boo.
Alex, the world's most famous talking parrot, dies
September 12, 2007
He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with
his own brand of one-liners he established himself in TV shows, scientific
reports, and news articles as perhaps the world's most famous talking bird.
But last week Alex, an African gray parrot, died, apparently of natural causes,
said Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis University and
Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most of his life and
published reports of his progress in scientific journals. Alex was 31.
Scientists have long debated whether any other species can develop the ability
to learn human language. Alex's language facility was, in some ways, more
surprising than the feats of primates that have been taught American Sign
Language, like Koko the gorilla or Washoe the chimpanzee.
In 1977, when Pepperberg, then a doctoral student in chemistry at Harvard,
bought Alex from a pet store, scientists had little expectation that any bird
could learn to communicate with humans, as opposed to just mimicking words and
sounds. Research in other birds had not been promising.
But by using novel methods of teaching, Pepperberg prompted Alex to learn scores
of words, which he could put into categories, and to count small numbers of
items, as well as recognize colors and shapes.
“The work revolutionized the way we think of bird brains,” said Diana Reiss, a
psychologist at Hunter College who works with dolphins and elephants. “That used
to be a pejorative, but now we look at those brains – at least Alex's – with
some awe.”
Other scientists, while praising the research, cautioned against characterizing
Alex's abilities as human. The parrot learned to communicate in basic
expressions – but it did not show the sort of logic and ability to generalize
that children acquire at an early age, they said.
“There's no evidence of recursive logic, and without that you can't work with
digital numbers or more complex human grammar,” said David Premack, emeritus
professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Pepperberg used an innovative approach to teach Alex. African grays are social
birds, and pick up some group dynamics very quickly. In experiments, Pepperberg
would employ one trainer to, in effect, compete with Alex for a small reward,
like a grape. Alex learned to ask for the grape by observing what the trainer
was doing to get it; the researchers then worked with the bird to help shape the
pronunciation of the words.
Alex showed surprising facility. For example, when shown a blue paper triangle,
he could tell an experimenter what color the paper was, what shape it was, and –
after touching it – what it was made of. He demonstrated some of his skills on
nature shows, including programs on PBS and the BBC. He famously shared scenes
with actor Alan Alda on the PBS series “Look Who's Talking.”
Like parrots can, he also picked up one-liners from hanging around the lab, like
“calm down” and “good morning.” He could express frustration, or apparent
boredom, and his cognitive and language skills appeared to be about as competent
as those in trained primates. His accomplishments have also inspired further
work with African gray parrots; two others, named Griffin and Arthur, are a part
of Pepperberg's continuing research program.
Even up through last week, Alex was working with Pepperberg on compound words
and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the night last
Thursday, she recalled, Alex looked at her and said: “You be good, see you
tomorrow. I love you.”
He was found dead in his cage the next morning.
