Coppinger Brittany A, Sanchez de Launay Anasthasia, Freeberg Todd M
University of Tennessee.
University of Rennes.
J Comp Psychol. 2018 Feb;132(1):16-23. doi: 10.1037/com0000090. Epub 2017 Sep 28.
Signalers can vary their vocal behavior, depending on the presence or absence of conspecific group members, and on the composition of the group. Here we asked whether Carolina chickadee () signalers varied their vocal behavior, depending on whether they were in the presence of familiar or unfamiliar flockmates. We sorted 32 Carolina chickadees into 4 groups with 4 familiar birds each and 4 groups with 4 unfamiliar birds each and recorded their behavior in seminatural aviary settings. We presented the familiar and unfamiliar aviary groups with a variety of stimuli ranging in level of threat and assessed birds' calling behavior in these contexts. Birds housed with familiar flockmates called sooner in threatening stimulus presentations compared with birds housed with unfamiliar flockmates. Call rates and note compositions of calls produced did not differ for the 2 types of flock. Upon release from the captive aviaries, birds from familiar flocks were also more likely to call in flight than were birds from unfamiliar aviaries. These findings suggest that chickadees vary their calling behavior as a function of experience with their surrounding social audience and provide insight into mechanisms of flock cohesion and relationship formation and maintenance within flocks. (PsycINFO Database Record
信号发出者可以根据同种群体成员的有无以及群体的组成来改变它们的发声行为。在这里，我们研究了卡罗来纳山雀信号发出者是否会根据它们是与熟悉的还是不熟悉的群伴在一起而改变发声行为。我们将32只卡罗来纳山雀分成4组，每组有4只熟悉的鸟，还有4组，每组有4只不熟悉的鸟，并在半自然的鸟舍环境中记录它们的行为。我们向熟悉和不熟悉的鸟舍组呈现了各种不同威胁程度的刺激，并评估了鸟类在这些情境下的鸣叫行为。与和不熟悉的群伴在一起的鸟相比，和熟悉的群伴在一起的鸟在威胁性刺激呈现时叫得更早。两种类型的群体中，所发出叫声的鸣叫频率和音符组成没有差异。从圈养鸟舍放出来后，来自熟悉群体的鸟在飞行中鸣叫的可能性也比来自不熟悉鸟舍的鸟更大。这些发现表明，山雀会根据与周围社会听众的经验来改变它们的鸣叫行为，并为群体凝聚力以及群体内关系形成和维持的机制提供了见解。（《心理学文摘数据库记录》）
