Michelle Spierings
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. M.J. Spierings
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 5040
- m.j.spierings@biology.leidenuniv.nl
Michelle Spierings investigates animal cognition and the evolution of language by comparing pattern recognition abilities across species.
More information about Michelle Spierings
PhD Candidates
News
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‘Young Academy Leiden wants to stand up for young researchers, especially in difficult times’ -
Five tips for The Night of Discoveries -
Singing parrots wanted: is our musicality unique? -
Music sensitivity parrots put to the test -
Veni-grant for Michelle Spierings: ‘Do birds hear tick-tock too, or tock-tick?’ -
Veni grant for ten Leiden researchers -
Michelle Spierings aims for Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs with musicality animals -
Former IBL PhD-student Michelle Spierings wins prize for best dissertation -
Our Talents and Discoveries 2016 -
Male birds may sing, but females are faster at discriminating sounds -
IBL-PhD-student Michelle Spierings talking science
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Update national FameLab competition
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Leiden heat of FameLab Competition
Support
I started studying biology in the Bachelor programme of Leiden University and continued with a Master in Neuroscience & Cognition at Utrecht University. During my masters, I studied theory of mind in rooks with of Nicola Clayton at Cambridge University.
My Ph.D. project at Leiden University was a collaborative project with linguists, computational linguists and me and my supervisor, prof. Carel ten Cate, as behavioural biologists. Together we studied which aspects of language perception are shared between humans and other animals. My part of the project focussed on the cognitive perceptual abilities of songbirds (zebra finches) and parrots (budgerigars) and their ability to learn abstract acoustic patterns.
From 2016 until 2020 I’ve worked as a postdoc in Prof. Tecumseh Fitch’s lab studying language perception in pigeons, marmosets and humans. Here I focussed on the cognitive requirements for pattern perception and recognition.
Currently, I’m able to continue this line of research back at Leiden University. Here, I’m focusing on complex patterns both in the acoustic production as well as perception of zebra finches, budgerigars and humans. With this project, I intent to connect the cognitive capabilities underlining the limitations in both production and perception and understand more about how vocal learning and language might have evolved.
Besides my research in Leiden, I’m also PI on the Dynamates project funded by the FWF. This is a collaborative project with computational modelling, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive biology. Together we’re aiming to understand which processes are involved in dynamic decision making with temporal and spatial changes in the acoustic environment. My specific topic is investigating how common marmosets dynamically predict the location and timing of a moving sound source.
Assistant professor
- Science
- Instituut Biologie Leiden
- IBL Animal Sciences
- Ten Cate C. & Spierings M.J. (2018), Rules, rhythm and grouping: auditory pattern perception by birds, Animal Behaviour 151: 249-257.
- 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.
- Spierings M.J. (17 November 2016), The music of language : exploring grammar, prosody and rhythm perception in zebra finches and budgerigars (Dissertatie. Institute of Biology, Science, Leiden University). Supervisor(s): Cate C.J. ten.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Riebel K., Spierings M.J., Holveck M.-J. & Verhulst S. (2012), Phenotypic plasticity of avian social-learning strategies, Animal Behaviour 84: 1533-1539.
- 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.