Impact of Acoustic Interference on Mate Choice in Treefrogs

We studied how certain patterns of acoustic overlap and signal dropout impact the attractiveness to females of male calls in the gray treefrog. A main question was whether females are able to compensate for masked or missing call segments by using a process analogous to phonemic restoration in humans. This is when the brain reconstructs masked segments of words. Methods: We captured female treefrogs in a pond and then offered them a choice of different kinds of computer-generated synthetic calls in an indoor testing chamber. Females indicated a mating preference by moving toward one of two speakers that were broadcasting the call alternatives. Results: We found that females do not employ phonemic restoration to fill in missing call segments. However, although call overlap reduces call attractiveness, if a sufficient percent of call elements are not acoustically degraded, females may ignore perceived call abnormalities. Implications: Our data indicate that these treefrogs may need to rely on behavioral strategies to reduce the harmful effects of acoustic interference.My mentor is planning experiments to investigate this possibility