Adding colour-realistic video images to audio playbacks increases stimulus engagement but does not enhance vocal learning in zebra finches

Animal Cognition, vol. 25, pp. 249–274

Abstract

Bird song and human speech are learned early in life and for both cases engagement with live social tutors generally leads to better learning outcomes than passive audio-only exposure. Real-world tutor-tutee relations are normally not uni- but multimodal and observations suggest that visual cues related to sound production might enhance vocal learning. We tested this hypothesis by pairing appropriate, colour-realistic, high frame-rate videos of a singing adult male zebra finch tutor with song playbacks and presenting these stimuli to juvenile zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Juveniles exposed to song playbacks combined with video presentation of a singing bird approached the stimulus more often and spent more time close to it than juveniles exposed to audio playback only or audio playback combined with pixelated and time-reversed videos. However, higher engagement with the realistic audio-visual stimuli was not predictive of better song learning. Thus, although multimodality increased stimulus engagement and biologically relevant video content was more salient than colour and movement equivalent videos, the higher engagement with the realistic audio-visual stimuli did not lead to enhanced vocal learning. Whether the lack of three-dimensionality of a video tutor and/or the lack of meaningful social interaction make them less suitable for facilitating song learning than audio-visual exposure to a live tutor remains to be tested.

Authors 10

1. Judith M. Varkevisser corresponding Aachen Institute of Biology Leiden

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. j.m.varkevisser@biology.leidenuniv.nl

   Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Ralph Simon Aachen Institute of Biology Leiden

   Leiden University · Nuremberg Zoo · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

   Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

   Nuremberg Zoo, Nuremberg, Germany

3. Ezequiel Mendoza

   Freie Universität Berlin

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

4. Martin J. How

   University of Bristol

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

5. Idse van Hijlkema Aachen Institute of Biology Leiden

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

6. Rozanda Jin Aachen Institute of Biology Leiden

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

7. Qiaoyi Liang

   Max Planck Institute for Ornithology

   Affiliation as printed

   Evolution of Sensory Systems, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany

8. Constance Scharff

   Freie Universität Berlin

   Affiliation as printed

   Institut für Biologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

9. Wouter H. Halfwerk

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Ecological Science, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

10. Katharina Riebel Aachen Institute of Biology Leiden

    Leiden University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands