Similar Syllables Research Articles

Markovian Versus Rhomboidal Patterning in the Song of Swainson's Thrush

1. This paper examines a claim of NELSON (1973) of rhomboidal patterning in the songs of Swainson's Thrushes reflecting supposed holistic control of the sequences. 2. The subjects were six Swainson's Thrushes recorded in the wild in Quebec. Samples from the six birds ranged from 40 to 346 songs. 3. We used a Ubiquitous Spectrum Analyzer, and Sonagraph to produce frequency-time displays, and the former to produce also amplitude-frequency spectra. 4. The songs consist of 5 to 7 consecutive syllables given in fixed sequence, except for occasional errors. Each bird had 3 to 7 song types, or particular sequences of syllables, also sung in fixed order. 5. Similar syllables may occur in different songs of individual birds. No convincing evidence of recombination units of syllable pairs was found. 6. Evidence essential to support the claim of rhomboidal pattern was found wanting. In particular a) the frequencies (pitches) of successive syllables do not fit a pentatonic scale; b) the validity of a keynote is doubted; c) the definition of rhomboidal patterning is so vague that even pseudorandom numbers yield results similar to those claimed for the thrushes. 7. Alternatively the Markovian model of sequences of events appears more suited to the songs of Swainson's Thrushes, based on the evidence of sequences of syllables and songs, and errors in these sequences.

Studies in spaced and massed learning; paired-associate and serial learning.

An experiment on paired-associate learning was carried out to test Hovland's prediction that spaced practice should be more advantageous than massed if the order of presenting the pairs of nonsense syllables were fixed. In the results, spaced and massed practice showed little difference in learning efficiency. Hovland's prediction was not confirmed. In a previous experiment of this series of studies it had been found that spaced practice was more efficient than massed in serial learning when syllables of “low-meaningfulness” value were used; but that there was little difference in efficiency between the two forms of distribution when “high-meaningfulness” syllables were used. The results of the two experiments naturally suggested that, as regards the relative efficiency of spaced and massed practice, paired-associate learning of low-meaningfulness syllables differed from serial learning of similar syllables, but matched serial learning of high-meaningfulness syllables. It seems justifiable to draw the conclusion that the relative efficiency of spaced and massed practice is different in paired-associate and serial learning, not because remote associations can be formed in the one case and not in the other, as Hovland (1939a, 1939b) assumed; but because the organization of the material and the learning processes are different in the two forms of learning.