Freeberg Todd M, Lucas Jeffrey R
Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 2012 Feb;126(1):68-81. doi: 10.1037/a0024906. Epub 2011 Aug 29.
One aim of this study was to apply information theoretical analyses to understanding the structural complexity of chick-a-dee calls of Carolina chickadees, Poecile carolinensis. A second aim of this study was to compare this structural complexity to that of the calls of black-capped chickadees, P. atricapillus, described in an earlier published report (Hailman, Ficken, & Ficken, 1985). Chick-a-dee calls were recorded from Carolina chickadees in a naturalistic observation study in eastern Tennessee. Calls were analyzed using approaches from information theory, including transition probability matrices, Zipf's rules, entropies, and information coding capacities of calls and notes of calls. As described for black-capped chickadees, calls of Carolina chickadees exhibited considerable structural complexity. Most results suggested that the call of Carolina chickadees is more structurally complex than that of black-capped chickadees. These findings add support to the growing literature on the complexity of this call system in Paridae species. Furthermore, these results point to the feasibility of detailed cross-species comparative analyses that may allow strong testing of hypotheses regarding signal evolution.
本研究的一个目的是应用信息理论分析来理解卡罗来纳山雀（Poecile carolinensis）的 chick-a-dee 叫声的结构复杂性。本研究的第二个目的是将这种结构复杂性与先前发表的报告（Hailman、Ficken 和 Ficken，1985 年）中描述的黑顶山雀（P. atricapillus）的叫声的结构复杂性进行比较。在田纳西州东部的一项自然观察研究中，从卡罗来纳山雀身上记录了 chick-a-dee 叫声。使用信息理论的方法对叫声进行了分析，包括转移概率矩阵、齐普夫定律、熵以及叫声及其音符的信息编码能力。如对黑顶山雀的描述，卡罗来纳山雀的叫声表现出相当大的结构复杂性。大多数结果表明，卡罗来纳山雀的叫声在结构上比黑顶山雀的叫声更复杂。这些发现为关于山雀科物种中这种叫声系统复杂性的不断增加的文献提供了支持。此外，这些结果指出了详细的跨物种比较分析的可行性，这种分析可能允许对有关信号进化的假设进行有力检验。
