Developmental Diversity in Communicative Capacities

鸟鸣的复杂性和学习在其发展中的作用使其成为科学家制定学习和发展的比较原则的重要课题。韦斯特博士和金博士一直在研究棕头牛鸟的歌声结构、功能和发育之间的相互关系。他们的重要发现包括：(1)来自非歌唱女性的社会刺激对男性发声发展的重要影响；(2)男性和女性在歌曲发展过程中使用的似乎传达歌曲潜力信息的视觉信号；(3)发声交流亚种之间的差异。因此，棕头牛鸟是一个特别适合研究鸣禽以前没有探索过的学习形式的物种，特别是在发育过程中视觉和声音刺激的整合。韦斯特博士和金博士设计了一项实验方案，以测量男性的发声能力，女性的感知能力，以及将声音感知和产生联系起来的性别之间社会互动的性质。不同的种群将被比较，以调查同一物种和亚种内发育程序的差异程度。这个项目正在探索新的调查领域，其基础是经过验证的方法和过去的发现，这些发现揭示了行为适应性改变以前未知的方面。因此，这项研究有可能引入发声学习的新概念，对于我们理解包括人类在内的动物如何将复杂的交流模式传递给下一代具有特殊意义。

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.