Temporal rules in vocal exchanges of phees and trills in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).

Marmosets exchange two types of calls: phees and trills. We played back phees and trills to investigate the temporal rules of vocal exchanges using ten captive common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). The marmosets usually emitted the same type of vocalizations just after the stimulus playbacks, and similar regularities were observed in the temporal intervals of phees and in trills. They vocalized with shorter intervals when they responded with trills rather than phees, and, after the first call, they repeatedly vocalized trills with shorter intervals than phees. These results suggest that the temporal rules between phees and trills are qualitatively similar but quantitatively different. These results might be owing to the different distances over which these contact calls are used. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.