After studying Biology and Environmental Biology - Behavioural Ecology at the Utrecht University, I started here as a PhD candidate in Cognitive Neurobiology. I am interested in animal behaviour and cognition, and specifically auditory perception and communication. In my research, I study vocal learning in zebra finches, a songbird species often used in previous research as animal model for human speech and language. The aim of my project is to investigate the role of specific acoustic features in birdsong memory and recognition and compare this to speech acquisition in human infants. A secondary aim is to develop methods to improve behavioural analysis of animals.