Inconsistent effects of components as evidence for non-compositionality in chimpanzee face-gesture combinations? A response to Ona et al (2019).

ABSTRACT: Using field observations from a sanctuary, Oña and colleagues (DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7623) investigated the semantics of face-gesture combinations in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). The response of the animals to these signals was encoded as a binary measure: positive interactions such as approaching or grooming were considered affiliative; ignoring or attacking was considered non-affiliative. The relevant signals are illustrated in Fig. 1 (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7623/fig-1), together with the outcome in terms of average affiliativeness. The authors observe that there seems to be no systematicity in the way the faces modify the responses to the gestures, sometimes reducing affiliativeness, sometimes increasing it. A strong interpretation of this result would be that the meaning o

SUBMITTER: Caute M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10893859 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature