Abstract: | Compared the frequency resolving power of 3 male budgerigar birds and 3 humans on several nonsimultaneous masking procedures in which one pure tone was used to mask another. Similar patterns of frequency selectivity were found for all 3 masking procedures (forward, backward, and combined forward/backward) for both species. Budgerigars showed considerably greater frequency resolving power on all 3 procedures than humans. Budgerigars also showed differences in frequency resolving power across masking conditions, but human Ss did not. Results indicate that the budgerigar auditory system may be even more highly tuned than was previously thought and suggest fundamental differences between the mechanisms of frequency selectivity of birds and humans. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |