Chapter 12 Self-test questions

. Which of the following statements about communication is not correct?

Communication involves the transfer of information from a sender to a receiver.

Signals serve as vehicles for the information transfer from a sender to a receiver.

True communication benefits both the sender and the receiver.

Upon detection, the signal transmitted by the sender invokes in the receiver an immediate behavioral response but does not have a tonic and motivational effect.

. In which of the following situations does the transmission of information from a sender to a receiver not involve true communication?

Display during courtship of an enlarged, brightly colored claw by male fiddler crabs.

Production of calling song by male crickets to attract females.

Localization by barn owls of mice that generate noise while walking on ground.

Attraction of foraging bees by the honey guides of flowers.

. Which of the following instructions is not correct in describing how to extract, from an oscillogram, specific physical information about an acoustic signal?

Estimate sound intensity from the amplitude of the signal.

Estimate sound intensity from the intensity of the signal trace on the oscillogram.

Determine frequency of a periodic signal by counting the number of periodic events over a certain time interval, normalize this number to 1 sec, and take the inverse of the result to obtain the frequency in Hertz.

Determine the duration of a signal pulse by measuring the time interval between the start of the trace deflection on the screen and the return of the deflected trace to baseline.

. Which physical parameters of an auditory signal are displayed on a sound spectrogram? Please select all that apply.

Frequency.

Temporal pattern.

Amplitude.

Waveform.

. Which of the following organs do crickets use to produce songs?

Forewing.

Larynx.

Syrinx.

Scolopidium.

. Which statement about pressure gradient ears of crickets is not correct?

Sound pressure can reach both the inner and the outer surface of the tympanum.

The auditory receptor cells that transduce the energy associated with sound pressure into a receptor potential are the inner hair cells.

Sound pressure ears enable crickets to determine the direction from which sound comes.

The ears on the two sides of the body are coupled via a tracheal tube.

. Positive phonotaxis involves movements of a receiver towards the source of sound.

True

False

. Which of the following newly developed instruments led, in the 1950s, to a dramatic increase in the number of scientific studies that explored how song birds acquire their vocalization?

Electron microscope.

Radar.

Sound spectrograph.

Ultrasound detector.

. Which of the following hypotheses describes best how songs develop in songbirds?

The song structure is determined exclusively by genetic information.

The song is acquired exclusively through learning from an adult bird that serves as a tutor during a critical phase within the first few months after hatching.

The song is acquired exclusively through learning from young birds of the same age at the end of the first year of the bird's life.

The developing song is the result of a combination of innate predisposition and social learning.

. Which of the following statements about HVC in the brain of songbirds is not correct?

HVC is part of the song motor pathway.

HVC is part of the anterior forebrain pathway.

HVC receives synaptic input from the robust nucleus of the arcopallium.

A subpopulation of HVC neurons controls temporal features of the song.

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