Carel ten Cate
Professor emeritus of Animal Behaviour
- Name
- Prof.dr. C.J. ten Cate
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 5040
- c.j.ten.cate@biology.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-4021-8915
I am professor emeritus of Animal Behaviour. I study a broad range of topics in Animal Behaviour and Animal Cognition, but have a prime interest in the development and processing of vocalizations in birds. In comparative research I examine similarities and differences between avian vocalizations and human speech, language and musicality.
More information about Carel ten Cate
PhD Candidates
News
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Carel ten Cate awarded honorary membership Dutch Society for Behavioural Biology -
Biologist Carel ten Cate will now really retire. Right? -
Even a duck can parrot -
How animals flirt with each other -
Carel ten Cate in international media about a dancing cockatoo -
Female budgerigars like smart males -
Former IBL PhD-student Michelle Spierings wins prize for best dissertation -
NPO1 interviews Carel ten Cate about intelligent birds -
The cognitive abilities of birds -
Sound impact on fish populations -
Aquatic animals harmed by our noise -
Male birds may sing, but females are faster at discriminating sounds -
Universal note preferences affect avian song learning -
In search of the frontier between sound and language
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Zebra finches discriminate wit from wet
Former PhD candidates
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Judith Varkevisser -
Meike Zemihn
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Fabian Heim
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Merel Burgering
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Jeroen Hubert -
Quanxiao Liu
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Michelle Spierings -
Yik Yaw Neo
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Hüseyin Ӧzkan Sertlek
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Saeed Shafiei Sabet
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Jiani Chen
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Sita Minke ter Haar
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Cornelia Adroama Anna van Heijningen
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Wouter Halfwerk
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Verena Regina Ohms
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Paula Maria den Hartog
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Machteld Nicolette Verzijden
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Marie-Jeanne Holveck
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N.J. Terpstra
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Hans Slabbekoorn -
Adee Schoon
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Dave Vos
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Mechteld Ballintijn
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Bart Hous
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Selvino de Kort
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Erwin Ripmeester
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Gabriël Beckers
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Joost Beltman -
Albertine Leitao
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Raquel Alhama
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Annebelle Kok
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Andreea Geambasu
Brief biography
I obtained my PhD at the University of Groningen (NL) with a study on the development of sexual preferences in birds. Behavioural development (imprinting, song learning) and vocal communication in birds were the topics of two subsequent postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Cambridge (UK), a brief appointment at Utrecht University (NL) and of my Senior Research Fellowship of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, again at Groningen University. Thereafter I moved to Leiden to take up the chair in Animal Behaviour (Ethology).
I serve/served on the editorial board of several journals and am/was council member of various national and international scientific organizations. At Leiden University I served as Scientific Director of the Institute of Biology and as Director of Education in Biology. I am also affiliated with the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC).
Research
My core research is on animal communication and cognition. I am particularly interested in the cognitive mechanisms involved in the learning and processing of vocal and visual signals in species ranging from birds and fish to humans. This includes comparative research on auditory perception and auditory pattern learning in animals (in particular birds) and humans.
Many projects involve collaboration with linguists, psychologists and others and are at the interface of biology, cognitive science, psychology and linguistics. They aim at providing insights in the biological origins and mechanisms of human linguistic rule learning, language development, speech perception, musicality and the neural bases of these processes. Most studies are supported by external funding from various sources.
I was editor of the book ‘Avian Cognition’ together with my colleague Susan Healy (University of StAndrews, UK). In this book, a range of experts from all over the world provide first-hand insights into the full range of avian cognitive abilities, the mechanisms behind them and how they are linked to the ecology of the species. Click here for more information.
Current research themes
The perception of conspecific vocalizations and human speech by birds
Human speech perception requires the rapid processing and categorization of speech sounds and their identification irrespective of speaker variability. It has been suggested that the processing of speech sounds in humans is enabled by the presence of specialized speech perception mechanisms (the ‘speech is special’ hypothesis) that evolved in consort with the evolution of language. We examine whether birds are able to discriminate, categorize and generalize vocalizations ranging from conspecific ones (songs) to various speech or speech-like sounds and how this relates to mechanisms involved in human auditory and speech perception. This involves both behavioural and neurogenomic studies. These are done, among others, in collaborative projects within the NWO-Gravity consortium ‘Language in Interaction’.
Current PhD students
Animal grammatical abilities
The complexity of human language structure has given rise to fundamental questions regarding the nature and evolutionary origin of this complexity: To what extent does language structure deviate from the vocal communication signals of non-human animals? Are the computational and learning mechanisms that guide learning about language structure special and specific to language or humans? These questions have in common that addressing them requires adequate knowledge of the relevant abilities of non-human animals, of which our understanding is still limited. Studies on these abilities use various approaches. One is to focus on the structure of species specific vocalizations and to compare the syntax of animal vocalizations with that of language. Another one is to focus on the perceptual and processing abilities more generally, by experiments using ‘artificial grammar learning’ (AGL) that assess what types of patterns or grammar rules animals can detect in artificially prepared string sets. We are using both approaches in a range of studies on birds and primates. Many of these are in collaboration with linguists and others. External funding for these projects is provided by NWO (GW) and other organizations.
Current PhD students
What are the musical abilities of birds?
Rhythm perception, the perceptual grouping of different notes as belonging together, and melody recognition are universal features of human musicality and form the basis for our appreciation and production of music. But are these traits unique to humans, and where do they come from? By comparative studies on various aspects of musicality we address what type of patterns birds can detect in musical stimuli and how this relates to human perception of such stimuli. This work is done in collaboration with Prof Dr Henkjan Honing (University of Amsterdam) .
Awards/distinctions:
- 2022: Honorary member - Dutch Society for Behavioural Biology
- 2017: NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group Fellowship
- 2007: Visiting Professor, Psychology, Newcastle University, UK
- 2007: Fellow, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and Humanities (NIAS)
- 1999: Elected Honorary Fellow, American Ornithologists’ Union
- 1988: Niko Tinbergen Preiss, German Ethological Society
Outreach & In the news
I have written several popular articles about my own work and related subjects. Every year I give talks for larger non-scientific audiences on various topics, at science festivals, HOVO-courses, Studium Generale and other events. I regularly contribute to radio- and television programs and get interviewed for newspapers, journals and popular magazines about our own work or other animal behaviour studies.
Links:
- https://www.volkskrant.nl/dossier-archief/taalles-met-baby-en-vink~a3244118/
- https://www.mareonline.nl/2002/09/0701.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XPiDLTyTjc
- https://www.nature.com/news/2009/090324/full/news.2009.186.html
- https://www.nemokennislink.nl/publicaties/tinbergen-heeft-het-goed-ingeschat-1/
- https://demeeuwenvantinbergen.nl/blog/
- https://sggroningen.nl/evenement/aaaahschattig
- https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/het-woord-is-aan-de-vogel~b63fe377/
- https://www.mareonline.nl/archive/2016/06/09/vogels-voelen-de-beat
Professor emeritus of Animal Behaviour
- Science
- Instituut Biologie Leiden
- IBL Animal Sciences
- Alvarez van Tussenbroek I., Knörnschild M., Nagy M., Cate C.J. ten & Vernes S.C. (2024), Morphological diversity in the brains of 12 neotropical bat species, Acta Chiropterologica 25(2): 323-338.
- Heim F.D., Scharff C., Fisher S.E., Riebel K. & Cate C.J. ten (2024), Auditory discrimination learning and acoustic cue weighing in female zebra finches with localized FoxP1 knockdowns, Journal of Neurophysiology 131(5): 950-963.
- Ning Z., Honing H., Mil H.G.J. van & Cate C.J. ten (2024), The role of spectral features and song duration in zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, song recognition, Animal Behaviour 212: 73-91.
- Ning Z., Cate C.J. ten & Honing H. (2023), Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) demonstrate cognitive flexibility in using phonology and sequence of syllables in auditory discrimination, Animal Cognition 26: 1161-1175.
- ten Cate C. (2023), Plant sentience: a hypothesis based on shaky premises, Animal Sentience 33(13): 2023.467 (467).
- Heim F., Fisher S.E., Scharff C., Cate C. ten & Riebel K. (2023), Effects of cortical FoxP1 knockdowns on learned song preference in female zebra finches, eNeuro 10(3): 0328-22.2023.
- Kriengwatana B.P., Mott R. & Cate C.J. ten (2022), Music for animal welfare: a critical review & conceptual framework, Applied Animal Behaviour Science 251: 105641.
- Cate C.J. ten (2022), Muziek voor (proef)dieren: een goed idee?, Biotechniek 61(5): 32-36.
- Bouwer F.L., Nityananda V., Rousse A.A. & ten Cate C. (2021), Rhythmic abilities in humans and non-human animals: a review and recommendations from a methodological perspective, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376(1835): 20200335.
- ten Cate C. (2021), Re-evaluating vocal production learning in non-oscine birds, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376(1836): 20200249.
- ten Cate C. & Fullagar P.J. (2021), Vocal imitations and production learning by Australian musk ducks (Biziura lobata), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376(1836): 20200243.
- Vernes S.C., Kriengwatana B.P., Beeck V.C., Fischer J., Tyack P.L., ten Cate C. & Janik V.M. (2021), The multi-dimensional nature of vocal learning, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376(1836): 20200236.
- Petkov C.I. & ten Cate C. (2020), Structured sequence learning: animal abilities, cognitive operations, and language evolution, Topics in Cognitive Science 12(3): 828-842.
- ten Cate C., Gervain J., Levelt C.C., Petkov C.I. & Zuidema W. (2020), Editors' review and introduction: Learning grammatical structures: developmental, cross‐species, and computational approaches, Topics in Cognitive Science 12(3): 804-814.
- ten Cate C., Gervain J., Levelt C.C., Petkov C. & Zuidema W. (2020), Issue Information, Topics in Cognitive Science 12: 785-787.
- Sertlek H.Ő., Slabbekoorn H., Ten Cate C. & Ainsli M.A. (2019), Source specific sound mapping: spatial, temporal and spectral distribution of sound in the Dutch North Sea, Environmental Pollution 247: 1143-1157.
- Chen J., Zou Y., Sun Y.H. & Ten Cate C. (2019), Problem-solving males become more attractive to female budgerigars, Science 363(6423): 166-167.
- ten Cate C. & Petkov C.I. (2019), The grammatical abilities of animals: a comparative overview. In: Hagoort P. (Ed.), Human Language: From Genes and Brains to Behavior: The MIT Press. 687-700.
- ten Cate C. & Scharff C. (2019), Key issues and future directions: the comparative approach to language. In: Hagoort P. (Ed.), Human Language, From Genes and Brains to Behavior: MIT Press. 713-718.
- Burgering M.A., Vroomen J. & Ten Cate C. (2019), Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) can categorize vowel-like sounds on both the fundamental frequency ("pitch") and spectral envelope, Journal of Comparative Psychology 133(1): 106-117.
- Mueller J.L., Ten Cate C. & Toro J.M. (2018), A Comparative Perspective on the Role of Acoustic Cues in Detecting Language Structure, Topics in Cognitive Science 12(3): 859-874.
- Burgering M.A., Ten Cate C. & Vroomen J. (2018), Mechanisms underlying speech sound discrimination and categorization in humans and zebra finches, Animal Cognition 21(2): 285-299.
- Ten Cate C. (2018), The comparative study of grammar learning mechanisms: birds as models, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 21: 13-18.
- Ten Cate C. & Spierings M.J. (2018), Rules, rhythm and grouping: auditory pattern perception by birds, Animal Behaviour 151: 249-257.
- Ten Cate C.J. & Healy S.D. (2017), Avian Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Chen J. & Ten Cate C. (2017), Bridging the gap: learning of acoustic nonadjacent dependencies by a songbird, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 43: 295-302.
- Spierings M.J., Hubert J. & Ten Cate C. (2017), Selective auditory grouping by zebra finches: testing the iambic-trochaic law, Animal Cognition 20(4): 665-675.
- Versace E., Spierings M.J., Caffini M., Ten Cate C. & Vallortigara G. (2017), Spontaneous generalization of abstract multimodal patterns in young domestic chicks, Animal Cognition 20(3): 521-529.
- Ten Cate C. (2017), Assessing the uniqueness of language: Animal grammatical abilities take center stage, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 24(1): 91-96.
- Ten Cate C. & Healy S.D. (2017), Introduction: Avian cognition – why and what?. In: Cate C. ten & Healy S.D. (Eds.), Avian Cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1-5.
- Ten Cate C. (2017), The linguistic abilities of birds. In: ten Cate C. & Healy S.D. (Eds.), Avian Cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 249-269.
- Neo Y.Y., Hubert J., Bolle L., Winter H.V., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2016), Sound exposure changes European seabass behaviour in a large outdoor floating pen: Effects of temporal structure and a ramp-up procedure, Environmental Pollution 214: 26-34.
- Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2016), Zebra Finches As a Model Species to Understand the Roots of Rhythm, Frontiers in Neuroscience 2016(10): 345.
- Chen J., Jansen N. & Ten Cate C. (2016), Zebra finches are able to learn affixation-like patterns, Animal Cognition 19(1): 65-73.
- Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2016), Budgerigars and zebra finches differ in how they generalize in an artificial grammar learning experiment, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(27): E3977-E3984.
- Ten Cate C., Spierings M., Hubert J. & Honing H. (2016), Can Birds Perceive Rhythmic Patterns? A Review and Experiments on a Songbird and a Parrot Species, Frontiers in Psychology 2016(7): 730.
- Lachlan R.F., Heijningen C.A.A. van, Haar S.M. ter & Ten Cate C. (2016), Zebra Finch Song Phonology and Syntactical Structure across Populations and Continents-A Computational Comparison, Frontiers in Psychology 2016(7): 980.
- Kriengwatana B., Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2016), Auditory discrimination learning in zebra finches: effects of sex, early life conditions and stimulus characteristics, Animal Behaviour 116: 99-112.
- Kriengwatana B., Escudero P., Kerkhoven A.H. & Ten Cate C. (2015), A general auditory bias for handling speaker variability in speech? Evidence in humans and songbirds, Frontiers in Psychology 6: 1243.
- Spierings M.J., Weger A. de & Cate C.J. ten (2015), Pauses enhance chunk recognition in song element strings by zebra finches, Animal Cognition 18(4): 867-874.
- Aa J.H.M. van der, Honing H. & Ten Cate C. (2015), The perception of regularity in an isochronous stimulus in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and humans, Behavioural Processes 115: 37-45.
- Hoeschele M., Merchant H., Kikuchi Y., Hattori Y. & Ten Cate C. (2015), Searching for the origins of musicality across species, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370(1664): 39-47.
- Chen J., Rossum D. van & Ten Cate C. (2015), Artificial grammar learning in zebra finches and human adults: XYX versus XXY, Animal Cognition 18(1): 151-164.
- Kriengwatana B., Escudero P. & Ten Cate C. (2015), Revisiting vocal perception in non-human animals: a review of vowel discrimination, speaker voice recognition, and speaker normalization, Frontiers in Psychology 5: 1543.
- Chen J. & Ten Cate C. (2015), Zebra finches can use positional and transitional cues to distinguish vocal element strings, Behavioural Processes 117: 29-34.
- Honing H., Ten Cate C., Peretz I. & Trehub S.E. (2015), Without it no music: cognition, biology and evolution of musicality Introduction, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370(1664): 5-12.
- Neo Y.Y., Ufkes E., Kastelein R.A., Winter H.V., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2015), Impulsive sounds change European seabass swimming patterns: influence of pulse repetition interval, Marine Pollution Bulletin 97(1-2): 111-117.
- Sertlek H.O., Aarts G., Brasseur S., Slabbekoorn H.W., Ten Cate C., Benda-Beckman A.E. & Ainsli M. (2015), Mapping Underwater Sound in the Dutch Part of the North Sea. In: Popper A.N. & Hawkins A. (Eds.), The Effects of NOISE ON Aquatic Life II. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology no. 875. New York: Springer. 1001-1006.
- Neo Y.Y., Seitz J., Kastelein R.A., Winter H.V., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2015), Noise Impact on European Sea Bass Behavior: Temporal Structure Matters. In: Popper A.N. & Hawkins A. (Eds.), The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life II. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology no. 875. New York: Springer. 763-766.
- Haar S.M. ter, Kaemper W., Stam K., Levelt C.C. & Ten Cate C. (2014), The interplay of within-species perceptual predispositions and experience during song ontogeny in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281(1796): 20141860.
- Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2014), Zebra finches are sensitive to prosodic features of human speech, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281(1787): 20140480.
- Chen J., Jansen N. & Ten Cate C. (2014), The Evolution of Language: Zebra finches can learn to recognize affixations. In: Cartmill E.A., Roberts S., Lyn H. & Cornish H. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Zebra finches can learn to recognize affixations.: World Scientific. 411-412.
- Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2014), Prosodic cue weighting by zebra finches. In: Cartmill E.A., Roberts S., Lyn H. & Cornish H. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: World Scientific: World Scientific. 519-520.
- Spierings M.J. & Ten Cate C. (2014), Prosodic cue weighting by zebra finches. Cartmill E.A., Roberts S., Lyn H. & Cornish H. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th International Conference Evolution of Language. The Evolution of Languate EVOLANG 10 14 April 2014 - 17 April 2014: World Scientific. 519-520.
- Geambusu A., Levelt C.C., Spierings M. & Ten Cate C. (2014), Artificial grammar learning in infants, adults and songbirds: what is shared, what is learned?. In: Cartmill E.A., Roberts S., Lyn H. & Cornish H. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: Artificial grammar learning in infants, adults and songbirds: what is shared, what is learned?: World Scientific. 443-444.
- Ten Cate C., Lachlan R.F. & Zuidema W. (2014), Zebra finches can learn to recognize affixations. Cartmill E.A., Roberts S., Lyn H. & Cornish H. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language. 10th International Conference on the Evolution of Language 14 April 2014 - 17 April 2014: World Scientific. 411-412.
- Ten Cate C. (2014), Towards fruitful interaction between behavioral ecology and cognitive science: a comment on Rowe and Healy, Behavioral Ecology 25(6): 1295-1296.
- Ten Cate C. (2014), On the phonetic and syntactic processing abilities of birds: From songs to speech and artificial grammars, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 28: 157-164.
- Neo Y.Y., Seitz J., Kastelein R.A., Winter H.V., Cate C. ten & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2014), Temporal structure of sound affects behavioural recovery from noise impact in European seabass, Biological Conservation 178: 65-73.
- Ten Cate C. (2013), Acoustic communication in plants: Do the woods really sing? Behavioral Ecology 24:799-800 (invited comment). [other].
- Heijningen C.A.A. van, Chen J., Laatum I. van, Hulst B. van der & Ten Cate C. (2013), Rule learning by zebra finches in an artificial grammar learning task: which rule?, Animal Cognition 16(2): 165-175.
- Verzijden M.N., Ten Cate C., Servedio M.R., Kozak G.M., Boughman J.W. & Svensson E.I. (2013), The impact of learned mating traits on speciation is not yet clear: response to Kawecki, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28(2): 69-70.
- Ten Cate C. (2013), Acoustic communication in plants: do the woods really sing?, Behavioral Ecology 24(4): 799-800.
- Lachlan R.F., Verzijden M.N., Bernard C.S., Jonker P., Koese B., Jaarsma S., Spoor W., Slater P.J.B. & Ten Cate C. (2013), The Progressive Loss of Syntactical Structure in Bird Song along an Island Colonization Chain, Current Biology 23(19): 1896-1901.
- Ten Cate C., Lachlan R.F. & Zuidema W. (2013), Analyzing the structure of bird vocalizations and language: finding common ground. In: Bolhuis J.J. & Everaert M. (Eds.), Birdsong, speech and Language; converging mechanisms.: MIT press. 243-260.
- Ohms V.R., Beckers G.J.L., Cate C. ten & Suthers R.A. (2012), Vocal tract articulation revisited: the case of the monk parakeet, The Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 85-92.
- Halfwerk W., Bot S., Buikx J., Velde M. van der, Komdeur J., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2012), Reply to Eens et al.: Urban noise can alter sexual selection on bird song, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(5): E209.
- Verzijden M.N., Cate C. ten, Servedio M.R., Kozak G.M., Boughman J.W. & Svensson E.I. (2012), The impact of learning on sexual selection and speciation, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 27(9): 511-519.
- Ten Cate C. & Okanoya K. (2012), Revisiting the syntactic abilities of non-human animals: natural vocalizations and artificial grammar learning, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367(1598): 1984-1994.
- Ohms V.R., Escudero P., Lammers K. & Cate C. ten (2012), Zebra finches and Dutch adults exhibit the same cue weighting bias in vowel perception, Animal Cognition 15(2): 155-161.
- Ten Cate C. (Ed.) (2012), . Frontiers in Psychology.
- Ten Cate C. (Ed.) (2012), . Ethology: international journal of behavioural biology: Wiley.
- Ten Cate C. (Ed.) (2012), . Behavioural Processes.
- Halfwerk W., Bot S., Buikx J., Velde M. van der, Komdeur J., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2011), Low-frequency songs lose their potency in noisy urban conditions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(35): 14549-14554.
- Geberzahn N., Goymann W. & Ten Cate C. (2010), Threat signaling in female song – evidence from playbacks in a sex-role reversed bird species, Behavioral Ecology 21(6): 1147-1155.
- Landsbergen F., Lachlan R.F., Cate C.J. ten & Verhagen A. (2010), A cultural evolutionary model of patterns in semantic change, Linguistics: an Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences 48: 363-390.
- Hartog P.M. den, Boer-Visser A.M. den & Ten Cate C. (2010), Unidirectional hybridization and introgression in an avian hybrid zone: evidence from genetic markers, morphology, and comparisons with laboratory-raised F-1 hybrids, The Auk 127(3): 605-616.
- Lachlan R.F., Peters S., Verhagen L. & Ten Cate C. (2010), Are there species-universal categories in bird song phonology and syntax? A comparative study of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) and swamp sparrows (Melospiza Georgiana), Journal of Comparative Psychology 124(1): 92-108.
- Ohms V.R., Snelderwaard P.C., Ten Cate C. & Beckers G.J.L. (2010), Vocal tract articulation in zebra finches, PLoS ONE 5(7): e11923.
- Verzijden M.N., Heusden J. van, Bouton N., Witte F., Ten Cate C. & Slabbekoorn H.W. (2010), Sounds of male Lake Victoria cichlids vary within and between species and affect mate preferences, Behavioral Ecology 21(3): 548-555.
- Slabbekoorn H.W., Bouton N., Opzeeland I. van, Coers A., Ten Cate C. & Popper A.N. (2010), A noisy spring: the impact of globally rising underwater sound levels on fish, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25: 419-427.
- Ten Cate C., Heijningen C.A.A. van & Zuidema W. (2010), Reply to Gentner et al.:As simple as possible, but not simpler, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(16): E66-E67.
- Ohms V.R., Gill A., Heijningen C.A.A. van, Beckers G.J.L. & Ten Cate C. (2010), Zebra finches exhibit speaker-independent phonetic perception of human speech, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277(1684): 1003-1009.
- Heijningen C.A.A. van, Visser J. de, Zuidema W. & Ten Cate C. (2010), Simple rules can explain discrimination of putative recursive syntactic structures by songbirds: a case study on zebra finches. In: Smith A.D.M., Schouwstra M., Boer B. de & Smith K. (Eds.), The Evolution of Language. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference (EVOLANG8). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. 507-508.
- Ohms V.R., Heijningen C.A.A. van, Gill A., Beckers G.J.L. & Ten Cate C. (2010), Speaker-independent perception of human speech by zebra finches. In: Smith A.D.M., Schouwstra M., Boer B. de & Smith K. (Eds.), The evolution of Language. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. 467-468.
- Ten Cate C. (2009), Niko Tinbergen and the red patch on the herring gull's beak, Animal Behaviour 77(4): 785-794.
- Geberzahn N., Goymann W., Muck C. & Cate C. ten (2009), Females alter their song when challenged in a sex-role reversed bird species, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64(2): 193-204.
- Cate C. ten, Bruins W.S., Ouden J. den, Egberts T., Neevel H., Spierings M., Burg K. van der & Brokerhof A. (2009), Tinbergen revisited: a replication and extension of experiments on the beak colour preferences of herring gull chicks, Animal Behaviour 77(4): 795-802.
- Verzijden M.N., Zwinkels J. & Ten Cate C. (2009), Cross-fostering does not influence the mate preferences and territorial behaviour of males in Lake Victoria Cichlids, Ethology: international journal of behavioural biology 115(1): 39-48.
- Heijningen C.A.A. van, Visser J. de, Zuidema W. & Cate C. ten (2009), Simple rules can explain discrimination of putative recursive syntactic structures by a songbird species, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(48): 20538-20543.
- Hartog P.M. den, Slabbekoorn H.W. & Ten Cate C. (2008), Male territorial vocalizations and responses are decoupled in an avian hybrid zone, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363(1505): 2879-2889.
- Holveck M.C.J.B., Castro A.C., Lachlan R.F., Ten Cate C. & Riebel K. (2008), Accuracy of song syntax learning and singing consistency signal early condition in zebra finches, Behavioral Ecology 19(6): 1267-1281.
- Ten Cate C. (2008), Survival van de lekkerste; Alles draait om seks, Natuurwetenschap & Techniek 76: 70-72.
- Verzijden M.N., Korthof R.E. & Cate C. ten (2008), Females learn from mothers and males learn from others: The effect of mother and siblings on the development of female mate preferences and male aggression biases in Lake Victoria cichlids, genus Mbipia, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 62(8): 1359-1368.
- Ten Cate C. & Rowe C. (2007), Biases in signal evolution: learning makes a difference, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 22(7): 380-387.
- Bininda-Emonds O.R.P., Jeffery J., Sánchez-Villagra M.R., Hanken J., Colbert M., Pieau C., Selwood L., Cate C.ten, Raynaud A., Osabutey C.K. & Richardson M.K. (2007), Forelimb-hindlimb developmental timing changes across tetrapod phylogeny, BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 182.
- Hartog P.M. den, Kort S.R. de & Ten Cate C. (2007), Hybrid vocalizations are effective within, but not outside, an avian hybrid zone, Behavioral Ecology 18(3): 608-614.
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