Discrimination of two auditory durations by pigeons

Abstract

Discrimination between two auditory durations was investigated in pigeons with

Discrimination of auditory temporal differences by the bottlenose dolphin and by the human

“…Successive discriminations of duration (method of single stimuli)were used (Kinchla, 1970;Stubbs, 1968;Treisman, 1963, Exp. 5B).…”

“…Auditory temporal acuity has not been studied in this species, though the fine discrimination of time intervals could assist the echolocating animal in the determination of absolute or relative target distances, as demonstrated for the echolating bat Eptesicus fuscus (Simmons, 1973), or in the estimation of closure rate on a target. Absolute target distance might be given by the comparison of return times for echoes with some internalized standard durations, and relative distances or closure rates by the comparison of return times of successive echoes (Norris, 1969 The only nonhuman species studied thus far appears to be the pigeon, relative DLs of approximately 0.25 being obtained by Stubbs (1968) and Kinchla (1970). Comparisons of the human and pigeon data are tenuous, however, because of the use of different standard durations (longer standards for pigeons) and of different psychophysical methods (successive discriminations of duration for pigeons and, generally, simultaneous discriminations of duration for humans).…”

Auditory duration discrimination in the European starling (S t u r n u s v u l g a r i s)

“…Kinchla (1970), who also used the method of single-tone presentation, measured DDLs in the White Carneaux pigeons (Columba !ivia) for reference signals of 5 s in duration and test signals of 2, 3, or 4 s in duration. The Weber fraction for a 1000 Hz tone was 0.41 (threshold criterion d' -1.8, calculated from data in Fig.…”

“…The Weber fraction for a 1000 Hz tone was 0.41 (threshold criterion d' -1.8, calculated from data in Fig. 1 in Kinchla, 1970).…”

“…Duration of an acoustic stimulus is one parameter that has been studied extensively in humans in this context (Stott, 1935;Henry, 1948;Creelman, 1962; Small and Campbell, 1•62; Abel, 1972• Kinchla• 1972Sinnott et al, 1987). Comparative data on animal models of acoustic duration perception are reported from nonsongbirds (pigeon: Kinchla, 1970; parakeet: Dooling and Haskell, 1978) and mammals (bottlenose dolphin: Yunker and Herman, 1974; rat: Church et al, 1976; Old World monkeys: Sinnott et al, 1987). The present study will add data on a songbird species, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) to the body of psychoacoustic data in animal models.…”