Ronald G. Weisman

Professor of Psychology and Biology Emeritus

B.A., Psychology, Michigan State University, 1960
M.A., Psychology, Michigan State University, 1961
Ph.D., Psychology, Michigan State University, 1964
Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of California, D. Premack, 1965-66

telephone: (613) 533-2487
fax: (613) 533-2499
e-mail: rweisman@post.queensu.ca

Address

Department of Psychology,
Queen's University at Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 3N6

Research Interests

Birdsong is one of just six instances (experiments by evolution) in learned vocalization (human speech is another of this tiny list of natural experiments). I am an emeritus professor and no longer maintain an independent laboratory. However, I continue to collaborate with colleagues at Queen’s and elsewhere in all manner of research about the evolution of auditory perception and its neural substrate. Three persistent themes in my work are the evolution of absolute pitch, relative pitch, and categorization of conspecifics communication.

Recent Publications

Weisman, R.G., Williams, M.T., Cohen, J.S., Njegovan, M.J., & Sturdy, C.B. (in press). The comparative psychology of absolute pitch. In E.A. Wasserman & T.R. Zentall (Eds), Comparative Cognition: Experimental Explorations of Aninmal Intelligence. New York: Oxford.

Weisman, R.G., Ratcliffe, L. (2004). Relative pitch and the song of black-capped chickadees. American Scientist, 92, 532-539.

Weisman, R.G., Njegovan, M., Williams, M.T., Cohen, J., & Sturdy, C.B. (2004). A behavior analysis of absolute pitch perception. Behavioural Processes, 66, 289-307.

Phillmore, L. S., Bloomfield, L. L., & Weisman, R. G. (2003). Effects of songs and calls on ZENK expression in the auditory telencephalon of field- and isolate-reared black capped chickadees. Behavioural Brain Research, 147, 125-134.

Bloomfield, L. L., Sturdy, C. B., Phillmore, L. S., & Weisman, R. G. (2003). Open-ended categorization of chick-a-dee calls by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 290-301.

Phillmore, L., Sturdy, C., & Weisman, R.G. (2003). Does reduced social contact affect discrimination of distance cues and individual vocalizations? Animal Behaviour, 65, 911-922.

Phillmore, L. S., Sturdy, C. B., Turyk, M. R. & Weisman, R. G. (2002). Discrimination of individual vocalizations by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapilla). Animal Learning & Behavior, 30, 43-52.

Weisman, R. G. (2001) Obituary: Maurice Ray Denny (1918-2001). American Psychologist, 56, 1172.

Sturdy, C. B., Phillmore, L. S., Sartor, J. J. & Weisman, R. G. (2001). Reduced social contact causes auditory perceptual deficits in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Animal Behaviour, 62, 1207-1218.

Sturdy, C. B., Phillmore, L. S., & Weisman, R. G. (2000). Call-note discriminations in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 357-364.

Sturdy, C.B., Phillmore, L.S., Weisman, R.G. (1999). Note types, harmonic suppression, and note order in the songs of zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113, 194-203.

Sturdy, C.B., Phillmore, L.S., Price, J.L., & Weisman R.G. (1999).Song-note discriminations in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): Categories and Pseudocategories. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113, 204-212.

Weisman, R.G., Brownlie, L., Olthof, A., Sturdy, C.B., Njegovan, M., & Mewhort, D. (1999). Timing and classifying brief acoustic stimuli by songbirds and humans. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 25, 139-152.

Last updated by daunceyj@post.queensu.ca on November 26, 2004.