Birdsong Basics
The smallest units that researchers break birdsong into
What are notes or syllables?
The bird species that was studied in the article
What is the "Zebra Finch"?
The term used to describe how loud or soft a sound is.
What is "amplitude"?
A repeating pattern or sequence of syllables.
What is a "phrase" or "motif"?
The phrases in birdsong used to measure
What are rhytm, tempo, and patterns?
The way Zebra Finch songs sound to human ears
What is "repetitive"?
The term used to describe the pitch (high or low) of a sound wave.
What is "frequency"?
The process of playing syllables in reverse order.
What are "reversed syllables"?
The structure that refers to slow fluctuations in amplitude of birdsong syllables
What is the envelope structure?
Zebra Finches can hear details in syllables that humans can’t.
What are "fine acoustic details"?
The difference between natural and shuffled syllables in a song.
What is the "order of syllables"?
The ability to interpret or recognize sounds.
What is "perception"?
The way sound fluctuates within a syllable
What is the fine structure?
The Zebra Finch's ability to recognize reversed syllables in its song.
What is sound discrimination?
The reason it's harder for humans to hear small changes in birdsong.
What are the "fine details humans can't detect"?
The rearranged order of syllables in a song.
What is a "shuffled sequence"?
Something that historical researchers overlooked when analyzing birdsong
What is the fine structure in the waveform of syllables?
Zebra Finches can recognize syllables even when they are presented in a different order.
What is syllable recognition?
The changes in the loudness of sound over time.
What is "amplitude modulation"?
The study of sounds.
What is acoustics?