Communication

ON THE FUTURE OF PERSPECTIVES When Patrick Bateson and Peter Klopfer offered me the editorship of Perspectives in 1992, the world of academic publishing was in one of its periodic upheavals. Subscriptions to series-even distinguished series such as Perspec tives-had been declining and individual volume prices had been rising, a trend that if continued could only result in the series pricing itself out of the market. In the course of the negotiations around the change of editors, the publishers offered a cost-cutting solution: change the production pattern to "camera ready" and elimi nate the costs of indexing and proofreading. While I could see the sense in this proposal, I was reluctant to accept it. Part of what I had always liked about the volumes in this series was that they were real books, intelligently proofread, nicely laid out, and provided with proper indexes. Thus, I in return offered a "Devil's bargain": the publisher should maintain the present quality of the series for two more volumes and make a renewed effort to advertise the series to our ethological and sociobiological colleagues, while I as the new series editor committed myself to a renewed effort to make Perspectives the publication of choice for writers who are trying to get their message out to the world intact and readers who are seeking clear, coherent, comprehensive and untrammeled presentations of authors' ideas and research programs.

Résumé
This volume looks at future research in the field of ethology, not only by questioning what we now know, but also by presenting tractable ideas for empirical research.

Contenu
Introduction: Perspectives on Communication.- 1 The Behavior of Communicating, after Twenty Years.- 2 Conspicuousness and Diversity in Animal Signals.- 3 What is the Function of Song Learning in Songbirds?.- 4 Referential Signals.- 5 Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Advertisement Signals.- 6 Determinants of Conflict Outcomes.- 7 Incidental Emissions, Fortuitous Effects, and the Origins of Communication.- 8 Studying how Cetaceans use Sound to Explore their Environment.- 9 An Affect-Conditioning Model of Nonhuman Primate Vocal Signaling.- 10 Speech Acts and Animal Signals.- 11 The Role of Information in Communication: An Assessment/Management Approach.- 12 Communication and Natural Design.