VOCAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SPECIES - MAN AND MACAQUE

Naïve human listeners (75 subjects) classified 18 vocalizations of Macaca arctoides into one of seven semantic categories. The classifications were compared with the categorization based on the overall behavioural situations in which the vocalizations were emitted. Sixty per cent of all answers were correct. More than 80% of the subjects identified correctly the vocalizations of female satisfaction and male dominance. At the other extreme nobody identified the threat grunts of a female. The results suggest that monkey and man share vocalization patterns signalling fear, aggression, dominance and emotional neutrality. © 1991.