Zebra finches can use positional and transitional cues to distinguish vocal element strings. Chen, J. & Ten Cate, C. Behav Processes, 117:29–34, 2015. doi abstract bibtex Learning sequences is of great importance to humans and non-human animals. Many motor and mental actions, such as singing in birds and speech processing in humans, rely on sequential learning. At least two mechanisms are considered to be involved in such learning. The chaining theory proposes that learning of sequences relies on memorizing the transitions between adjacent items, while the positional theory suggests that learners encode the items according to their ordinal position in the sequence. Positional learning is assumed to dominate sequential learning. However, human infants exposed to a string of speech sounds can learn transitional (chaining) cues. So far, it is not clear whether birds, an increasingly important model for examining vocal processing, can do this. In this study we use a Go-Nogo design to examine whether zebra finches can use transitional cues to distinguish artificially constructed strings of song elements. Zebra finches were trained with sequences differing in transitional and positional information and next tested with novel strings sharing positional and transitional similarities with the training strings. The results show that they can attend to both transitional and positional cues and that their sequential coding strategies can be biased toward transitional cues depending on the learning context. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: In Honor of Jerry Hogan.
@Article{Chen2015,
author = {Chen, Jiani and {Ten Cate}, Carel},
journal = {Behav Processes},
title = {Zebra finches can use positional and transitional cues to distinguish vocal element strings.},
year = {2015},
pages = {29--34},
volume = {117},
abstract = {Learning sequences is of great importance to humans and non-human
animals. Many motor and mental actions, such as singing in birds
and speech processing in humans, rely on sequential learning. At
least two mechanisms are considered to be involved in such learning.
The chaining theory proposes that learning of sequences relies on
memorizing the transitions between adjacent items, while the positional
theory suggests that learners encode the items according to their
ordinal position in the sequence. Positional learning is assumed
to dominate sequential learning. However, human infants exposed to
a string of speech sounds can learn transitional (chaining) cues.
So far, it is not clear whether birds, an increasingly important
model for examining vocal processing, can do this. In this study
we use a Go-Nogo design to examine whether zebra finches can use
transitional cues to distinguish artificially constructed strings
of song elements. Zebra finches were trained with sequences differing
in transitional and positional information and next tested with novel
strings sharing positional and transitional similarities with the
training strings. The results show that they can attend to both transitional
and positional cues and that their sequential coding strategies can
be biased toward transitional cues depending on the learning context.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: In Honor of Jerry
Hogan.},
doi = {10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.004},
institution = {Institute of Biology Leiden, Sylvius Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9505, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: c.j.ten.cate@biology.leidenuniv.nl.},
keywords = {Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; Cues; Female; Finches, physiology; Learning; Male; Vocalization, Animal, physiology},
language = {eng},
medline-pst = {ppublish},
pmid = {25217867},
timestamp = {2016.08.04},
}
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The chaining theory proposes that learning of sequences relies on memorizing the transitions between adjacent items, while the positional theory suggests that learners encode the items according to their ordinal position in the sequence. Positional learning is assumed to dominate sequential learning. However, human infants exposed to a string of speech sounds can learn transitional (chaining) cues. So far, it is not clear whether birds, an increasingly important model for examining vocal processing, can do this. In this study we use a Go-Nogo design to examine whether zebra finches can use transitional cues to distinguish artificially constructed strings of song elements. Zebra finches were trained with sequences differing in transitional and positional information and next tested with novel strings sharing positional and transitional similarities with the training strings. 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At\n\tleast two mechanisms are considered to be involved in such learning.\n\tThe chaining theory proposes that learning of sequences relies on\n\tmemorizing the transitions between adjacent items, while the positional\n\ttheory suggests that learners encode the items according to their\n\tordinal position in the sequence. Positional learning is assumed\n\tto dominate sequential learning. However, human infants exposed to\n\ta string of speech sounds can learn transitional (chaining) cues.\n\tSo far, it is not clear whether birds, an increasingly important\n\tmodel for examining vocal processing, can do this. In this study\n\twe use a Go-Nogo design to examine whether zebra finches can use\n\ttransitional cues to distinguish artificially constructed strings\n\tof song elements. 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