Song learning and cognitive ability are not consistently related in a songbird
Song learning and cognitive ability are not consistently related in a songbird
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DOI：
10.1007/s10071-016-1053-7
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发表时间：
2017-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Nowicki, Stephen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Anderson, Rindy C.;Searcy, William A.;Nowicki, Stephen
歌唱的习得性被假设为鸣禽认知能力的信号。我们在人工饲养的歌雀（Melospiza melodia）身上测试了这一假设，这些歌雀在歌曲学习的关键时期接受了成人歌曲的播放辅导。研究人员将这19名男性受试者创作的歌曲与示范歌曲进行了比较，得出了两种衡量歌曲学习的指标：从示范歌曲中复制的音符比例，以及复制音符与示范音符之间的平均谱图相互关系。反映歌曲复杂性的歌曲曲目大小也被测量。在一岁时，研究对象接受了五组认知测试，以测量在新觅食任务、颜色联想、颜色反转、绕路和空间学习背景下的学习速度。三种歌曲测量和五种认知测量之间的双变量相关性显示没有显著关联。与其他鸟类认知研究一样，不同的认知措施在很大程度上彼此不相关，当将22只人工饲养的雌性鸣禽加入分析时，这一结果仍然成立。控制新事物恐惧症和巢源效应的一般线性混合模型表明，所有三种歌曲测量都与颜色反转和空间学习的良好表现相关，但与新事物觅食和绕路的较差表现相关。总的来说，结果不支持歌曲信号认知能力的学习方面的假设。
Learned aspects of song have been hypothesized to signal cognitive ability in songbirds. We tested this hypothesis in hand-reared song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) that were tutored with playback of adult songs during the critical period for song learning. The songs developed by the 19 male subjects were compared to the model songs to produce two measures of song learning: the proportion of notes copied from models and the average spectrogram cross-correlation between copied notes and model notes. Song repertoire size, which reflects song complexity, was also measured. At 1 year of age, subjects were given a battery of five cognitive tests that measured speed of learning in the context of a novel foraging task, color association, color reversal, detour-reaching, and spatial learning. Bivariate correlations between the three song measures and the five cognitive measures revealed no significant associations. As in other studies of avian cognition, different cognitive measures were for the most part not correlated with each other, and this result remained true when 22 hand-reared female song sparrows were added to the analysis. General linear mixed models controlling for effects of neophobia and nest of origin indicated that all three song measures were associated with better performance on color reversal and spatial learning but were associated with worse performance on novel foraging and detour-reaching. Overall, the results do not support the hypothesis that learned aspects of song signal cognitive ability.