CAE Reading & UOE Part 7

THE last time Irene Pepperberg saw Alex, she said goodnight as usual. ‘You be good,’ said Alex. ‘I love you.’ ‘I love you, too.’ ‘You’ll be in tomorrow?’ ‘Yes, I’ll be in tomorrow.’ But sadly, Alex, whose name is supposedly an acronym of Avian Learning Experiment, died in his cage that night. This brought to an end a life spent learning complex tasks which, it had originally been thought, only primates could master.

• And so it proved. Using a training technique now

  employed on children with learning difficulties, Dr Pepperberg and her collaborators at the University of Arizona began teaching Alex how to describe things, how to make his desires known, and even how to ask questions.

• And the fact that there were a lot of collaborators, even

  strangers, involved in the project was crucial. Researchers in this area live in perpetual fear of the ‘Clever Hans’ effect. This is named after a horse that seemed to be able to count, but was actually reacting to unconscious cues from his trainer. Alex would talk to and perform for anyone, not just Dr Pepperberg.

• Early studies had concluded that linguistic ability in apes was virtually non-existent. But researchers had made the elementary error of trying to teach their anthropoid subjects to speak. Chimpanzee vocal cords are simply not up to this, and it was not until someone had the idea of teaching chimps sign language that any progress was made.

Even then, the researchers remained human-centric. Their assumption was that chimpanzees might be able to understand and use human sign language because they are humanity’s nearest living relatives. It took a brilliant insight to turn this human-centricity on its head and look at the capabilities of a species only distantly related to humanity, but which can, nevertheless, speak the words people speak: the parrot.

• However, not all animals which live in groups can be classified in this way. Flocks of, say, starlings or herds of wildebeest do not count as real societies, just protective groupings. But parrots such as Alex live in societies in the wild, in the way that monkeys and apes do, and thus, Dr Pepperberg reasoned, Alex might have evolved advanced cognitive abilities.

• This novel approach came to Dr Pepperberg, a theoretical chemist, in 1977. To follow it up, she went to a pet shop and bought an African Grey parrot, which was then just a year old. Thus began one of the best-known double acts in the field of animal-behaviour science.

• The dictionary definition of to parrot is to repeat exactly what someone says without understanding it. It is used about politicians who simply repeat the party line, or schoolchildren who learn facts by heart. Dr Pepperberg’s experiments with Alex have helped to demonstrate the validity of this usage.

Dr Pepperberg and Alex last shared a common ancestor

more than 300 million years ago. But Alex, unlike a

chimpanzee, learned to speak words easily. The question

was, was Alex merely ‘parroting’ Dr Pepperberg? Or would

that pejorative term have to be redefined? Do parrots

actually understand what they are saying?

• Early studies had concluded that linguistic ability in apes

  was virtually non-existent. But researchers had made the elementary error of trying to teach their anthropoid subjects to speak. Chimpanzee vocal cords are simply not up to this, and it was not until someone had the idea of teaching chimps sign language that any progress was made.

• Dr Pepperberg’s reason for suspecting that they might – and thus her second reason for picking a parrot – was that in the mid-1970s evolutionary explanations for behaviour were coming back into vogue. A British researcher called Nicholas Humphrey had proposed that intelligence evolves in response to the social environment rather than the natural one. The more complex the society an animal lives in, the more intelligence it needs to prosper.

• This novel approach came to Dr Pepperberg, a theoretical

  chemist, in 1977. To follow it up, she went to a pet shop and bought an African Grey parrot, which was then just a year old. Thus began one of the best-known double acts in the field of animal-behaviour science.

The reason why primates have evolved intelligence, according to Dr Humphrey, is that they generally live in groups. And, just as group living promotes intelligence, so intelligence allows larger groups to function, providing a spur for the evolution of yet more intelligence. If Dr Humphrey is right, only social animals can be intelligent – and so far this has been borne out.

• However, not all animals which live in groups can be classified in this way. Flocks of, say, starlings or herds of wildebeest do not count as real societies, just protective groupings. But parrots such as Alex live in societies in the wild, in the way that monkeys and apes do, and thus, Dr Pepperberg reasoned, Alex might have evolved advanced cognitive abilities.

• The dictionary definition of to parrot is to repeat exactly what someone says without understanding it. It is used about politicians who simply repeat the party line, or schoolchildren who learn facts by heart. Dr Pepperberg’s experiments with Alex have helped to demonstrate the validity of this usage.

• And so it proved. Using a training technique now employed on children with learning difficulties, Dr Pepperberg and her collaborators at the University of Arizona began teaching Alex how to describe things, how to make his desires known, and even how to ask questions.

An additional relevant factor is that, like primates, parrots live long enough to make the time-consuming process of learning worthwhile. Alex lived to the age of 31. Combined with his ability to speak, or at least ‘vocalise’ words, Alex looked a promising experimental subject.

• This novel approach came to Dr Pepperberg, a theoretical chemist, in 1977. To follow it up, she went to a pet shop and bought an African Grey parrot, which was then just a year old. Thus began one of the best-known double acts in the field of animal-behaviour science.

• Early studies had concluded that linguistic ability in apes was virtually non-existent. But researchers had made the elementary error of trying to teach their anthropoid subjects to speak. Chimpanzee vocal cords are simply not up to this, and it was not until someone had the idea of teaching chimps sign language that any progress was made.

• And so it proved. Using a training technique now employed on children with learning difficulties, Dr Pepperberg and her collaborators at the University of Arizona began teaching Alex how to describe things, how to make his desires known, and even how to ask questions.

By the end of this process, Alex had the intelligence of a five-year-old child and had not reached his full potential. He had a vocabulary of 150 words. He knew the names of 50 objects and could describe their colours and shapes. He could answer questions about objects’ properties, even when he had not seen that particular combination of properties before. He could ask for things, and would reject a proffered item and ask again if it was not what he wanted. He understood the concepts of ‘bigger’, ‘smaller’, ‘same’ and ‘different’. And he could count up to six, including the number zero. He even knew when and how to apologise if he annoyed Dr Pepperberg or her colleagues.

• And the fact that there were a lot of collaborators, even strangers, involved in the project was crucial. Researchers in this area live in perpetual fear of the ‘Clever Hans’ effect. This is named after a horse that seemed to be able to count, but was actually reacting to unconscious cues from his trainer. Alex would talk to and perform for anyone, not just Dr Pepperberg.

• This novel approach came to Dr Pepperberg, a theoretical chemist, in 1977. To follow it up, she went to a pet shop and bought an African Grey parrot, which was then just a year old. Thus began one of the best-known double acts

  n the field of animal-behaviour science.

• However, not all animals which live in groups can be classified in this way. Flocks of, say, starlings or herds of wildebeest do not count as real societies, just protective groupings. But parrots such as Alex live in societies in the wild, in the way that monkeys and apes do, and thus, Dr Pepperberg reasoned, Alex might have evolved advanced cognitive abilities.