He pioneered digital spectral analysis techniques, first developed in speech science, for use in studies of animal communication.
Owren's early scientific works included contributions on acoustic analysis of vocalizations in non-human primates.
[7][8] His work is perhaps best known for having challenged a widely held view that some animals communicate semantically, especially through alarm signals.
[9] Owren's later work, in collaboration with Drew Rendall (also a previous postdoctoral fellow in the same University of Pennsylvania program) and others, argued and provided empirical support for the contrasting idea that animal vocalizations have their effects by influencing attentional, arousal, emotional, and motivational states in the listener, rather than by imparting representational messages, as occurs in human language.
[10][11][12][13] These arguments have been widely discussed and debated in volumes devoted to the study of animal behavior and communication.