Perception of warble song in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): evidence for special processing

Tu, Hsiao-Wei; Dooling, Robert J.

doi:10.1007/s10071-012-0539-1

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…This parrot species produces long and flexible warble songs that vary both in the sequential structure as well as in the shape and duration of elements (35,36). Even with this strong variation, budgerigars are able to detect minor changes in familiar songs (37). Budgerigars also are frequently used in studies on auditory learning.…”

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Budgerigars and zebra finches differ in how they generalize in an artificial grammar learning experiment

Spierings

Cate

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The ability to abstract a regularity that underlies strings of sounds is a core mechanism of the language faculty but might not be specific to language learning or even to humans. It is unclear whether and to what extent nonhuman animals possess the ability to abstract regularities defining the relation among arbitrary auditory items in a string and to generalize this abstraction to strings of acoustically novel items. In this study we tested these abilities in a songbird (zebra finch) and a parrot species (budgerigar). Subjects were trained in a go/no-go design to discriminate between two sets of sound strings arranged in an XYX or an XXY structure. After this discrimination was acquired, each subject was tested with test strings that were structurally identical to the training strings but consisted of either new combinations of known elements or of novel elements belonging to other element categories. Both species learned to discriminate between the two stimulus sets. However, their responses to the test strings were strikingly different. Zebra finches categorized test stimuli with previously heard elements by the ordinal position that these elements occupied in the training strings, independent of string structure. In contrast, the budgerigars categorized both novel combinations of familiar elements as well as strings consisting of novel element types by their underlying structure. They thus abstracted the relation among items in the XYX and XXY structures, an ability similar to that shown by human infants and indicating a level of abstraction comparable to analogical reasoning.artificial grammar learning | rule learning | auditory perception | songbirds | parrots O ne of the critical features of language learning is the ability to abstract the grammatical structure from spoken language. Such abstraction allows humans to learn about regularities in their native language and to generalize these regularities to novel input. This ability is examined in a standardized way in artificial grammar learning experiments, in which humans are exposed to strings of meaningless sounds (e.g., arbitrary speech syllables) organized according to a specific grammatical structure. Several studies have shown that the ability to abstract the underlying structure from such stimuli is present in young infants (1-5) in both the acoustic and the visual domain (6-8). This domain generality and its presence at a very early age have given rise to the notion that this cognitive ability may have preceded language evolution and served as a basis for present-day linguistic complexity. If so, it raises the question to what extent this ability is confined to humans or also can be found in nonhuman animals. In this context, comparative studies on nonhuman animals are needed to reveal the level of abstraction they are able to achieve in artificial grammar learning tasks. This information might provide hypotheses about how and why the more complex human grammatical competences have arisen. The current study addresses whether two bird species, the...

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confidence: 99%

Budgerigars and zebra finches differ in how they generalize in an artificial grammar learning experiment

Spierings

Cate

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…While the latter species performed at chance in identifying partially scrambled sequences, the budgies were not "fooled" -except if all the relevant ongoing warble stream elements were randomly presented. Tu and Dooling (2012) see in this "sensitivity to sequential rules governing the structure of their species-specific warble songs" (p. 1151). They suggest that the observed behavior points to a "rule that governs the sequential organization of warble elements in natural warble song and is perceptually salient to budgerigars but unavailable to the other two species" (p. 1158).…”

Section: Comparative Language Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…-481-budgerigars, with their sensitivity to rather elaborate sequential behaviors, would be good subjects for a version of Saddy's experiment, perhaps after being trained in the recognizing techniques discussed by Tu and Dooling (2012). To conduct this experiment, where the synthesized grammar sketched above uses ba and bi, two different forms of the budgerigar warble would need to be used.…”

Section: Comparative Language Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Berwick et al (2011) informally speak in terms of "birdsong syntax," although they also come shy of arguing that this syntax is context-free in any of the bird species they have studied. Tu and Dooling (2012) studied the sensitivity of budgerigars to the order in which naturally occurring elements within the warble are presented, as compared to canaries and zebra finches. While the latter species performed at chance in identifying partially scrambled sequences, the budgies were not "fooled" -except if all the relevant ongoing warble stream elements were randomly presented.…”

Section: Comparative Language Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Framework for the Comparative Study of Language

Uriagereka

Reggia

2013

Evol Psychol

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Comparative studies of language are difficult because few language precursors are recognized. In this paper we propose a framework for designing experiments that test for structural and semantic patterns indicative of simple or complex grammars as originally described by Chomsky. We argue that a key issue is whether animals can recognize full recursion, which is the hallmark of context-free grammar. We discuss limitations of recent experiments that have attempted to address this issue, and point out that experiments aimed at detecting patterns that follow a Fibonacci series have advantages over other artificial context-free grammars. We also argue that experiments using complex sequences of behaviors could, in principle, provide evidence for fully recursive thought. Some of these ideas could also be approached using artificial life simulations, which have the potential to reveal the types of evolutionary transitions that could occur over time. Because the framework we propose has specific memory and computational requirements, future experiments could target candidate genes with the goal of revealing the genetic underpinnings of complex cognition.

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“…Yet, though parrots are highly adept at producing and using speech sounds to communicate, neurobiological and anatomical evidence comparing humans with parrots is limited (when considering the many papers comparing humans with songbirds). Furthermore, rather than African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus), which are renowned for speech use, comparisons between humans and parrots are frequently made using budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates, e.g., Jarvis & Mello, 2000;Tu & Dooling, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Where Apes and Songbirds are Left Behind: A Comparative Assessment of the Requisites for Speech

Colbert-White¹,

Corballis²,

Fragaszy³

2014

CCBR

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A handful of mammalian and avian species can imitate speech (i.e., sounds perceived by humans as those comprising the human communication system of language). Of those species, even fewer are capable of using speech to communicate. While there has been no empirical comparison of nonhuman speech users, parrots are presumed to be the most prolific. In this review, we identify several anatomical, neurological, and sociobiological features shared by parrots and humans that could account for why parrots might emerge as the most advanced nonhuman speech users. Apes and temperate oscine songbirds, due to their phylogenetic similarity to humans and parrots, respectively, are also included in the comparison. We argue that while all four taxa share hemispheric asymmetry of communication areas and basic sociality, humans and parrots share three additional features that are not completely present in apes and songbirds. Specifically, apes, unlike songbirds, parrots, and humans, are not considered vocal learners and do not have sufficient respiratory control to support a speech stream, while parrots, humans, and apes demonstrate complex affiliative social behavior. Along with the above anatomical, neurological, and sociobiological traits, parrots' affiliative long-term relationships, similar to that of humans, may help explain both groups' ability to produce and use a wide variety of sounds. Thus, this paper extends parrot-human cognitive comparisons by introducing another similarity-that of complex affiliative relationships-as a possible explanation for why parrots can produce and use speech to communicate.

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Perception of warble song in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): evidence for special processing

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

Budgerigars and zebra finches differ in how they generalize in an artificial grammar learning experiment

Budgerigars and zebra finches differ in how they generalize in an artificial grammar learning experiment

A Framework for the Comparative Study of Language

Where Apes and Songbirds are Left Behind: A Comparative Assessment of the Requisites for Speech

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