Question 23M.3.HL.TZ2.6
| Date | May 2023 | Marks available | [Maximum mark: 4] | Reference code | 23M.3.HL.TZ2.6 |
| Level | HL | Paper | 3 | Time zone | TZ2 |
| Command term | Describe, Suggest | Question number | 6 | Adapted from | N/A |
The learning of birdsong has been researched for many years. Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) were studied in their natural habitat on Kent Island, Canada. The data shows the spectrogram (sound recording) of the typical song for the species, a tutor song played to the birds using loudspeakers in their habitat and the song learned after listening to the tutor song.
[Source: Reprinted from Current Biology, Vol 28, Mennill, D.J., Doucet, S.M., Newman, A.E.M., Thomas, I.P., Woodworth, B.K.
and Norris, D.R., Wild Birds Learn Songs from Experimental Vocal Tutors, Pages 3273–3278, Copyright 2018, with
permission from Elsevier.]
Describe how the Savannah sparrows would acquire their song under natural conditions.
[2]
- template/basis of the song is innate (as all have the same base);
- (variations) learned from listening to adults;
- repeating the songs / learn with experience;
Most could easily describe how sparrows would acquire their songs under natural conditions.
The offspring of the sparrows that had been exposed to the tutor song were studied a year later. The newly hatched birds had no playback of a simulated vocal tutor, but the pattern was almost the same as that of the third graph (Wild Savannah sparrow that learned song from tutor pattern). Suggest what this pattern indicates about the learning of birdsong.
[2]
- template/basis of the song remains the same (as it is innate);
- repeated/mimicked song learned from surrounding adults/parent birds;
- new variation/tutor song learned by offspring (as typical song is not heard)/OWTTE;
- learning of variation isn’t perfect/exact;
They had great difficulty suggesting what the graph pattern indicates about the learning of birdsong, that is, learning from parents who mimicked the tutor song; many provided similar answers to parts (a) and (b), although part (a) was about knowledge and part (b) about interpreting the diagram.