January 2009

PERCEPTION OF SONGS HAS GREATER SCOPE THAN SONG PRODUCTION

confirming a prediction for signal detection in noisy environments ...
and introducing the first experiments with morphed birdsongs!

our second publication in Biology Letters in the past four months!

Also appearing this month ...

A CONCISE REVEIW OF SIGNAL TRANSMISSION IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

an article in the new Encyclopedia of Neuroscience

September 2008

LISTENING IS COORDINATED WITH SINGING BY AMAZONIAN BIRDS

read David Luther's paper in the Royal Society's Biology Letters!

August 2008

A SIGNAL-DETECTION EQUILIBRIUM IN THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION

a plenary Fellows Lecture at the Animal Behavior Society meeting in Utah
presented the latest developments in a new view of how
signalers and receivers evolve

[view the presentation]

October-December 2007

FOUR STUDENTS DEFEND THEIR DISSERTATIONS

David Luther (2007)
The Evolution of Communication in a Complex Acoustic Environment

Jonathan Micancin (2008)
Acoustic Variation and Species Discrimination in Southeastern Sibling Species,
the Cricket Frogs Acris crepitans and Acris gryllus

Matthew McKown (2008)
Acoustic Communication in Colonial Seabirds:
Individual, Sexual, and Species-specific Variation
in Acoustic Signals of Pterodroma Petrels

Lisa Davenport (2008)
Behavior and Ecology of the Giant Otter (Pternonura brasiliensis)
in Oxbow Lakes of the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru

August 2007

SIGNAL DETECTION AND THE EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION

a presentation at the International Ethological Congress in Halifax
with the first results from a new procedure to calculate
the joint optimum for signaler and receiver performance
with implications for how we view the evolution of communication

[view the presentation]

Selections from the past ...

REVIEW OF SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY AND ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

Wiley, R. H. (2006)
addresses the generality of the theory and its implications for studying communication
in natural situations
[view the article]

FEMALE CARDINALS SING -- ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG AND HAVE A NEW MATE AND TERRITORY!

Vondrasek, Joanna R. (2005)
Social factors affect the singing rates of female northern cardinals Cardinalis cardinalis.
Journal of Avian Biology 37:   52-57..
[view the article]

RECOGNITION OF NEIGHBORS CHANGES WITH THE SEASON ...
and presumably the changing social scene!

Hyman, Jeremy (2005)
Seasonal variation in response to neighbors and strangers by a territorial songbird.
Ethology 111: 951-961.
[download (.pdf file)]

RECOGNITION OF REAL ENEMIES BY A COLONIAL SEABIRD?
Audubon's Shearwaters illustrate the
need-to-know principle in the evolution of individual recognition

Mackin, Will (2005)
Neighbor-stranger discrimination in Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus l. lherminieri) explained by a "real enemy" effect.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 59:   326-332.
[download (.pdf file)]

Wollerman, L., and R. H. Wiley. 2002. Background noise from a natural chorus alters female discrimination of male calls in a Neotropical frog. Animal Behaviour 63: 15-22.
[abstract and article]