Octave equivalence describes the perceived similarity of notes separated by an octave or a doubling in frequency. In humans, octave equivalence perception is used in vocal learning, enabling young children to approximate adult sounds where the pitch lies outside of their vocal range. This makes sense because the octave is also the first harmonic of any tonal sound including the human voice. We hypothesized that non-human animals may also need octave equivalence perception in vocal mimicry, the copying of other species or environmental sounds, to approximate sounds where the pitch lies outside their vocal range. Thus, in the current study, we tested budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), a vocal mimicking species, for octave equivalence perception. Budgerigars were trained and tested in a go/no-go operant task previously verified in humans. Budgerigars did not show evidence of octave equivalence perception. This result suggests that vocal-mimicking does not necessarily facilitate or presuppose octave equivalence perception.

This paper is to consider the term “comparative” in its more restricted sense, in the way the term is used in various comparative fields of study. It is somewhat curious that scholars in our field of comparative education have never attempted to sort out the various meanings of the term “comparative.” I do not plan to draw a firm distinction between the two spheres, though it might be helpful to suggest that “comparative education” is generally regarded as the more academic or scientific aspect of the field, while international education is related to “cooperation, understanding, and exchange” elements of the field. I feel we must reject the hegemonic claims of science. We recall, for example, that Comte believed society traversed through various stages, from religion, to philosophy, then to science. His mistake, from my vantage point, was to place these ways of knowing in a hierarchical framework, which makes philosophy a second-rate means of knowing, and religion a third-rate means of knowing. My own orientation is to place them parallel with each other. There is a place for the spiritual, a place for the philosophical, and a place for the scientific, and any attempt to place one exclusively over the other is inappropriate.