Signal Theory and the Language of Communication

Abstract

Abstract To many an observer, chemical, mechanical, and visual signaling may appear as vastly different phenomena, processes that share few mechanistic features. Nonetheless, all three are involved in transferring information between individuals, and to accomplish this transfer they must often be capable of transmission over substantial distances in reasonably brief time intervals. They must also avoid significant alteration by the environment in the course of their transmission. Thus, a unified body of theory that can focus on these commonalities would be most helpful. Here, principles borrowed from the branch of engineering formally known as signal, or signal detection, theory have proven useful for describing certain fundamental aspects of animal communication and comparing communication in its various modalities. In this chapter I introduce those abstract constructs of signal theory that are applicable to the signals that animals transmit and that can improve our understanding of the ways in which animal signals function. I also introduce the basic terminology, the language of animal communication, used throughout the book.