Psychology

Donald Owings

Professor

Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

Research

Dr. Owings studies the communicative, antipredator, and social behavior of animals. He uses both theoretical and empirical approaches to these phenomena, and exploits the complementary benefits of field and laboratory studies. His research on communication has included studies of vocalizations and visual displays, in both adults and young animals; in all cases he explores the functional significance of signal structure and communicative behavior. He feels that it is important to study behavior in contexts that are meaningful to his animals, in an evolutionary and ecological sense. For this reason, he has studied the communicative activities of ground squirrels as they deal with the variety of predators that have historically been important to them, and has found that their signaling and other antipredator activities are adjusted in ways that match the distinct threats posed by these different predators. A broader goal of his program is to understand the logical structure of the general process of communication.

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