Drew Rendall, Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge
Michael J. Owren, a teacher and scientist who analyzed the biological foundations of animal and human communication, died on January 15 2014 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. Michael was born July 19, 1955 in Oslo, Norway, the third child of Leif and Ingrid Owren. He was raised in College, Alaska; Hanover, New Hampshire; and Bergen, Norway. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Reed College and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Indiana University.
Michael taught psychology and neuroscience for over 25 years, first while doing post-doctoral work at the University of California, Davis, and later at the University of Colorado at Denver; the University of Otago (New Zealand); Reed College; Cornell University; and Georgia State University. At the time of his death, he was an Adjunct Professor at Emory University.
Michael had a vigorous scientific career focused on understanding the nature, scope and mechanisms of non-linguistic communication. He thought closely and carefully about focal phenomena in systems of vocal production and perception and his empirical studies are widely recognized for their unparalleled rigor and attention to detail.
He was also a skilled developer of novel research technologies and a sophisticated theoretician. On the methods side, he pioneered the application of spectral analysis techniques developed in speech science to the study of animal communication (see for instance his “Some analysis methods that may be useful to acoustic primatologists”). Based on the example of his own research, and on his detailed tutorials for their appropriate use and application, such techniques were widely embraced and became a standard part of the analytic toolkit of animal bioacousticians.
In his theorizing efforts, Michael was particularly invested in delineating and clarifying core constructs that undergird the theoretical foundations of the field of animal communication, and in this, as in everything else, he brought exceptional clarity of thought, expression and vision. Michael and I jointly developed a heterodox theory of the origins and evolution of signaling systems in animals and humans (See for instance our collaborative papers “Sound on the rebound” and “An affect-conditioning model of non-human primate vocal signaling”).
The theory, dubbed the “affect-induction model”, emphasizes that many animal vocalizations, and some forms of nonlinguistic vocal communication in humans such as laughter, “work” by influencing relatively low-level processes of attention, arousal, emotion, and motivation in the listener rather than the kind of high-level intentional and representational processes that support complex language in humans.
We distinguished two mechanisms of such influence, in particular. In some cases, the signal itself has acoustic properties that have a direct impact on the affective states of the recipient. Young vocalizers, for instance, can generate aversive sounds like crying, shrieking, or other kinds of loud and extravagant sounds, which directly motivate caregivers to pay attention and take action to turn off the source of the noxious stimulus.
In other cases, the signal is not high-impact by virtue of its acoustic properties alone, but it influences the affective state of the recipient by virtue of its association with social experiences that have positive or negative consequences, thereby leading to conditioned affective responses. Dominant monkeys can, for instance, exploit social conditioning processes by pairing distinctive threat calls with subsequent physical attack on subordinate rivals, using the threat call alone in future encounters to intimidate those individuals.
Michael applied these insights to the understanding of human laughter, working closely with Jo-Anne Bachorowski in this enterprise (See for instance two of their papers “The acoustic features of human laughter” and “Not all laughs are alike”). They proposed that laughter “works” by being associated with positive events – e.g. a joke, a happy meal with friends – and becoming a conditioned stimulus for those events. Since laughter breeds more laughter, laugh production creates positive and reciprocally sustaining affective states that can be used for fostering cooperation and diffusing conflicts.
The affect-induction model was creatively applied by Michael to a large domain of experimental settings, ranging from alarm calling and food calling in nonhuman primates, domestic cat meowing, infant babbling and human laughter (Notable publications here include “The acoustic features of vowel-like grunt calls in chacma baboons,” “Salience of caller identity in rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) coos and screams: Perceptual experiments with human listeners” and “Asymmetries in the individual distinctiveness and maternal recognition of infant contact calls and distress screams in baboons”).
The model challenges the standard interpretation of non-linguistic signals as providing veridical information to recipients, suggesting that they can have a much more direct impact on recipients’ responses and in ways that are not always aligned with receiver interests (See “What do animal signals mean?” and “Communication without meaning or information” for an exploration of some of the tensions with the received view). But it also shows how low-level processes of influence can pave the way for more complex representational communication like that epitomized by the semantic qualities of human language.
In addition to its academic recognition, Michael’s work generated interest in the popular media, as in a 2003 Chicago Tribune article that described his feline communication research as the “how of the meow,” and a 2009 NPR interview on his work with Marina Davila Ross investigating the evolutionary roots of laughter: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104952197.
Michael loved teaching, and was a mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students. Outside the classroom, he was a life-long runner. For a while, he also sang professionally, performing during his time in Denver with an a cappella group known as Cool Shooz. To his friends and family, Michael was known for his intelligence, dry wit, and knowledge of everything. From beer to basketball to politics and world geography, Michael was the guy everyone wanted on their Trivial Pursuit team.
Michael is survived by his three siblings, Turid Owren of Portland, Oregon; Henry Owren, also of Portland; and Thomas Owren, of Bergen, Norway; as well as thirteen nieces and nephews who loved spending time with their Uncle Michael. They, along with his many students, colleagues, and friends, will miss him greatly. I will too…
