Data from: Neotropical wrens learn new duet rules as adults

Although song development in songbirds has been much studied as an analog of language development in humans, the development of vocal interaction rules has been relatively neglected in both groups. Duetting avian species provide an ideal model to address the acquisition of interaction rules as duet structure involves time and pattern specific relationships among the vocalizations from different individuals. In this study we address the development of the most striking properties of duets: the specific answering rules that individuals use to link their own phrase types to those of their partners (“duet codes”) and precise temporal coordination. By performing two removal experiments in canebrake wrens (Cantorchilus zeledoni) we show that individuals use a fixed phrase repertoire to create new phrase-pairings when they acquire a new partner. Furthermore, immediately after pairing, individuals perform duets with poor coordination and poor duet code adherence, but both aspects improve with time. These results indicate that individuals need a learning period to be able to perform well coordinated duets that follow a consistent duet code. We conclude that both duet coordination and duet code adherence are honest indicators of pair-bond duration.尽管鸣禽的鸣唱发育作为人类语言发育的类比模型已得到广泛研究，但发声互动规则（vocal interaction rules）在两类群体中均相对受到忽视。进行二重鸣唱的鸟类（duetting avian species）为探究互动规则的习得提供了理想模型，因为二重鸣唱的结构涉及不同个体发声间的时间与模式特异性关联。本研究聚焦于二重鸣唱最显著的发育特征：即个体用以将自身鸣唱短句类型与伴侣的短句类型进行匹配的特异性应答规则（‘二重鸣唱代码（duet codes）’），以及精准的时间协调能力。本研究通过对蔗丛鹪鹩（Cantorchilus zeledoni）开展两项移除实验，证实个体在获得新配偶时，会借助固定的鸣唱短句库来构建新的短句配对组合。此外，配对完成后即刻，个体的二重鸣唱协调度与二重鸣唱代码遵循度均欠佳，但这两项指标均随时间推移而逐步提升。上述结果表明，个体需要经过一段学习期，才能完成符合一致二重鸣唱代码的高协调度二重鸣唱。本研究最终得出结论：二重鸣唱协调度与二重鸣唱代码遵循度均可作为配对关系持续时长的诚实指标（honest indicators）。