Using network models of absolute pitch to compare frequency-range discriminations across avian species

Weisman, Ronald G.; Hoeschele, Marisa; Bloomfield, Laurie L.; Mewhort, D. J. K.; Sturdy, Christopher B.

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2010.01.010

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Songbirds are known to have better absolute pitch discrimination than humans [51]–[53]. For example, zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) could be trained to discriminate fine tones spaced 120 Hz apart, in the spectral region between 980 and 5660 Hz, parsed into eight ranges of five tones each [53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosody Discrimination by Songbirds (Padda oryzivora)

et al. 2012

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In human verbal communication, not only lexical information, but also paralinguistic information plays an important role in transmitting the speakers’ mental state. Paralinguistic information is conveyed mainly through acoustic features like pitch, rhythm, tempo and so on. These acoustic features are generally known as prosody. It is known that some species of birds can discriminate certain aspects of human speech. However, there have not been any studies on the discrimination of prosody in human language which convey different paralinguistic meanings by birds. In the present study, we have shown that the Java sparrow (Padda oryzivora) can discriminate different prosodic patterns of Japanese sentences. These birds could generalize prosodic discrimination to novel sentences, but could not generalize sentence discrimination to those with novel prosody. Moreover, unlike Japanese speakers, Java sparrows used the first part of the utterance as the discrimination cue.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosody Discrimination by Songbirds (Padda oryzivora)

et al. 2012

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“…Having some experience at modeling avian perceptual processes myself (see Weisman, Hoeschele, M., Bloomfield, Mewhort, & Sturdy, 2010), I have some warnings to pass along. Showing that an idealized observer can solve a categorization problem is not the same as showing that it solves the problem in exactly the same manner as actual humans, and certainly is not the same as showing that it solves the problem in the same way as pigeons.…”

Section: Putting the Explanation Before Evidence That Anything Needs mentioning

confidence: 97%

The Commentaries: Some are Visual Illusions.

Weisman¹

2010

CCBR

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Operant discrimination of relative frequency ratios in black-capped chickadee song

2017

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The two-note fee bee song of the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is sung at many different absolute frequencies, but the relative frequencies, or "pitch ratios", between the start and end of the fee note (glissando) and the fee and the bee notes (inter-note interval) are preserved with each pitch-shift. Ability to perceive these ratios and their relative salience varies with sex of the bird and setting: while both sexes appear to perceive changes in the inter-note interval, males appear to attend to the glissando in the field, and females appear to attend to both ratios. In this study, we compared directly whether male and female chickadees could discriminate between normal fee bee songs and songs that had one or both of the pitch ratios altered, and whether birds attended to one type of alteration over another. Both sexes learned to discriminate normal from altered songs; songs lacking an inter-note interval were more easily discriminated than songs with only the glissando removed. Females performed slightly better than males, including in the most difficult task with the stimuli lacking the glissando. Our study illustrates the value of using perceptual tasks to directly compare performance between the sexes and to demonstrate the difference between perception of and attention to acoustic features of vocal communication.

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Using network models of absolute pitch to compare frequency-range discriminations across avian species

Cited by 5 publications

References 32 publications

Prosody Discrimination by Songbirds (Padda oryzivora)

Prosody Discrimination by Songbirds (Padda oryzivora)

The Commentaries: Some are Visual Illusions.

Operant discrimination of relative frequency ratios in black-capped chickadee song

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