Developmental Diversity in Communicative Capacities

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The complexity of bird song and the role of learning in its development make it an important topic of inquiry for scientists formulating comparative principles of learning and development. Drs. West and King have been studying interrelationships among song structure, function, and development in brown-headed cowbirds. Focusing on the social mediation of vocal development, their important discoveries include (1) the important influence of social stimulation from non-singing females on vocal development of males, (2) visual signals used by males and females during song development that appear to communicate information about song potency, and (3) differences among subspecies in the development of vocal communication. The brown-headed cowbird is thus an especially appropriate species for studying forms of learning not previously explored in songbirds, particularly the integration of visual and vocal stimulation during development. Drs. West and King have designed an experimental protocol to measure the vocal capacities of males, the perceptual capacities of females, and the nature of social interactions between the sexes that link vocal perception and production. Different populations will be compared to investigate the extent to which developmental programs vary within the same species and subspecies. This project is exploring new areas of inquiry on the basis of proven methods and past findings that revealed previously unknown aspects of adaptive modification of behavior. The research therefore has the potential to introduce new concepts of vocal learning of special significance for our understanding of how animals, including humans, transmit complex modes of communication to the next generation.