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| Are song type sequencing rules learned by song sparrows? |
| Steve Nowicki1, Susan Peters1, Jill Soha1, William A. Searcy2. 1Duke University, Durham, NC, United States; 2University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, United States |
The learning of song structure is well studied in songbirds, but little attention has been paid to the learning of syntax at the level of song sequences. We investigated song syntax learning in two groups of lab-reared song sparrows: an isolate group having no exposure to external models and a group trained with song sequences exhibiting syntactic rules that differed from those normally observed in the field. Regardless of early experience, males in both groups followed four syntactic rules previously described for wild song sparrows: 1) they sang their repertoires with eventual variety; 2) they cycled through their repertoires in close to the minimum number of bouts; 3) they consistently sang certain song types more than others, and 4) they did not prefer certain song type transitions. One aspect of syntax that was affected by experience in both groups was the rule that long bouts of a song type are followed by long intervals before that type is repeated. Isolate males showed no bout length/recurrence interval correlations while trained males showed reduced correlations relative to wild males. It remains unclear why most syntactical rules are not learned while others may be. |