Receiver psychology as a driver of communication network structure

Communication and sociality are intimately related, as many important social processes are mediated by communication between signal senders and receivers. Despite recent advances in social network analysis, animal communication networks remain difficult to characterize because the interactions that comprise the network structure depend on receiver sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes. Collectively, these receiver psychological traits process social information and lead to decisions regarding whether and how to interact with signallers, generating variation in social interactions and the structure of communication networks. Here, we review the evidence that variation in receiver psychology affects both individuals' positions within the communication network and the structure of the communication network as a whole. These effects range from limits on signal active space imposed by receiver sensory acuity and sensitivity, to facilitation of social connections by learning and memory of signal characteristics. Although we identify numerous receiver psychological traits that likely affect connections between receivers and signallers, few studies have explicitly examined the role of receiver psychology on variation in communication network structure. We therefore review recent methodological advances that could facilitate such studies. We then show that the effects of receiver psychology on communication networks could have strong impacts on ecological and evolutionary processes. In particular, we discuss the reciprocal links between receiver psychology and social structure, and how these individual-group feedbacks are expected to generate coevolution between communication and sociality. Our review synthesizes diverse evidence that receiver psychology can affect communication interactions and provides a path forward for integrating sensory, perceptual, and cognitive mechanisms of signal processing with individual behavioural variation and ecological and evolutionary consequences of variation in animal social behaviour.