Week 4: Researching on Academic Search Complete
- Amanda Duong
- Jul 21, 2019
- 2 min read
Using UCI Library Academic Search Complete, I found two articles that relate to my research topic: the intelligence and communication of dolphins.
Article #1 - “Cognitive Adaptation of Sonar Gain Control in the Bottlenose Dolphin.”
Kloepper, Laura N., et al. “Cognitive Adaptation of Sonar Gain Control in the Bottlenose Dolphin.” PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 8, Aug. 2014, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105938.
I found this article by initially searching the keywords "dolphin" and "sonar." It lead me to a scientific article titled “Cognitive Adaptation of Sonar Gain Control in the Bottlenose Dolphin.” Laura N. Kloepper tests what extent sonar gain control for echolocation in dolphins is maintained in uncertain situations. Automatic gain control is defined as the process which echolocating animals regulate the intensity of their sonar based on the intended received sensation. To go about this research, bottlenose dolphins were tested two separate times: unpredictable (movable) and predictable (constant) target distances. During the unpredictable target distance session, dolphins took into account of the varying distance and demonstrated distance compensation. Kloepper concludes that learning and experience plays a big role in dolphin sonar gain control.
Article #2 - “Clicks, whistles and pulses: Passive and active signal use in dolphin communication.”
Herzing, Denise L. “Clicks, Whistles and Pulses: Passive and Active Signal Use in Dolphin Communication.” Acta Astronautica, vol. 105, no. 2, Dec. 2014, pp. 534–537. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2014.07.003.
When annotating “Killer Wails” in Carl Safina’s Beyond Words, I made note of mentioned researcher Denise Herzing. I read that she is the research founder and director of the WIld Dolphin Project with 30+ years under her belt. On Academic Search Complete, I entered the keywords “Denise Herzing” and “dolphin” and found an article titled “Clicks, whistles and pulses: Passive and active signal use in dolphin communication.” Herzing sheds light on different methods that dolphins communicate along with sonar, including body postures, touch, and vision.
Reflection
Through researching about dolphin communication with UCI Library Academic Research Complete, I learned a lot so far about dolphin cognition and behavior, echolocation, and sonar waves. Before, I only knew about echolocation through the whale in Finding Nemo, but now I realize the complexity and intricacies of it. I also became more comfortable navigating the Academic Research Complete as I learned how to advance search names, keywords, articles, and even publication date. Moving forward, all of this will help me refine my topic and better my research.
Hi Amanda! I love your research on dolphins, I am also looking into marine cognition and ethics in my own research. You could have also compared this to the other chapters in cognition in Beyond Words that we read about. You could also elaborate on your own research and how this factors into your main paper. Other than that, great job and I can't wait to see what you find next!- Maximillian Rivas
Hi Amanda. It is clever to look for the researchers directly. And you put dolphins and sonar as keywords. Both of these are clever moves and are better than putting dolphins and intelligence as keywords. I did that and it was quite inefficient to find sources. I like your sources, but you need to connect these sources to our topics in class, like intelligence, cognition, etc. I know there is cognition in the first article's title, but it will better if you explain the potential connections :)
Hello!! I think your topic of research is very interesting and I hope you are having to luck with finding more sources. In terms of your post, it seemed a little rushed. I do like how you included details about how you found these sources and the keywords you utilize. This can be very helpful for others who come across your post and may be interested in a similar topic. However, there was a lack of detail to the methods employed in the research studies you mentioned and the super important results. I think if you were to include this information your post would be much more informative. Additionally, although it was not a requirement I think you should ha…