Complex Acoustic Pattern Learning in Songbirds and Humans

European starlings have the ability to learn to classify complex grammatical patterns that follow a context-free grammar (CFG) composed of song motifs (Gentner, et al., 2006). Cotton-top tamarins cannot classify CFG patterns, when exposed to patterns composed of human speech (Fitch & Hauser, 2004). Beyond differences in species-specific cognitive ability, methodological differences might account for the difference in findings. Here we show that European starlings can learn context-free patterns composed of human speech syllables. We further show that when humans are exposed to the same patterns composed of starling motifs, knowledge of the elements affects classification. Thus, starlings’ grammatical ability does not depend on any species-specific aspect of the patterns. Conversely, humans may not have an innate endowment for complex grammatical processing without the aid of explicit training on the elements that compose the patterns.