Cooperation experiments have long been used to explore the cognition underlying animals' coordination towards a shared goal. While the ability to understand the need for a partner in a cooperative task has been demonstrated in a number of species, there has been far less focus on cooperation experiments that address the role of communication. In humans, cooperative efforts can be enhanced by physical synchrony, and coordination problems can be solved using spoken language. Indeed, human children adapt to complex coordination problems by communicating with vocal signals. Here, we investigate whether bottlenose dolphins can use vocal signals to coordinate their behaviour in a cooperative button-pressing task. The two dolphin dyads used in this study were significantly more likely to cooperate successfully when they used whistles prior to pressing their buttons, with whistling leading to shorter button press intervals and more successful trials. Whistle timing was important as the dolphins were significantly more likely to succeed if they pushed their buttons together after the last whistle, rather than pushing independently of whistle production. Bottlenose dolphins are well known for cooperating extensively in the wild, and while it remains to be seen how wild dolphins use communication to coordinate cooperation, our results reveal that at least some dolphins are capable of using vocal signals to facilitate the successful execution of coordinated, cooperative actions.

长期以来，合作实验一直被用来探索认知动物为实现共同目标而进行的协调。虽然已经在许多物种中证明了理解合作任务中合作伙伴需求的能力，但很少关注于解决交流角色的合作实验。在人类中，可以通过身体上的同步来增强合作的努力，并且可以使用口头语言解决协调问题。实际上，人类儿童通过与语音信号进行交流来适应复杂的协调问题。在这里，我们调查宽吻海豚是否可以使用声音信号来协调其在按键协作任务中的行为。在这项研究中使用的两种海豚二元组在按下按钮之前使用哨子的情况下，成功合作的可能性明显更高，通过吹口哨可以缩短按钮按下的间隔，并且可以进行更成功的试验。吹口哨的时机很重要，因为如果海豚在上一次吹口哨后将按钮按在一起，而不是独立于吹口哨生产，则它们更有可能成功。宽吻海豚因在野外广泛合作而广为人知，虽然还有待观察的野生海豚如何利用交流来协调合作，但我们的结果表明，至少有一些海豚能够使用声音信号来促进成功地执行协调的，合作行动。吹口哨可以缩短按键间隔，并可以提高审判的成功率。吹口哨的时机很重要，因为如果海豚在上一次吹口哨后将按钮按在一起，而不是独立于吹口哨生产，则它们成功的可能性会更大。宽吻海豚因在野外广泛合作而广为人知，虽然还有待观察的野海豚如何利用交流来协调合作，但我们的结果表明，至少有一些海豚能够使用声音信号来促进协调的成功执行，合作行动。吹口哨可以缩短按键间隔，并可以提高审判的成功率。吹口哨的时机很重要，因为如果海豚在上一次吹口哨后将按钮按在一起，而不是独立于吹口哨生产，则它们成功的可能性会更大。宽吻海豚因在野外广泛合作而广为人知，虽然还有待观察的野海豚如何利用交流来协调合作，但我们的结果表明，至少有一些海豚能够使用声音信号来促进协调的成功执行，合作行动。