Discrimination of consonance and dissonance in Java sparrows

Abstract

Six adult Java sparrows were trained to discriminate between consonant and dissonant sounds consisting of three tones. In the consonance group, the perching response was reinforced when consonance was presented, but not when dissonance was presented. Both groups were given an inversion test, in which the first inversion of the chord was used as a stimulus. Four of six birds learned the discrimination and were given two tests. In the first test, novel consonances and novel dissonances were presented. All birds maintained the discrimination. When inverted consonances and dissonances were presented in the second test, the discriminative behavior was not well demonstrated. When novel dissonances consisting of tones with different intervals were presented in the third test, birds trained to perch for dissonance performed well, whereas those trained to perch for consonance did not. In summary, Java sparrows were able to discriminate between consonances and dissonances and demonstrated generalization to new combinations, they do not discriminate the same consonances and dissonances.