Paralinguistic Information and Biological Codes in Intra- and Interspecific Vocal Communication: A pilot study of Humans and Domestic Cats

This pilot study is an attempt to explore how fundamental frequency (f0) as an acoustic correlate to paralinguistic infor- mation and biological codes are em- ployed in interspecific vocal communi- cation. Measures of f0 in human (Homo sapiens) and domestic cat (Felis catus) intra- and interspecific communication were compared. Results showed higher mean f0 in interspecific than intraspe- cific utterances for both species, while all cat-directed utterances had higher f0 range and standard deviation (sd).