Sound categorization by crocodilians.

ABSTRACT: Rapidly sorting the information contained in a stream of stimuli is a major challenge for animals. One cognitive mechanism for achieving this goal is categorization, where the receiving individual considers a continuous variation of a stimulus as belonging to discrete categories. Using playback experiments in a naturalistic setup, here we show that crocodiles confronted with an acoustic continuum ranging from a frog call to a crocodile call classify each acoustic variant into one of these two categories, establishing a meaningful boundary where no acoustic boundary exists. With GO/NO-GO experiments, we then observe that this boundary is defined along the continuum following learning. We further demonstrate that crocodilians rely on the spectral envelope of sounds to categorize stimuli. Thi

SUBMITTER: Thevenet J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10074196 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature