Functionally referential signals: a promising paradigm whose time has passed.

Abstract in brief

• The article discusses the concept of functionally referential signals in animal communication, which were once thought to be similar to human language due to their specific and context-dependent nature, but this idea has been largely abandoned.
• Modern perspectives suggest that while these signals show some cognitive similarities between animals and humans, this similarity is not unique to them, and processing these signals may actually involve simpler cognitive operations because they are only produced in specific contexts.
• The authors argue that focusing mainly on context-specific calls has limited the understanding of the more complex cognitive processes involved in responding to less specific or more ambiguous signals, which could reveal deeper insights into communication and cognition.]