Auditory scene analysis in animal communication

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Summary In this chapter, I first introduced the concept of auditory scene analysis, the principle that the auditory perceptual system somehow parses a noisy world into individual auditory components—auditory objects—that often occur simultaneously but are attended to selectively. I then discussed some initial studies which demonstrated for the first time that auditory scene analysis occurs in nonhuman animals, European starlings in particular. I turned next to studies of other taxa (e.g., other songbirds, fish, nonhuman primates, and especially anurans) which suggest that auditory scene analysis may be an important principle helping to organize the perception of auditory events. Finally, I discussed two classes of theory—top-down and bottom-up—that have been developed to account for auditory scene analysis. Throughout, I have tried to identify situations in which it may be especially profitable to pursue further research on auditory scene analysis in nonhuman species.