Birdsong learning and intersensory processing

Abstract

Two experiments were performed in which subjects learned to attach names to birdsongs. In the first experiment, subjects who were instructed to generate their own visual codes were much superior to those not given any instructions except those of learning the birdsongs. In the second experiment, both those given a model code for half of the birdsongs and those who made their own visual codes were superior to controls without visual codes. The experiments show the way in which learning in the auditory modality can benefit from visual symbols, and it has implications for the study of “higher order invariances” or relations between the modalities of vision and audition.