Spatial Learning Using Acoustic Signals in the Túngara Frog (Physalaemus Pustulosus)

Spatial navigation is critical to an animal's procurement of food, mates, and territory. As a result of the importance of the visual system in an animal's survival, the majority of previous studies have investigated how animals associate visual cues with spatial locations. Because the sexual behavior of the túngara frog (Physalaemus pustulosus) relies heavily on the use of acoustic signals, I hypothesized that they would be able to use acoustic cues to learn spatial locations. To test this hypothesis, I presented each individual with two arbitrary sounds, a tone and a recording of a mating call that had been reversed. The tone was initially associated with the correct door of the maze, which led to a shelter. Once an individual learned the association, I switched the sounds so that the reversed mating call was now associated with the correct door. My results indicate that túngara frogs are able to associate an arbitrary sound with a location and to reverse those associations. This study is an important contribution to research on anuran cognition because it is the first to demonstrate the use of acoustic signals during spatial learning, as opposed to the predominant visual studies.Bachelor of Scienc