Publication Date:
1996-09-13
Description:
Partitioning continuously varying stimuli into categories is a fundamental problem of perception. One solution to this problem, categorical perception, is known primarily from human speech, but also occurs in other modalities and in some mammals and birds. Categorical perception was tested in crickets by using two paradigms of human psychophysics, labeling and habituation-dishabituation. The results show that crickets divide sound frequency categorically between attractive (〈16 kilohertz) and repulsive (〉16 kilohertz) sounds. There is sharp discrimination between these categories but no discrimination between different frequencies of ultrasound. This demonstration of categorical perception in an invertebrate suggests that categorical perception may be a basic and widespread feature of sensory systems, from humans to invertebrates.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wyttenbach, R A -- May, M L -- Hoy, R R -- K05-MH1148/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R01-CD00103/CD/ODCDC CDC HHS/ -- T32-MN15793/MN/OMHHE CDC HHS/ -- etc. -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1996 Sep 13;273(5281):1542-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-2702, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8703214" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Auditory Perception
;
Gryllidae/*physiology
;
*Pitch Discrimination
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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