Alex (parrot)

Alex ( * about 1976; † 6 September 2007) was an African Grey Parrot, whose word use has been studied intensively over a period of 30 years from the animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and most recently at Brandeis University. The name is an acronym for Avian Learning EXperiment (English for " bird learning experiment ").

• 3.1 Experimental set-up
• 3.2 Results

• 4.1 State of research

The aim of the work

The basic question in this study was whether an animal like a parrot is actually able to consciously communicate or whether it is only conditioned to external stimuli and responds with a behavior that promises the greatest reward.

The tests performed should clarify whether with appropriate training a parrot can learn on the one hand, classify objects into categories, and on the other hand can understand the principle of equal and unequal objects. About these results one could conclude on their own linguistic behavior or at least the annex thereto.

Classification of Categories

The following should be tested to see if Alex has the ability to form individual categories, or whether he classifies both in the same category on the basis of a given stimulus, the distinction between two similar items.

Experimental setup

It was called the Model / Rival technique (German: model / rival ) applied. There are an instructor, the second instructor - his rival - to prompt you to do something. This rival is rewarded or scolded depending on his reaction. The parrot and the observed, the system detects, according to which there are rewards.

In the specific case with Alex, this meant that Alex should distinguish objects based on categories, namely the shape, color and texture. Was in contrast to the scheduling according to the above-described stimulus generalization, according to which all objects that have a particular feature, automatically fall into the same category.

Results

Since Alex was able, one and the same object, depending on the question asked (eg in terms of the color on the one hand and the shape of the other) to divide into different categories and this through a phonetic feedback - through "Vocal Labels " - to express, it seemed to him generally possible to distinguish between categories.

The mistakes made by Alex, were as follows:

An extension of the experiment

Pepperberg wanted to find out whether it was Alex able to transfer his knowledge learned from an experiment in a new one. In tests in which Alex must distinguish five different colors, five different forms of three different materials, it was 80 % correct.

In tests was asking about known shapes and colors, two new as two known objects, his answers to the question of color to 84.7 % and with the question of the form 83.7 % were correct.

Since the reward in the tests was that he was allowed to take the respective object around which turned the question into the bill to then drop him - what he apparently prepared favor - one might speculate that newly imported objects Alex's interest aroused more than known.

Results

Alex was able to understand a lot of verbally expressed questions and also identify the relevant category of the question and the object, which could be classified with several possibilities. He was also able to correctly classify this instance in the right category.

However, his skills were still very rudimentary, when compared with non-human primates and marine mammals.

Alex was not able to describe the difference between two objects independently and he could not figure out divided a specific symbol from a set also. Next Alex was able to answer the question " What color is the object?" Answer, but he did not understand the concept of independent discriminating and the subsequent description.

Understanding of the principle of equal / unequal

Pepperberg examined whether Alex was able to understand the concept of equal and unequal. The research at the time of the experiments was that it was believed animals could indeed learn through training to distinguish two objects from each other, having to have so but not yet grasped the concept of equal and unequal.

Experimental setup

The M / R technique was slightly modified. One difficulty for Alex was that he now " rethinking " of the already learned training methods had.

In the experiments, Alex had to answer to the questions "What common? " And answer "What different? " And name the respective applicable characteristics of the, now two, objects. The categories that Alex had in his prior knowledge available, were:

This he had provided in the corresponding category with the respectively correct " Vocal Label ".

Results

After nine months, Alex was able to 76 % with known objects, equality or inequality being able to express verbally. For unknown objects even to 85%, which in turn said it, that he must have understood the concept, as it provided better results in " untrained objects." The sample questions whether Alex had answered the right question, 90% were a proof of the correctness of his answer. The relatively long learning time of nine months led Pepperberg to the fact that Alex had some difficulty expressing some sounds and he also besides these experiments also learned still count. To the question " How many? " He could respond later.

It is interesting that Alex was compared to experiments with chimpanzees in a position to give an exact properties in which was the difference and not only generally indicate whether the objects were equal or unequal. However, it is still to say that Irene Pepperberg assumed that the principle of distinction between equal and unequal already to a certain degree from birth would be present in parrots because they differ in the wild, for example, songs, or dietary need. Thus, the tested object discrimination would be a larger than life important property which would have existed in particular in parrots, which in turn would make it difficult to compare to some other species that it must rely less or not at all.

Alex's language ability

After the 19 years of training, Alex had its own vocabulary of 200 words, which he could express, and a vocabulary of about 500 words that he could understand. In addition, he could - limited - include and express themselves desires. So Alex said, for example, if he does question game no longer liked " I'm gonna go away", (I'll go away ) and when the researchers showed angry, Alex tried the situation by "I'm sorry" ( I'm sorry ) to defuse. If he had asked for a banana by "Wanna banana", but was offered a nut, he looked silently before him, repeated the desire for a banana or took the nut and threw it with his beak against the researcher. Alex's understanding of numbers was in the range of less than 7 When he was asked how many objects of a particular color lie on a board, he gave the correct answer in 80% of cases.

State of research

Preliminary research indicates that Alex the concept of four objects (eg, four blue wool balls on a board ) was transferred to four piano notes. Pepperberg tried to give him the concept of the written number "4 " as a representation of the number "four" to teach.

Pepperberg tried to teach him phonemes of the English language, with the intention that he can put written and spoken words to each other. According to her, Alex used but not human language, but a complex communication scheme.