Adaptive Tracking Procedures to Measure Auditory Sensitivity in Songbirds

A combination of an appetitive operant conditioning and a psychophysical tracking procedure was used to measure auditory sensitivity in songbirds. The bird was trained to peck an observation key repeatedly when it did not hear a tone and to peck a report key when it did. By utilizing a two-up, one-down algorithm, a 70.7% hit threshold was tracked. An example experiment comparing auditory sensitivity in canaries of different strains is described. Strength and weakness of the procedure are then discussed. The procedure has been used in several experiments measuring auditory sensitivity, critical ratios, and intensity difference thresholds in songbirds.

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