Field Studies:
My research assistants and I use several techniques in the field to try to understand the vocal communication signals used by songbirds.
Along with Dr. Jennifer Foote, we capture the birds and apply leg bands to aid in future identification of individual birds.
Using a speaker-playback paradigm, we present free-ranging birds with different vocal signals and monitor
and describe their behavioural responses to the playback. In addition, we obtain audio recordings of free-ranging birds in an attempt to correlate the production of particular vocal signals with the contextual information available to birds at the time (e.g., the quality and quantity of food, the presence of predators, the presence of flockmates and non-flockmates).
My research assistants and I use several techniques in the field to try to understand the vocal communication signals used by songbirds.
Along with Dr. Jennifer Foote, we capture the birds and apply leg bands to aid in future identification of individual birds.
Using a speaker-playback paradigm, we present free-ranging birds with different vocal signals and monitor
and describe their behavioural responses to the playback. In addition, we obtain audio recordings of free-ranging birds in an attempt to correlate the production of particular vocal signals with the contextual information available to birds at the time (e.g., the quality and quantity of food, the presence of predators, the presence of flockmates and non-flockmates).
What is a playback study?
Playback studies are experiments involving playing sound stimuli to animals and monitoring their subsequent responses. An important feature of playback experiments is that they allow us to study animal auditory perception. Studies of animal auditory perception examine not only what an animal is able to hear but also what the animal perceives as meaningful. In playback studies researchers often need to measure not only whether a response occurs but also the extent to which the response occurs. For example, an animal that displays two separate behaviours to two separate playback stimuli is indicating that the animal is able to perceive the stimuli as different. After a stimulus is proven to result in overt behavioural changes, then the stimuli can be used in different ways in attempts to determine its natural function for the species in question.
Playbacks can be used to learn many different things about species apart from perception of acoustic stimuli. For example, they can be used to estimate the territorial boundaries of individual animals and can aid in the study of geographical dialect as well as vocal development. The Bloomfield Lab is currently using playback studies in an attempt to determine the perception and function of the note-type variations in chick-a-dee calls.
Playbacks can be used to learn many different things about species apart from perception of acoustic stimuli. For example, they can be used to estimate the territorial boundaries of individual animals and can aid in the study of geographical dialect as well as vocal development. The Bloomfield Lab is currently using playback studies in an attempt to determine the perception and function of the note-type variations in chick-a-dee calls.
Laboratory Studies:
While laboratory facilities are currently under construction, in the near future I will be resuming my skills as an operant laboratory experimenter to investigate the finer perceptual mechanisms underlying vocal communication in songbirds.
While laboratory facilities are currently under construction, in the near future I will be resuming my skills as an operant laboratory experimenter to investigate the finer perceptual mechanisms underlying vocal communication in songbirds.
What is operant conditioning?
Although currently under construction in the Bloomfield Lab, operant conditioning will be used to test the finer perceptual abilities in songbirds. Applying learning principles, animals (both human and non-human) will learn to respond, and will continue to respond, when positive reinforcement is provided. Using this principle, birds
are trained to respond (e.g., with a “go” response, or a choose-left/choose-right response) to sound stimuli played back through speakers, and when a correct response is provided birds receive food reinforcement. Once the birds have learned the basic “rules”, many different types of stimuli can then be played to the birds in an effort to determine how similar/different the testing stimuli are to the training stimuli.
are trained to respond (e.g., with a “go” response, or a choose-left/choose-right response) to sound stimuli played back through speakers, and when a correct response is provided birds receive food reinforcement. Once the birds have learned the basic “rules”, many different types of stimuli can then be played to the birds in an effort to determine how similar/different the testing stimuli are to the training stimuli.
While this technique requires extensive training on the part of the birds, it allows researchers to overcome some of the inherent difficulties that arise with Playback Studies done in the bird’s natural environment. For example, if a bird does not respond to a playback stimulus in the wild, then the stimulus could be interpreted as either not having been heard, or not having any inherent meaning to the bird. However, this does not enable researchers to determine whether the bird in fact is able to perceive the finer details of the stimulus (their perceptual limits). Operant conditioning paradigms do not answer the question “do birds do x, y, or z?”, but rather answer the question “CAN birds do x, y, or z?”.
Dr. Laurie Bloomfield, Associate Professor Algoma University
Office: SH 502 Phone: (705) 949-2301 x4314 Laboratory: CC 103 Phone: (705) 949-2301 x1018 E-mail: [email protected]
Office: SH 502 Phone: (705) 949-2301 x4314 Laboratory: CC 103 Phone: (705) 949-2301 x1018 E-mail: [email protected]