Susan is an expert in the area of birdsong learning and development. She has studied the timing and specificity of song acquisition, hormonal control of song development, and selective attrition in vocal ontogeny. Recently Susan has worked on the problem of how hierarchically organized features of song, such as note phonology and syntax, differ among populations and the influence of learning on these differences. She has continued her interests in selective attrition by investigating why and at what point certain phonological and syntactic features emerge or are rejected during song development. Her study animals include song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and swamp sparrows (M. georgiana). Susan is currently working with Steve Nowicki on the nutritional stress hypothesis, which suggests a mechanism by which song can be a reliable indicator of male quality because of the developmental costs of song learning. Susan and Steve also collaborate on raising their son, Schuyler.
Recent Papers:
Prather, J.F., S. Nowicki, R.C. Anderson, S. Peters & R. Mooney. 2009. Neural correlates of categorical perception in learned vocal communication. Nature Neuroscience, in press
Anderson , R.C., W.A. Searcy, S. Peters & S. Nowicki. 2008. Soft Song in Song Sparrows: Acoustic Structure and Implications for Signal Function. Ethology , 662 - 676.
Prather, J.F., S. Peters, S. Nowicki & R. Mooney. 2008. Precise auditory-vocal mirroring in neurons for learned vocal communication. Nature , 451: 305 - 310.
Podos, J., S. Peters, S. Nowicki. 2004. Calibration of song learning targets during vocal ontogeny in swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana). Animal Behavior , 68: 929 - 940.
Searcy, W.A., S. Peters and S. Nowicki. 2004. Effects of early nutrition on growth rate and adult size in song sparrows. J. Avian Biol ., 35: 269 - 279
Searcy, W.A., S. Nowicki & S. Peters. 2003. Phonology and geographic song discrimination in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia ). Ethology , 109: 23 - 35.
Nowicki, S., W. A. Searcy & S. Peters. 2002. Brain development, song learning and mate choice in birds: a review and experimental test of the "nutritional stress hypothesis". J. Comp. Physiol. , 188: 1003 - 1014.
Nowicki, S., W. A. Searcy & S. Peters. 2002. Quality of song learning affects female response to male bird song. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B , 269: 1949 - 1954.
Searcy, W.A., S. Nowicki, M. Hughes, & S. Peters. 2002. Geographic song discrimination in relation to dispersal distances in song sparrows. Amer. Natur. , 159: 221 - 230.
Nowicki, Stephen, Dennis Hasselquist, Staffan Bensch and Susan Peters. 2000. Nestling growth and song repertoire size in great reed warblers: evidence for song learning as an indicator mechanism in mate choice. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B., 267: 2419 - 2424
Peters, S., W.A. Searcy, M.D. Beecher & S. Nowicki. 2000. Geographic variation in the organization of song sparrow repertoires. Auk, 117: 936 - 942
Peters S. & S. Nowicki. 1996. Development of tonal quality in birdsong: further evidence from song sparrows. Ethology, 102: 323 - 335.
