scholarly journals Vocal Creativity in Elephant Sound Production

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 750
Author(s):  
Angela S. Stoeger ◽  
Anton Baotic ◽  
Gunnar Heilmann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Nasal Tissue ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Production Mechanisms

How do elephants achieve their enormous vocal flexibility when communicating, imitating or creating idiosyncratic sounds? The mechanisms that underpin this trait combine motoric abilities with vocal learning processes. We demonstrate the unusual production techniques used by five African savanna elephants to create idiosyncratic sounds, which they learn to produce on cue by positive reinforcement training. The elephants generate these sounds by applying nasal tissue vibration via an ingressive airflow at the trunk tip, or by contracting defined superficial muscles at the trunk base. While the production mechanisms of the individuals performing the same sound categories are similar, they do vary in fine-tuning, revealing that each individual has its own specific sound-producing strategy. This plasticity reflects the creative and cognitive abilities associated with ‘vocal’ learning processes. The fact that these sounds were reinforced and cue-stimulated suggests that social feedback and positive reinforcement can facilitate vocal creativity and vocal learning behavior in elephants. Revealing the mechanism and the capacity for vocal learning and sound creativity is fundamental to understanding the eloquence within the elephants’ communication system. This also helps to understand the evolution of human language and of open-ended vocal systems, which build upon similar cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Dolphin whistles: a functional misnomer revealed by heliox breathing

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. T. Madsen ◽  
F. H. Jensen ◽  
D. Carder ◽  
S. Ridgway
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphin ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Large Range ◽  
Impedance Matching ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Vocal Folds ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
Nasal Tissue ◽  
Air Density

Delphinids produce tonal whistles shaped by vocal learning for acoustic communication. Unlike terrestrial mammals, delphinid sound production is driven by pressurized air within a complex nasal system. It is unclear how fundamental whistle contours can be maintained across a large range of hydrostatic pressures and air sac volumes. Two opposing hypotheses propose that tonal sounds arise either from tissue vibrations or through actual whistle production from vortices stabilized by resonating nasal air volumes. Here, we use a trained bottlenose dolphin whistling in air and in heliox to test these hypotheses. The fundamental frequency contours of stereotyped whistles were unaffected by the higher sound speed in heliox. Therefore, the term whistle is a functional misnomer as dolphins actually do not whistle, but form the fundamental frequency contour of their tonal calls by pneumatically induced tissue vibrations analogous to the operation of vocal folds in terrestrial mammals and the syrinx in birds. This form of tonal sound production by nasal tissue vibrations has probably evolved in delphinids to enable impedance matching to the water, and to maintain tonal signature contours across changes in hydrostatic pressures, air density and relative nasal air volumes during dives.

Gamelan Melayu Sound Preservation and Archiving through Recording Methods and Production Techniques

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Muralitheran Munusamy
Keyword(s):  
Sound Production ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Technical Specification ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Information Storage ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Audio Engineering ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Audio Data ◽  
Music Recordings

Sound or audio engineering is a branch of the field of engineering, which involves the process of recording sound and reproducing it by various means, as well as storing in order to be reproduced later. Known as sound or audio engineers, these trained professionals work in a variety of sound production fields and expert in recording methods. They can be instrumental to implement the affordable technologies and technical process to distribute the audio data hence, making it accessible for future generations. The current role of these engineers not only to perform or limited to recording session but they create metadata for archiving and preservation for future needs. Currently, product sleeves of ethnographic recordings represent no technical elements of how traditional music recordings are produced. The product details focus only to some extent on historical elements and musical notation. To an audio archivist, declaring what devices are in a recording is not linked with preservation data. Apart from the format, the sleeved design, technical specification is essential to other social scientists such as audio engineer and field recordist of the future. The aim of the present research is to capture optimum dynamic range of the sound and applying a signal processing that would not alter the tonality, timbre and harmonic of the sound. Further applying a suitable information storage for the metadata to be preserve or archived for future accessing and reproduction.

scholarly journals Adding colour-realistic video images to audio playbacks increases stimulus engagement but does not enhance vocal learning in zebra finches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Varkevisser ◽  
Ralph Simon ◽  
Ezequiel Mendoza ◽  
Martin How ◽  
Idse van Hijlkema ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Frame Rate ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Biologically Relevant ◽  
Video Images

AbstractBird song and human speech are learned early in life and for both cases engagement with live social tutors generally leads to better learning outcomes than passive audio-only exposure. Real-world tutor–tutee relations are normally not uni- but multimodal and observations suggest that visual cues related to sound production might enhance vocal learning. We tested this hypothesis by pairing appropriate, colour-realistic, high frame-rate videos of a singing adult male zebra finch tutor with song playbacks and presenting these stimuli to juvenile zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Juveniles exposed to song playbacks combined with video presentation of a singing bird approached the stimulus more often and spent more time close to it than juveniles exposed to audio playback only or audio playback combined with pixelated and time-reversed videos. However, higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli was not predictive of better song learning. Thus, although multimodality increased stimulus engagement and biologically relevant video content was more salient than colour and movement equivalent videos, the higher engagement with the realistic audio–visual stimuli did not lead to enhanced vocal learning. Whether the lack of three-dimensionality of a video tutor and/or the lack of meaningful social interaction make them less suitable for facilitating song learning than audio–visual exposure to a live tutor remains to be tested.

Linking Vocal Learning to Social Reward in the Brain

2018 ◽  
pp. 308-336
Author(s):  
Samantha Carouso Peck ◽  
Michael H. Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Speech Development ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Interconnected System ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
Vocal Control ◽  
And Control

The social environment plays an important role in vocal development. In songbirds, social interactions that promote vocal learning are often characterized by contingent responses of adults to early, immature vocalizations. Parallel processes have been discovered in the early speech development of human infants. Why does contingent social feedback facilitate vocal learning so effectively? Answers may be found by connecting the neural mechanisms of vocal learning and control with those involved in processing social reward. This chapter extends the idea of Newman’s social behaviour network, a tightly interconnected system of limbic areas across which social behaviour and motivation are distributed, to an avian social/vocal control network. It explores anatomical and functional overlaps between song circuitry and social-motivational circuitry, describing how circuitry linking basal ganglia with cortical areas serves to integrate social reward with vocal control and may underlie socially guided vocal learning. In species that have evolved socially guided vocal learning, a unique link has been forgedbetween social circuitry and vocal learning systems, such that learning is driven by social motivation.

DETERMINISTIC CHAOS IN SOUNDS OF ASIAN CICADAS

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (04) ◽  
pp. 555-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
TINA P. BENKO ◽  
MATJAŽ PERC
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Deterministic Chaos ◽  
Nonlinear Time Series ◽  
Nonlinear Time Series Analysis ◽  
Maximal Lyapunov Exponent ◽  
Sound Recording ◽  
Series Analysis ◽  
Production Mechanisms

We analyze the sound recording of the Southeast Asian cicada Tosena depicta with methods of nonlinear time series analysis. First, we reconstruct the phase space from the sound recording and test it against determinism and stationarity. After positively establishing determinism and stationarity in the series, we calculate the maximal Lyapunov exponent. We find that the latter is positive, from which we conclude that the sound recording possesses clear markers of deterministic chaos. We discuss that methods of nonlinear time series analysis can yield instructive insights and foster the understanding of acoustic and vibrational communication among insects, as well as provide vital clues regarding the origin and functionality of their sound production mechanisms. Furthermore, such studies can serve as means to distinguish different insect genera or even species either from each other or under various environmental influences.

scholarly journals A Clinical Approach to the Assessment of Selected Three-Year-Old Pupils’ Renditions

2021 ◽  
pp. 142-158
Author(s):  
GOBIR MARIAM TITILOPE
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Clinical Approach ◽  
Sound Perception ◽  
Observation Method ◽  
Cover Up

Sound perception is pivotal to language acquisition and usage, and it is the bedrock for the display of linguistic knowledge in every individual. However, misperception of sounds and sound production anomalies can be language-based or cognitive oriented. The aim of this study was to assess the utterances of selected three-year-old pupils from a clinical perspective. The study basically adopts a survey research approach. Using the purposive sampling technique and the participatory observation method, twenty utterances of kindergarten pupils were recorded, transcribed and analysed both perceptually and acoustically. This study adapted a blend of the clinical phonological and clinical psycholinguistic approaches for the analysis of the selected pupils’ utterances. The results of the assessment were that even though speech disturbance characterise the language of the pupils, gender difference plays a role in cognitive and linguistic development. The female pupils are found to be less deficient than their male counterparts as their word-realisations are more appropriate and correspond more with the superstrate transcriptions. Also, in spite of the differences in the cognitive abilities of the pupils, they unconsciously adopt simplification procedures to cover up their speech deficiencies. It has been recommended that teachers have a key role to play to facilitate learning by both genders of learners in the classroom by varying their teaching methods and selecting instructional materials carefully.

scholarly journals Morphological facilitators for vocal learning explored through the syrinx anatomy of a basal hummingbird

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Monte ◽  
Alexander F. Cerwenka ◽  
Bernhard Ruthensteiner ◽  
Manfred Gahr ◽  
Daniel N. Düring
Keyword(s):  
Sound Production ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Dimensional Structure ◽  
Micro Computed Tomography ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Precise Control ◽  
Acoustic Space ◽  
Biomechanical Factors ◽  
Intrinsic Musculature

AbstractVocal learning is a rare evolutionary trait that evolved independently in three avian clades: songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds. Although the anatomy and mechanisms of sound production in songbirds are well understood, little is known about the hummingbird’s vocal anatomy. We use high-resolution micro-computed tomography (μCT) and microdissection to reveal the three-dimensional structure of the syrinx, the vocal organ of the black jacobin (Florisuga fusca), a phylogenetically basal hummingbird species. We identify three unique features of the black jacobin’s syrinx: (i) a shift in the position of the syrinx to the outside of the thoracic cavity and the related loss of the sterno-tracheal muscle, (ii) complex intrinsic musculature, oriented dorso-ventrally, and (iii) ossicles embedded in the medial vibratory membranes. Their syrinx morphology allows vibratory decoupling, precise control of complex acoustic parameters, and a large redundant acoustic space that may be key biomechanical factors facilitating the occurrence of vocal production learning.

scholarly journals MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN KOGNITIF PENGENALAN HURUF MELALUI MEDIA KARTU HURUF PADA KELOMPOK B KB ANGGREK MUARA BADAK TAHUN AJARAN 2015/2016

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Masna Masna
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Percentage Increase ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Classroom Action Research ◽  
Group B ◽  
Play Group

To improve students' cognitive, most educational institutions always prioritize IQ intellectual intelligence only when creativity is important. This study aims to determine whether the media card letters can improve the cognitive abilities of children group B play group Anggrek Muara Badak year Teaching 2015/2016 or not. Research subjects in this study were children Anggrek play group A Muara Badak which amounted to sixteen children, consisting of nine boys and seven daughters. This research is a classroom action research. This research was conducted in two cycles, namely cycle one and Cycle two, with each stage, that is planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. Data collection techniques used are observations in the form of teacher and student observation sheets, and documentation, Data analysis methods used descriptive analysis with qualitative approach. Classroom Action Research is conducted collaboratively with peers, researchers here act as teachers and peers acting as observers or observers. From the results of the discussion can be concluded that the cartuhuruf media of cardboard can improve the cognitive abilities of children in group B children in play group Anggrek Muara Badak Year Teaching 2015/2016. Can improve. This can be seen in the percentage increase that occurs the average completeness of the achievement of the letters of children recognition achieving the indicator of Excellent Growth before the action is 0.00% to 40.63% in cycle one and after some improvement in cycle two reached 79.67% or twelve children out of six twelve children have reached the Very Good Growing indicator. (2) The teacher gives positive reinforcement to the child, (3) The teacher or researcher teaches by giving praise orally so that children are motivated and feel appreciated. From this research, it can be concluded that the use of letter card media can improve cognitive ability of group B children playing Anggrek Muara Badak in academic year 2015/2016. For that reason that in improving cognitive abilities of children, teachers are advised to use the letter card media.

scholarly journals Pedagogical leadership: an opportunity for teacher professional development in times of pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Marisol del Carmen ÁLVAREZ-CISTERNAS ◽  
Brunilda del Rosario TORRES-ORELLANA ◽  
Isabel Soledad MEDINA-GUAJARDO
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Teaching Learning

The objective of this article is to describe the pedagogical leadership exercised by teachers in times of pandemic, taking as a reference the Cadet Arturo Prat Chacón school in Chile and in what way this leadership can become an opportunity for teacher professional development. From the methodological point of view, the research is qualitative and descriptive, based on an intrinsic study of cases. The results allow us to establish in a situated way the qualities and attributes of pedagogical leadership, exercised by teachers in a pandemic period when they have to face the teaching-learning processes in a virtual way, and as despite their fears, challenges and uncertainties, They managed to overcome from a resilient pedagogical leadership, promoting collaborative work and co-teaching between teams. It can be concluded that the type of leadership displayed by the management team, facilitated the concurrence of efforts, facilitating collaborative work, co-planning and curricular prioritization, promoting autonomy and professional innovation, providing feedback and positive reinforcement among peers in a way constant, as confirmed by the teachers, who were able to stoically face adversity, safeguarding the quality of their classes.

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