Nonsimultaneous Auditory Masking in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus )

The frequency resolving power of budgerigars and that of humans were compared on several nonsimultaneous masking procedures in which one pure tone is used to mask another. Similar patterns of frequency selectivity were found for all three masking procedures (forward, backward, and combined forward-b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 1985-06, Vol.99 (2), p.226-230
Main Authors: Dooling, Robert J, Searcy, Margaret H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animals
Auditory Masking
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
Budgerigars
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Models. Methods
Male
Perceptual Masking
Pitch Discrimination
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
Vocalization, Animal
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Summary:The frequency resolving power of budgerigars and that of humans were compared on several nonsimultaneous masking procedures in which one pure tone is used to mask another. Similar patterns of frequency selectivity were found for all three masking procedures (forward, backward, and combined forward-backward) for both species. Budgerigars showed considerably greater frequency resolving power on all three procedures than humans. Budgerigars also showed differences in frequency resolving power across masking conditions, but human listeners did not. These results indicate that the budgerigar auditory system may be even more highly tuned than was previously thought and suggest fundamental differences between the mechanisms of frequency selectivity of bird and those of humans.
ISSN:0735-7036
1939-2087
DOI:10.1037/0735-7036.99.2.226