Abstract
Operant conditioning and a psychophysical tracking procedure were used to measure auditory thresholds for pure tones in quiet and in noise for a European starling. The audibility curve for the starling is similar to the auditory sensitivity reported earlier for this species using a heart-rate conditioning procedure. Masked auditory thresholds for the starling were measured at a number of test frequencies throughout the bird’s hearing range. Critical ratios (signal-to-noise ratio at masked threshold) were calculated from these pure tone thresholds. Critical ratios increase throughout the starling’s hearing range at a rate of about 3 dB per octave. This pattern is similar to that observed for most other vertebrates. These results suggest that the starling shares a common mechanism of spectral analysis with many other vertebrates, including the human.
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We thank S. Brown and T. Park for helpful criticisms. This work was supported by an NSF Grant to R. Dooling.
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Dooling, R.J., Okanoya, K., Downing, J. et al. Hearing in the starling (Sturnus vulgaris): Absolute thresholds and critical ratios. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 24, 462–464 (1986). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330584
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330584