Effect of auditory stimuli on conditioned vocal behavior of budgerigars.

ABSTRACT: The budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) is a highly social species and serves as an excellent model of vocal learning and production. This species can be trained to vocalize as a conditioned response using an operant conditioning paradigm. In addition, the birds can be trained to produce different vocalizations in response to different visual signals. Budgerigars may be fairly unique in the capability for vocal production under operant control. Whether acoustic features of the bird's natural social milieu can influence this conditioned vocal output is uncertain. The present study asked whether conditioned vocal behavior in budgerigars can be influenced by hearing vocalizations of other birds. The results show that birds vocalizing under operant control produced louder calls in the presenc

SUBMITTER: Seki Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4696898 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature