ArticleAnimal behaviour2016
Social calls provide novel insights into the evolution of vocal learning.
Article in Animal behaviour, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- The effect of social structure on vocal flexibility in monk parakeets.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Vocal sequence diversity and length remain stable across ontogeny in a catarrhine monkey (Cercocebus atys).Communications biology · 2025Article
- Widespread cultural change in declining populations of Amazon parrots.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Call combination production is linked to the social environment in Western Australian magpies (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Sex differences in the impact of social relationships on individual vocal signatures in grey mouse lemurs (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Songbird species that display more-complex vocal learning are better problem-solvers and have larger brains.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Individual identity information persists in learned calls of introduced parrot populations.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Evidence for maintenance of key components of vocal learning in ageing budgerigars despite diminished affiliative social interaction.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
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- Long-distance vocalizations of spotted hyenas contain individual, but not group, signatures.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
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- Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality.The Behavioral and brain sciences · 2021Article
- Defining the multidimensional phenotype: New opportunities to integrate the behavioral ecology and behavioral neuroscience of vocal learning.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- Memory-specific correlated neuronal activity in higher-order auditory regions of a parrot.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Sound sequences in birdsong: how much do birds really care?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
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- Character displacement of a learned behaviour and its implications for ecological speciation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Social group signatures in hummingbird displays provide evidence of co-occurrence of vocal and visual learning.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Zebra finches identify individuals using vocal signatures unique to each call type.Nature communications · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
Learned song is among the best-studied models of animal communication. In oscine songbirds, where learned song is most prevalent, it is used primarily for intrasexual selection and mate attraction. Learning of a different class of vocal signals, known as contact calls, is found in a diverse array of species, where they are used to mediate social interactions among individuals. We argue that call learning provides a taxonomically rich system for studying testable hypotheses for the evolutionary origins of vocal learning. We describe and critically evaluate four nonmutually exclusive hypotheses for the origin and current function of vocal learning of calls, which propose that call learning (1) improves auditory detection and recognition, (2) signals local knowledge, (3) signals group membership, or (4) allows for the encoding of more complex social information. We propose approaches to testing these four hypotheses but emphasize that all of them share the idea that social living, not sexual selection, is a central driver of vocal learning. Finally, we identify future areas for research on call learning that could provide new perspectives on the origins and mechanisms of vocal learning in both animals and humans.
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Registered trials
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