Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

<p>The coordinated exchange of vocal signals (`vocal interaction') is a key form of communication in humans and other animals. <strong>The long-term objective of my research program is to understand the behaviours that structure complex vocal interactions. </strong>Research on animal models reveals insights into the cognitive rules that govern vocal interaction. My previous work elucidated the rules that structure vocal duets in birds. I now study `countersinging', a more complex form of avian vocal interaction in which neighbouring territory holders interact vocally. I propose a comprehensive program of research on vocal interaction in the Adelaide's warbler model system. This work compliments a parallel line of research I am conducting on the decision processes that shape vocal interaction rules across multiple species and contexts.</p> <p><strong>Short term objectives</strong><br /> 1. Advances in data acquisition and processing technologies permit the acquisition of ever-larger datasets, necessitating new analytic tools. <span style=""text-decoration: underline;"">I will develop freely available software tools to analyze sequential events as transition networks. </span><br /> 2. Description is an essential first step in understanding complex systems.<span style=""text-decoration: underline;""> I will record countersinging birds and use transition networks to describe their interactions at unprecedented levels of detail and holism.</span><br /> 3. To move from description to prediction, mechanism, and function, we must characterize the cognitive rules that govern individuals' behaviour. <span style=""text-decoration: underline;"">I will use transition networks and other approaches to model the rules that govern vocal interaction.</span><br /> 4. The primary functions of bird song are mate attraction and territory defense. Functional interpretations of countersinging have consistently focused on the territorial function. <span style=""text-decoration: underline;"">I will test a new network-based framework in which countersinging males influence female choice by exploiting females' cognitive biases.</span></p> <p><strong>Summary and impact</strong><br /> Just as bird song has served as a model for the development and control of speech, so vocal interaction in birds can serve as a model for interactive communication. The work described in this proposal sets the foundation for research on the cognitive, neuro-endocrine, and genetic underpinnings of conversation and other forms of interactive communication. Potential <strong>long-term applications </strong>include advances in communication, artificial intelligence, and medicine (e.g., diagnosis and treatment of autism and other disorders that affect vocal interaction). The <strong>research tools </strong>that will be developed and made freely available will promote research on sequential data and interactions of all kinds. The alternative signaling tactics framework offers <strong>a conceptual bridge </strong>between the adaptive processes that drive signaling systems toward `honesty' and the proximate constraints that limit rational choice in humans and other animals. This research will train three graduate students and several undergraduates.<br /> <br /> </p>