What is the sound of fear?: behavioral responses of white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophryus) to synthesized nonlinear acoustic phenomena

Simple item page
dc.contributorHoopes, Martha
dc.contributorGifford, Janice
dc.contributorPartan, Sarah
dc.contributor.advisorBrodie, Renae
dc.contributor.authorBledsoe, Ellen
dc.date.accessioned2013-06-20T10:41:19Z
dc.date.available2013-06-20T10:41:19Z
dc.date.gradyear2013en_US
dc.date.issued2013-06-20
dc.description.abstractFear and anxiety may be adaptive responses to life-threatening situations, and animals may communicate fear to others vocally. Nonlinear phenomena—sounds produced by the desynchronization of vibrations in a sound production system—are commonly found in stress-induced animal vocalizations, such as in alarm calls, mobbing calls, and fear screams. There are several functional hypotheses for these nonlinear phenomena. One specific hypothesis is the unpredictability hypothesis, which suggests that because nonlinear phenomena are somewhat unpredictable, animals are less likely to habituate to them. Animals should, therefore, have a greater response to sounds with nonlinear phenomena than sounds without them. Most studies involving nonlinear phenomena have used mammalian subjects and conspecific stimuli. My study focused on white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys ssp. oriantha) and used synthesized stimuli to investigate behavioral responses to stimuli with and without nonlinear phenomena. I predicted that birds would be less relaxed after hearing a stimulus with a nonlinear phenomenon. I calculated the difference from baseline of proportion of time spent in relaxed behaviors. In the 30-60 s after the playback experiment, birds were significantly less relaxed after hearing stimuli with an abrupt frequency jump down an octave or white noise but not after hearing a stimulus with an abrupt frequency jump up an octave or a pure tone. Nonlinear phenomena, therefore, may be generally arousing to animals.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipBiological Sciencesen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10166/3262
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.rights.restrictedrestricteden_US
dc.subjectnonlinearen_US
dc.subjectbirden_US
dc.subjectwhite-crowned sparrowen_US
dc.subjectfearen_US
dc.titleWhat is the sound of fear?: behavioral responses of white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophryus) to synthesized nonlinear acoustic phenomenaen_US
dc.typeThesis
mhc.degreeUndergraduateen_US
mhc.institutionMount Holyoke College

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
Bledsoe_Final_May8.pdf
Size:
829.37 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Student Theses and Honors Collection