I have heard that humans are much better at discerning small differences in frequency and recognizing patterns in audio than we are if we look at a graph/chart/

I have heard that humans are much better at discerning small differences in frequency and recognizing patterns in audio than we are if we look at a graph/chart/table visually. Virginia Tech and others have been doing some "data sonification" work in recent years that seems really interesting. Destin of the Youtube channel Smarter Every Day did something similar to your hypothetical cricket experiment with fireflies and LEDs recently where he was able to alter the group's behavior.