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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Anim Behav. 2016 Sep 7;120:163–172. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.07.031

Table 3.

Hypotheses proposed to explain the evolutionary origins of call learning

Hypothesis Description
Improved signal recognition Imitating signals results in enhanced response or faster processing time
by receivers
Signalling local familiarity Learners can move among populations with local dialects
Signalling affiliation and group
membership		 Learners can move among different social groups and/or group
members signal cohesion to nongroup members
Increased information
encoding/complexity		 Learned calls permit the encoding of multiple levels of social affiliation
ranging from pairs and families to populations