Abstract
Birds have been observed to refer to objects such as predators with characteristic vocalizations, but little is known of the processes involved. In order to study this phenomenon, two associations between visual concepts and imitative vocalizations were operantly conditioned in a Greater Indian Hill mynah. The mynah was successfully taught to say “hello” to pictures of persons and then to “bark” to pictures of trees. Correctness and latency data during acquisition and generalization tests to novel pictures are presented. The visual concept-imitative vocalization association paradigm could be useful in studying avian semantics, as well as the evolution and neurophysiology of vocal communication.
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Turney, T. H. Naming photographs by the Greater Indian Hill mynah (Gracula religiosa). Paper presented at the Animal Behavior Society Annual Meeting, Seattle, 1978.
Turney, T. H. Discriminative vocal responding in the Indian Hill mynah (Gracula religiosa). Paper presented at the Animal Behavior Society annual meeting, Fort Collins, Colorado, 1980.
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I gratefully acknowledge the aid of Dyer Lytle, Paul Clement, Stan Sexton, and Joseph Beckner in the conduct of this study.
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Turney, T.H. The association of visual concepts and imitative vocalizations in the mynah (Gracula religiosa). Bull. Psychon. Soc. 19, 59–62 (1982). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330039
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330039