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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/6
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Publication Open Access Multi-modal communication: song sparrows increase signal redundancy in noise(The Royal Society, 2019) Beecher, Michael D.; Department of Psychology; Department of Psychology; Akçay, Çağlar; Faculty Member; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 272053Although the effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication have been studied widely, most research on the effect of noise in communication has focused on signals in a single modality. Consequently, how multi-modal communication is affected by anthropogenic noise is relatively poorly understood. Here, we ask whether song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) show evidence of plasticity in response to noise in two aggressive signals in acoustic and visual modalities. We test two hypotheses: (i) that song sparrows will shift signalling effort to the visual modality (the multi-modal shift hypothesis) and (ii) that they will increase redundancy of their multi-modal signalling (the back-up signal hypothesis). We presented male song sparrows with song playback and a taxidermic mount with or without a low-frequency acoustic noise from a nearby speaker. We found that males did not switch their signalling effort to visual modality (i.e. wing waves) in response to the noise. However, the correlation between warbled soft songs and wing waves increased in the noise treatment, i.e. signals became more redundant. These results suggest that when faced with anthropogenic noise, song sparrows can increase the redundancy of their multi-modal signals, which may aid in the robustness of the communication system.Publication Open Access Song overlapping, noise, and territorial aggression in great tits(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2020) Avşar, Alican; Bilgin, C. Can; Department of Psychology; Department of Psychology; Akçay, Çağlar; Porsuk, Yasin Kağan; Çabuk, Dilan; Faculty Member; Teaching Faculty; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities; 272053; N/A; N/ACommunication often happens in noisy environments where interference from the ambient noise and other signalers may reduce the effectiveness of signals which may lead to more conflict between interacting individuals. Signalers may also evolve behaviors to interfere with signals of opponents, for example, by temporally overlapping them with their own, such as the song overlapping behavior that is seen in some songbirds during aggressive interactions. Song overlapping has been proposed to be a signal of aggressive intent, but few studies directly examined the association between song overlapping and aggressive behaviors of the sender. In the present paper, we examined whether song overlapping and ambient noise are associated positively with aggressive behaviors. We carried out simulated territorial intrusions in a population of great tits (Pares major) living in an urban-rural gradient to assess signaling and aggressive behaviors. Song overlapping was associated negatively with aggressive behaviors males displayed against a simulated intruder. This result is inconsistent with the hypothesis that song overlapping is an aggressive signal in this species. Ambient noise levels were associated positively with aggressive behaviors but did not correlate with song rate, song duration, or song overlapping. Great tits in noisy urban habitats may display higher levels of aggressive behaviors due to either interference of noise in aggressive communication or another indirect effect of noise.Publication Open Access The scent of a handshake(eLife Sciences Publications, 2015) Farias, Ana Rita; Department of Psychology; Department of Psychology; Semin, Gün Refik; Researcher; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 58066Sniffing our hand after a handshake may allow us to detect chemical signals produced by others.