Dolphin Communication and Cognition

<b>Experts survey the latest research on dolphin communication and cognition offering a comprehensive reference to findings in the laboratory and from the field.</b> <p/>Dolphin researchers have collected an impressive amount of data over the last twenty years thanks to advances in technology for monitoring recording and analyzing dolphin behavior as well as increasing interest in exploring and modeling dolphins' cognitive capacities. This volume offers a comprehensive reference to the latest research on dolphin communication and cognition reporting on findings from both the laboratory and the field. The contributors review a wide range of topics including vocalization abstract reasoning abilities imitation and learning social cognition echolocation and ethical issues in working with cetaceans. <p/>The book begins by examining the dolphin brain and its evolution the anatomy of its unique sound production and reception systems and its sensory abilities. It next treats communication reviewing the complexity of dolphins' vocalization and then describes research on cognition from both experimental and developmental perspectives. Finally the book considers the future of dolphin research including a series of provocative questions that remain unanswered posed by the volume's expert contributors. <p/><b>Contributors</b> <br>Mats Amundin Whitlow Au Ted W. Cranford Nicola Erdsack John Ford Wolf Hanke Louis M. Herman Denise L. Herzing Christine M. Johnson Petr Krysl Stan Kuczaj Marc Lammers Lori Marino Paul Nachtigall Julie Oswald Adam A. Pack Heidi Pearson Sam Ridgway Jeanette Thomas Randall Wells Thomas I. White Hal Whitehead Kelley Winship Bernd Würsig