Vocal production learning (VPL) is the capacity to learn to produce new vocalizations, which is a rare ability in the animal kingdom and thus far has only been identified in a handful of mammalian taxa and three groups of birds. Over the last few decades, approaches to the demonstration of VPL have varied among taxa, sound production systems and functions. These discrepancies strongly impede direct comparisons between studies. In the light of the growing number of experimental studies reporting VPL, the need for comparability is becoming more and more pressing. The comparative evaluation of VPL across studies would be facilitated by unified and generalized reporting standards, which would allow a better positioning of species on any proposed VPL continuum. In this paper, we specifically highlight five factors influencing the comparability of VPL assessments: (i) comparison to an acoustic baseline, (ii) comprehensive reporting of acoustic parameters, (iii) extended reporting of training conditions and durations, (iv) investigating VPL function via behavioural, perception-based experiments and (v) validation of findings on a neuronal level. These guidelines emphasize the importance of comparability between studies in order to unify the field of vocal learning.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.

发声学习 (VPL) 是学习发声的能力，这在动物界是一种罕见的能力，迄今为止仅在少数哺乳动物类群和三组鸟类中发现。在过去的几十年中，VPL 的示范方法因分类群、健全的生产系统和功能而异。这些差异极大地阻碍了研究之间的直接比较。鉴于越来越多的实验研究报告了 VPL，对可比性的需求变得越来越紧迫。统一和通用的报告标准将促进跨研究的 VPL 比较评估，这将允许在任何提议的 VPL 连续体上更好地定位物种。在本文中，我们特别强调了影响 VPL 评估可比性的五个因素：（i）与声学基线的比较，（ii）声学参数的综合报告，（iii）训练条件和持续时间的扩展报告，（iv）通过行为研究 VPL 功能，基于感知的实验和 (v) 在神经元水平上验证发现。这些指南强调了研究之间可比性的重要性，以统一声乐学习领域。

这篇文章是主题问题“动物和人类的声乐学习”的一部分。