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. 2024 Oct 21;71(4):456–468. doi: 10.1093/cz/zoae064

Table 2.

Spectro-temporal measurements taken from complete duets, overlapping duet sections, overlapping syllable parts, and non-overlapping syllable parts

Acoustic measurements Code Description
Duration (s) DUR Signal length
Mean frequency (kHz) AVF Weighted average of the frequency spectrum based on the amplitudes within a specific frequency range (0.5–22.05 kHz)
Standard deviation of frequency (kHz) STF Standard deviation of the frequency spectrum, with each frequency component weighted according to its amplitude within a specific frequency range
Median frequency (kHz) MEF Frequency at which the frequency spectrum is split into 2 equal-energy frequency intervals
Frequency Q25% (kHz) F25 Frequency where the frequency spectrum is divided into 2 intervals with 25% and 75% of the energy, respectively
Frequency Q75% (kHz) F75 Frequency where the frequency spectrum is divided into 2 intervals with 75% and 25% of the energy, respectively
Interquartile frequency range (kHz) IFR Frequency interval between Frequency Q25% and Frequency Q75%
Median time (s) MET Time point at which the time envelope is split into 2 equal-energy time intervals
Time Q25% (s) T25 Time where the time envelope divided into 2 intervals with 25% and 75% of the energy, respectively
Time Q75% (s) T75 Time where the time envelope divided into 2 intervals with 75% and 25% of the energy, respectively
Interquartile time range (s) ITR Time interval between Time Q25% and Time Q75%
Skewness SKW Frequency spectrum asymmetry indicates whether the spectrum is skewed to left (S < 0) or right (S > 0)
Kurtosis KUT Peakedness of the frequency spectrum indicate how much the spectrum deviates from a normal shape (K = 3)
Spectral entropy SEM Distribution of energy in the frequency spectrum from pure tone (0) to noisy (1)
Time entropy TEM Distribution of energy in the time envelope from amplitude concentrated in a specific point (0) or spread throughout the recording (1)
Spectrographic entropy SPE Product of spectral entropy and time entropy from pure tone (0) to noisy (1) (no unit)
Spectral flatness SPF Similar to spectral entropy from pure tone (0) to noisy (1) (no unit)
Mean dominant frequency (kHz) AVD Mean of dominant frequency measured across time points in the spectrogram
Minimum dominant frequency (kHz) MID Minimum of dominant frequency measured across time points in the spectrogram
Maximum dominant frequency (kHz) MAD Maximum of dominant frequency measured across time points in the spectrogram
Dominant frequency range (kHz) DFR Range of dominant frequency measured across time points in the spectrogram
Modulation index MOD Cumulative (absolute) variations between consecutive measurements of dominant frequency divided by dominant frequency range
Start dominant frequency (kHz) SDF Frequency at the start of the signal
End dominant frequency (kHz) EDF Frequency at the end of the signal
Dominant frequency slope (kHz/s) DFS Change in dominant frequency expressed as ((End dominant frequency—Start dominant frequency)/Duration)
Mean peak frequency (kHz) MPF Highest-energy frequency within the mean frequency spectrum of a time wave, where the mean frequency spectrum represents the mean relative amplitude of the frequency distribution

Spectro-temporal measurements were extracted from acoustic signals using the spectro_analysis function from warbleR package in R (Araya-Salas and Smith-Vidaurre 2017).