Derek Coss
Past Research
My graduate thesis project focused on multimodal communication in the túngara frog and how acoustic and visual noise alters female perception. I answered several questions concerning perception and natural chorus structure:
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What is the temporal and spectral structure of background noise in comparison to the túngara frog in a natural chorus?
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How does conspecific and heterospecific acoustic noise disrupt female preference?
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Does visual noise affect a female’s ability to discriminate between attractive and unattractive advertisement calls?
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What is the influence of noise on female perception in two different sensory modalities?
For the visual elements of this project, I used robotic túngara frogs, consisting of realistic model (designed by SaviMade), inflatable silicon vocal sacs, and a controller designed by Paul Clements at Salisbury University.
To understand the acoustic structure of a chorus, I employed passive acoustic recorders to capture the soundscapes of natural choruses in order to analyze them. My acoustic noise was designed based on the acoustic measures from these soundscapes to resemble a natural chorus.
With both the visual and acoustic components, I conducted phonotaxis experiments to determine whether female perception changes in the presence of noise. Find out more in my recent publications!