Humans and zebra finches learned to distinguish artificial sound sequences using different acoustic information in a peer-reviewed behavioral study. People relied more heavily on pitch, while birds combined pitch with changing spectral patterns. The final tests included 272 adults and 23 birds. Listeners with musical experience adapted more flexibly to missing pitch information by drawing on other cues.
Humans favored pitch when recognizing sound sequences, while zebra finches combined pitch with spectral patterns, in one peer-reviewed behavioral experiment. The final tests included 272 adults and 23 birds. Of 31 birds that started training, only those meeting the discrimination criterion entered the final analysis. People responded online and birds used sensors in an experimental apparatus.[1]
Each artificial sequence contained five complex tones. Pitch describes the perception associated with fundamental frequency. Formants are enhanced regions in the sound spectrum. During training their contours moved together or in opposite directions. The later tests fixed, removed or substituted one cue. Finches could still recognize some patterns with only one changing contour. Their responses became more ambiguous when the two cues conflicted.[1]
Changing formant information disrupted human recognition less when pitch remained reliable. Musically experienced participants used secondary spectral information more flexibly when pitch was unavailable. Musical experience was not assigned experimentally, leaving prior exposure and cultural context as possible contributors to differences between groups. The task used artificial tones rather than the full complexity of speech or birdsong, and measured behavior rather than neural circuits.[1]
