Comparative Perception

This is a two-volume introduction to animal psycho-physics. It provides comparative sensory data and describes modern methods for studying the sensory capacities of nonverbal vertebrate animals (including human infants). With results obtained from state-of-the-art, quantitative behavioural techniques, this work describes field and laboratory research aimed at revealing a greater understanding of the social function and communicative meaning of animals' complex signals. In addition, it includes the results of physiological investigations into the neural processing mechanisms underlying the perception of complex signals observed in the electrical activity of nerve cells in the afferent pathway.