Categorical perception of a natural, multivariate signal: mating call recognition in túngara frogs.

@article{baugh_08_categorical, abstract = {Categorical perception is common in humans, but it is not known whether animals perceive continuous variation in their own multidimensional social signals categorically. There are two components to categorical perception: labeling and discrimination. In the first, continuously variable stimuli on each side of a category boundary are labeled. In the second, there is strong discrimination between stimuli from opposite sides of the boundary, whereas stimuli on the same side of the boundary are not discriminated. Here, we show that female t\'{u}ngara frogs respond categorically to complex mating calls that vary simultaneously along multiple dimensions and are within the natural range of signal variation. In response to a transect of synthetic stimuli that varied continuously and systematically in seven dimensions, female t\'{u}ngara frogs label mating calls as either conspecific or not conspecific. For pairs of stimuli that differed by the same magnitude, females discriminate those in different categories but not those in the same category. In addition, latency to respond was significantly shorter when stimuli were in the same versus different categories. Because responses to mating calls are critical in generating species recognition and sexual selection, this finding has implications for both animal perception and the influences of mate choice on the tempo and mode of evolution.}, address = {Section of Integrative Biology, and Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA. baugh@mail.utexas.edu}, author = {Baugh, A. T. and Akre, K. L. and Ryan, M. J. }, citeulike-article-id = {3003133}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0802201105}, issn = {1091-6490}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, keywords = {behaviour, evolution, frog, multicomponent}, month = {July}, number = {26}, pages = {8985--8988}, pdf = {baugh\_08\_categorical.pdf}, posted-at = {2008-07-15 13:36:44}, priority = {2}, title = {Categorical perception of a natural, multivariate signal: mating call recognition in t\'{u}ngara frogs.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0802201105}, volume = {105}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - baugh_08_categorical L3 - citeulike-article-id:3003133 TI - Categorical perception of a natural, multivariate signal: mating call recognition in túngara frogs. JF - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A VL - 105 IS - 26 SP - 8985 EP - 8988 AD - Section of Integrative Biology, and Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA. baugh@mail.utexas.edu SN - 1091-6490 N2 - Categorical perception is common in humans, but it is not known whether animals perceive continuous variation in their own multidimensional social signals categorically. There are two components to categorical perception: labeling and discrimination. In the first, continuously variable stimuli on each side of a category boundary are labeled. In the second, there is strong discrimination between stimuli from opposite sides of the boundary, whereas stimuli on the same side of the boundary are not discriminated. Here, we show that female túngara frogs respond categorically to complex mating calls that vary simultaneously along multiple dimensions and are within the natural range of signal variation. In response to a transect of synthetic stimuli that varied continuously and systematically in seven dimensions, female túngara frogs label mating calls as either conspecific or not conspecific. For pairs of stimuli that differed by the same magnitude, females discriminate those in different categories but not those in the same category. In addition, latency to respond was significantly shorter when stimuli were in the same versus different categories. Because responses to mating calls are critical in generating species recognition and sexual selection, this finding has implications for both animal perception and the influences of mate choice on the tempo and mode of evolution. KW - behaviour KW - evolution KW - frog KW - multicomponent AU - Baugh, AT AU - Akre, KL AU - Ryan, MJ PY - 2008/July/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0802201105 ER -