Researchers try to talk with the dolphins at Epcot
Scientists developed a language like Morse code in an attempt to communicate with Calvin the dolphin.
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 31, 2006
Calvin's got rhythm -- and scientists are excited, since the Disney performer weighs 450 pounds and breathes through a blowhole.
A 12-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin living in the backwaters of Epcot at Walt Disney World, Calvin is being taught a vocal form of communication that involves the cadence of his sounds, something that's never been done before with animals, his researchers said.
He is one of four dolphins that spend much of the day swimming around Epcot's Living Seas attraction to the delight of customers, then moonlight at Disney as scientific research subjects.
Calvin stars in an experiment that has scientists exploring whether dolphins can communicate with language that doesn't rely on the pitch, timbre or intensity of vocalizations -- the variations that humans most typically use to form words -- but on the sounds' duration and rhythm.
Think Morse code: One long sound could mean one thing. A bunch of quick sounds uttered in staccato might mean another.
In a project overseen by New College of Florida psychology professor Heidi Harley, Disney researchers and trainers are teaching Calvin to associate such rhythms with specific objects.
"It's interesting that they are capable of being sensitive to and capable of producing rhythms," said Wendi Fellner, a research associate with Disney. "No other species has shown this sort of flexibility. We want to see if these rhythms can be symbolic for a dolphin, to be used as an artificial communication system."
The trainer, normally Disney marine mammal specialist Leslie Larsen-Plott though others take turns, holds up an object. If Calvin responds by vocalizing the right rhythm, he gets a fish. A basketball, for example, is identified with chirp pause chirp pause chirp pause, a rhythm that researchers dubbed the "dribble." Chirp pause long whistle means the Batman action figure. Long whistle pause long whistle pause long whistle is the watering can.
So far, Calvin has seven rhythms down, and two more to go in the first phase.
It all started with another dolphin named Bob, who seemed to have rhythm all on his own, Harley said. He'd respond to rhythms, even when the trainers changed the timbre or pitch. He got Harley thinking.
"It seemed to me that dolphins, who are so acoustically oriented and are mammals like we are, might be a place to look at some sophisticated rhythm processing," Harley said. "So we said, 'Gee, let's see if they can produce rhythms that we teach them.' No nonhuman has ever been taught rhythms. We didn't know any animal on Earth could do this besides humans, producing rhythms that aren't naturally part of their repertoire."
Calvin was already identified as "a uniquely bright animal," Harley said, and he already had a good working relationship with Larsen-Plott, so he was recruited. Within three months, he clearly was producing rhythms on demand.
Harley and Fellner have presented some of their findings at two scientific conferences, for the Acoustical Society of America and the Comparative Cognition Society, and are writing a paper.
The next step, Fellner said, is to see if Calvin can find objects when the trainers play back recordings of his rhythmic sounds. Perhaps some day they might see if dolphins could communicate with each other with the rhythms.
If nothing else, rhythm might give trainers and dolphins another means to communicate, Fellner said.
"The most direct way to find something out about somebody is to ask them," she said. "So if we can find a way to develop an artificial language, it would be a much more direct way to find out something about them."
Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.
Scientists developed a language like Morse code in an attempt to communicate with Calvin the dolphin.
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 31, 2006
Calvin's got rhythm -- and scientists are excited, since the Disney performer weighs 450 pounds and breathes through a blowhole.
A 12-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin living in the backwaters of Epcot at Walt Disney World, Calvin is being taught a vocal form of communication that involves the cadence of his sounds, something that's never been done before with animals, his researchers said.
He is one of four dolphins that spend much of the day swimming around Epcot's Living Seas attraction to the delight of customers, then moonlight at Disney as scientific research subjects.
Calvin stars in an experiment that has scientists exploring whether dolphins can communicate with language that doesn't rely on the pitch, timbre or intensity of vocalizations -- the variations that humans most typically use to form words -- but on the sounds' duration and rhythm.
Think Morse code: One long sound could mean one thing. A bunch of quick sounds uttered in staccato might mean another.
In a project overseen by New College of Florida psychology professor Heidi Harley, Disney researchers and trainers are teaching Calvin to associate such rhythms with specific objects.
"It's interesting that they are capable of being sensitive to and capable of producing rhythms," said Wendi Fellner, a research associate with Disney. "No other species has shown this sort of flexibility. We want to see if these rhythms can be symbolic for a dolphin, to be used as an artificial communication system."
The trainer, normally Disney marine mammal specialist Leslie Larsen-Plott though others take turns, holds up an object. If Calvin responds by vocalizing the right rhythm, he gets a fish. A basketball, for example, is identified with chirp pause chirp pause chirp pause, a rhythm that researchers dubbed the "dribble." Chirp pause long whistle means the Batman action figure. Long whistle pause long whistle pause long whistle is the watering can.
So far, Calvin has seven rhythms down, and two more to go in the first phase.
It all started with another dolphin named Bob, who seemed to have rhythm all on his own, Harley said. He'd respond to rhythms, even when the trainers changed the timbre or pitch. He got Harley thinking.
"It seemed to me that dolphins, who are so acoustically oriented and are mammals like we are, might be a place to look at some sophisticated rhythm processing," Harley said. "So we said, 'Gee, let's see if they can produce rhythms that we teach them.' No nonhuman has ever been taught rhythms. We didn't know any animal on Earth could do this besides humans, producing rhythms that aren't naturally part of their repertoire."
Calvin was already identified as "a uniquely bright animal," Harley said, and he already had a good working relationship with Larsen-Plott, so he was recruited. Within three months, he clearly was producing rhythms on demand.
Harley and Fellner have presented some of their findings at two scientific conferences, for the Acoustical Society of America and the Comparative Cognition Society, and are writing a paper.
The next step, Fellner said, is to see if Calvin can find objects when the trainers play back recordings of his rhythmic sounds. Perhaps some day they might see if dolphins could communicate with each other with the rhythms.
If nothing else, rhythm might give trainers and dolphins another means to communicate, Fellner said.
"The most direct way to find something out about somebody is to ask them," she said. "So if we can find a way to develop an artificial language, it would be a much more direct way to find out something about them."
Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.
