![]() Thirty-six gestures were associated with 13 nonplay ASOs as either a primary or secondary outcome ( Tables 2 and S3). Move (and hold) body into indicated positionĪdjust behavior to focus attention on indicated location Jump slap object with object throw objectīeckon grab-pull slap object with object Mature recipient follows mature signaler, usually in consortship Physical contact of apparently affiliative nature, e.g., hugging, touching etc.Īrm raise mouth stroke reach touch other Grab hand on jump push side roulade slap other somersault stomp two feet tap otherĪrm swing bite foot present hand fling punch other shake hands slap objectĪrm swing hand fling jump object shake punch object or ground punch other slap objectĪrm raise object move push slap other stomp tap other Thus, in 12 of a possible 15 cases, there was statistical evidence of an association across individuals with particular outcomes.Įither cease behavior previously directed toward the signaler or change behavior to direct it toward another ![]() In three gestures, embrace, object move, and object shake, the combined frequency with which the primary, secondary, and tertiary ASOs were recorded across individuals was significantly greater than all other ASOs combined. In a further three gestures, directed push, present sexual, and reach, the primary and secondary ASOs were recorded significantly more often than all other ASOs combined. In one gesture, mouth stroke, all usage by all individuals was exclusively for the primary and secondary ASOs combined. In a further three gestures, big loud scratch, hand fling, and present groom, the primary ASO was recorded significantly more often than all other (14) ASOs combined, indicating a close association with the primary ASO. In two gestures, leaf clipping and present climb on, all usage by all individuals tested was exclusively for their primary ASO ( Table S2). An additional 21 gestures were used regularly outside of play but were not recorded with sufficient frequency from sufficient individuals for parametric analysis for these gestures, similar plots, indicating whether or not signalers employed these gestures toward the same distribution of ASOs, are provided ( Figure S1). These plots gave a graphical indication of whether individual signalers used the same gesture in the same way ( Figure S1). ASOs with similar meanings were plotted adjacent to one another, allowing us to distinguish visually between gestures with multiple meanings that are unambiguously different (e.g., big loud scratch: “groom me” and “travel with me”) and those that are more ambiguous, with several similar meanings (e.g., object shake: “sexual attention to male,” “follow me,” “travel with me,” “move away,” etc.). For each gesture type, we plotted the deviation from normal distribution of the ASO distribution (as used in the ANOVAs above), per individual signaler. The possible effect of individual identity was examined in two ways, graphical and statistical. Fifteen gesture types met the conditions for inclusion in the detailed analysis ( Supplemental Experimental Procedures), and 46 individuals contributed data. We therefore examined whether meaning varied with signaler identity. The appearance of multiple meanings for a single gesture might be the result of variation among signalers in the ways in which they employ their gestural repertoire. Play is the most common context for gestural communication [ The generality with which play-related meanings occurred indicates that there may be something special about play signals. Moreover, in most cases (57 of 66 gestures), at least one ASO was play-related, e.g., “start play”. Eliminating those ASOs with less than three instances per gesture type across the population as potential errors, the majority of the gestural repertoire was associated with two or three meanings (mean 2.8 ASOs per gesture). However, some of these ASOs occurred at very low frequencies, raising the possibility that, rather than implying genuine ambiguity, they might stem from observer error or misunderstandings by the recipient uncorrected in further communication by the signaler. The extent of this multiplicity or ambiguity of meaning is likely underestimated, since the number of recorded instances of a gesture type correlated positively with the number of ASOs with which it was associated (gestures recorded on three or more instances, Pearson’s correlation: r = 0.75, n = 43, p < 0.0001). ![]() The majority of the repertoire was used for multiple ASOs (number of ASOs per gesture type: mean = 4.6 ± 3.0, mode = 2, range 1–12). In fact, only 10 of the 66 gestures were used for only a single ASO, and of these, seven were recorded on three or fewer occasions. ], some gestures may have more than one meaning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |