinking about communication issues that affect all of us. We human beings communicate in a rich and sophisticated way that sets us apart from all other species on our planet. No other animals can communicate like we can. Human beings communicate with incredible detail using language, but we are also probably more detailed visual communicators than other animals. You will often see the phrase 'communication channels', being used. We will use it from time to time in this book; it is useful. Humankind communicates through these channels: 01-Hewett-4262-Ch-01 (Part 1).indd 3 13/09/2011 12:28:41 PM The InTensIve InTeracTIon handbook 4 Sound. Speech and language, vocalisations such as grunts, then a range of other noises can be communicative-lip-smacking, clapping hands, foot-tapping, and so on. Vision. Reading each others' signals-facial expressions, eye contacts, gesture, body language, uncontrolled non-conscious visual information coming out of a person. eye contacts, facial expressions, body language and gesture are as important as speech communication is first and foremost enjoyable

Communication is an interactional process. According to Nitcavic (2013), "Communication is not something that one person does to another. Communication is a continuous, ever-changing, circular, process of interaction" (p. 7). The goal of this interactional process is to try to deliver a message through a channel in a certain context in the environment.