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A procedure for an automated measurement of song similarity
Abstract
Assessment of vocal imitation requires a widely accepted way of describing and measuring any similarities between the song of a tutor and that of its pupil. Quantifying the similarity between two songs, however, can be difficult and fraught with subjective bias. We present a fully automated procedure that measures parametrically the similarity between songs. We tested its performance on a large database of zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, songs. The procedure uses an analytical framework of modern spectral analysis to characterize the acoustic structure of a song. This analysis provides a superior sound spectrogram that is then reduced to a set of simple acoustic features. Based on these features, the procedure detects similar sections between songs automatically. In addition, the procedure can be used to examine: (1) imitation accuracy across acoustic features; (2) song development; (3) the effect of brain lesions on specific song features; and (4) variability across different renditions of a song or a call produced by the same individual, across individuals and across populations. By making the procedure available we hope to promote the adoption of a standard, automated method for measuring similarity between songs or calls. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Valletta, J. J., Torney, C., Kings, M., Thornton, A., & Madden, J. (2017) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.12.005 · Cited by 505
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Acoustic sequences in non‐human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus
Kershenbaum, A., Blumstein, D. T., Roch, M. A., Akçay, Ç., Backus, G., Bee, M. A., Bohn, K., Cao, Y., Carter, G., Cäsar, C., et al. (2016) · Biological Reviews · doi:10.1111/brv.12160 · Cited by 337
How sleep affects the developmental learning of bird song
Derégnaucourt, S., Mitra, P. P., Fehér, O., Pytte, C., & Tchernichovski, O. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature03275 · Cited by 320
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Metadata
- Authors
- Tchernichovski, O., Nottebohm, F., Ho, C. E., Pesaran, B., & Mitra, P. P.
- Venue
- Animal Behaviour
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2000-06
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1167-1176
- ISSN
- 0003-3472 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2071876445
- Cited by
- 734
- References
- 1
- FWCI
- 7.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
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