With few exceptions, laboratory studies of auditory masking in marine mammals have been limited to examining detection thresholds for simple tonal signals embedded in broadband noise. However, detection of a sound has little adaptive advantage without the knowledge of what produced the sound (recognition) and where the sound originated (localization). In the current study, a bottlenose dolphin's masked detection thresholds (energetic masking) and masked recognition thresholds (informational masking) were estimated for a variety of complex signals including dolphin vocalizations, frequency modulated signals, and a 10 kHz pure tone. Broadband noise types included recordings of natural sounds and computer generated sounds. Detection thresholds were estimated using a standard go, no-go adaptive staircase procedure. The same dolphin learned to associate whistle-like FM sounds with specific arbitrary objects using a three alternative, matching-to-sample (MTS) procedure. The dolphin's performance in the MTS task was then tested in the presence of the same masking noise types used in the detection task. Recognition thresholds were, on average, about 4 dB higher than detection thresholds for similar signal-noise conditions. The 4 dB difference is likely due to additional cognitive demands of recognition, including attention and pattern recognition.
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September 2016
September 22 2016
Energetic and informational masking of complex sounds by a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Brian K. Branstetter;
Brian K. Branstetter
a)
1
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Number 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA
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Kimberly Bakhtiari;
Kimberly Bakhtiari
1
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Number 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA
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Amy Black;
Amy Black
1
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Number 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA
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Jennifer S. Trickey;
Jennifer S. Trickey
b)
1
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Number 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA
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James J. Finneran;
James J. Finneran
2
United States Navy Marine Mammal Program, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific
, Code 71510, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152, USA
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Hitomi Aihara
Hitomi Aihara
1
National Marine Mammal Foundation
, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Number 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA
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a)
Electronic mail: brian.branstetter@nmmf.org
b)
Current address: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 1904–1917 (2016)
Article history
Received:
February 22 2016
Accepted:
August 29 2016
Citation
Brian K. Branstetter, Kimberly Bakhtiari, Amy Black, Jennifer S. Trickey, James J. Finneran, Hitomi Aihara; Energetic and informational masking of complex sounds by a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 September 2016; 140 (3): 1904–1917. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4962530
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