Absolutes and Relations in Acoustic Perception by Songbirds

The distinction between relational and absolute processing is the major theoretical focus of this chapter. This issue is studied in the context of the capacity of animals to perceive certain complex sounds. Sometimes, animals code auditory information by representing relations among sounds. Other times, however, they ignore relations and code sounds on the basis of absolute features. Why should this be so? The issue is not unique to auditory perception. The question of how we perceive relations and absolutes pervades much of experimental psychology—from sensory perception to abstract concept formation (Herrnstein, 1990; Medin, 1989; Nosofsky, 1991; Premack, 1978, 1983; Rosch & Mervis, 1975).