Alex was an African grey parrot and the subject
of a thirty-year experiment by animal psychologist
Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University
of Arizona and later at Harvard University
and Brandeis University.
When Alex was about one year old, Pepperberg
bought him at a pet shop.
The name "Alex" was an acronym for avian language
experiment, but Pepperberg later cited the
name as meaning avian learning experiment
to evoke further acceptance in her research
field, a then-touchy topic.
Before Pepperberg's work with Alex, it was
widely believed in the scientific community
that a large primate brain was needed to handle
complex problems related to language and understanding;
birds were not considered to be intelligent
as their only common use of communication
was of mimicking and the repetition of sounds
to interact with each other.
However, Alex's accomplishments supported
the idea that birds may be able to reason
on a basic level and use words creatively.
Pepperberg wrote that Alex's intelligence
was on a par with that of dolphins and great
apes.
She also reported that Alex had the intelligence
of a five-year-old human and had not even
reached his full potential by the time he
died.
She said that the bird had the emotional level
of a human two-year-old at the time of his
death.
Early life
Animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg bought
Alex at a pet store near O'Hare Airport in
Chicago while she was doing research at Purdue
University.
Pepperberg believes that Alex may have had
his wings clipped when he was young, which
could have prevented him from learning to
fly.
Training
Alex's training used a model/rival technique,
where the student observes trainers interacting.
One of the trainers models the desired student
behavior, and is seen by the student as a
rival for the other trainer's attention.
The trainer and model/rival exchange roles
so the student can see that the process is
interactive.
Pepperberg reported that during times when
she and an assistant were having a conversation
and made mistakes, Alex would correct them.
This technique helped Pepperberg succeed with
Alex where other scientists had failed in
facilitating two-way communication with parrots.
In later years, Alex sometimes assumed the
role of one of Pepperberg's assistants by
acting as the "model" and "rival" in helping
to teach a fellow parrot in the lab.
Alex sometimes practiced words when he was
alone.
Accomplishments
Pepperberg was modest in her descriptions
of Alex's accomplishments, not claiming that
he could use "language" but instead saying
that he used a two-way communications code.
Listing Alex's accomplishments in 1999, Pepperberg
said he could identify 50 different objects
and recognize quantities up to six; that he
could distinguish seven colors and five shapes,
and understand the concepts of "bigger", "smaller",
"same", and "different", and that he was learning
"over" and "under".
Alex passed increasingly difficult tests measuring
whether humans have achieved Piaget's Substage
6 object permanence.
Alex showed surprise and anger when confronted
with a nonexistent object or one different
from what he had been led to believe was hidden
during the tests.
Alex had a vocabulary of over 100 words, but
was exceptional in that he appeared to have
understanding of what he said.
For example, when Alex was shown an object
and was asked about its shape, color, or material,
he could label it correctly.
He could understand that a key was a key no
matter what its size or color, and could figure
out how the key was different from others.
He asked what color he was, and learned "grey"
after being told the answer six times.
Alex understood the turn-taking of communication
and often the syntax used in language.
He called an apple a "banerry", which a linguist
friend of Pepperberg's thought to be a combination
of "banana" and "cherry," two fruits he was
more familiar with.
Alex could even add, to a limited extent,
correctly giving the number of similar objects
on a tray.
Pepperberg said that if he could not count,
the data could be interpreted as his being
able to quickly and accurately estimate the
number of something, better than humans can.
When he was tired of being tested, he would
say “Wanna go back,” meaning he wanted
to go back to his cage, and in general, he
would request where he wanted to be taken
by saying "Wanna go...", protest if he was
taken to a different place, and sit quietly
when taken to his preferred spot.
He was not trained to say where he wanted
to go, but picked it up from being asked where
he'd like to be taken.
If the researcher displayed irritation, Alex
tried to defuse it with the phrase, “I’m
sorry.”
If he said “Wanna banana,” but was offered
a nut instead, he stared in silence, asked
for the banana again, or took the nut and
threw it at the researcher or otherwise displayed
annoyance, before requesting the item again.
When asked questions in the context of research
testing, he gave the correct answer approximately
80% of the time.
Once, Alex was given several different colored
blocks.
Pepperberg asked him, "What color three?"
expecting him to say blue.
However, as Alex had been asked this question
before, he seemed to have become bored.
He answered "five!"
This kept occurring until Pepperberg said
"Fine, what color five?"
Alex replied "none".
This suggests that parrots, like children,
get bored.
Sometimes, Alex purposely answered the questions
incorrectly, despite knowing the correct answer.
Preliminary research also seems to indicate
that Alex could carry over the concept of
four blue balls of wool on a tray to four
notes from a piano.
Pepperberg was also training him to recognize
"4" as "four".
Alex also showed some comprehension of personal
pronouns; he used different language when
referring to himself or others, indicating
a concept of "I" and "you".
In July 2005, Pepperberg reported that Alex
understood the concept of zero.
If asked the difference between two objects,
he also answered that; but if there was no
difference between the objects, he said “none",
which meant that he understood the concept
of nothing or zero.
In July 2006, Pepperberg discovered that Alex's
perception of optical illusions was similar
to human perception.
Pepperberg was training Alex to recognize
English phonemes, in the hope that he would
conceptually relate an English written word
with the spoken word.
He could identify sounds made by two-letter
combinations such as SH and OR.
Death
Alex died on September 6, 2007, at the age
of 31.
Alex's death came as a surprise; the average
life span for African grey parrots is sixty
years.
He appeared healthy the day prior, but was
found dead in the morning.
According to a press release issued by the
Alex Foundation, "Alex was found to be in
good health at his most recent annual physical
about two weeks [before his death].
According to the veterinarian who conducted
the necropsy, there was no obvious cause of
death."
According to Pepperberg, Alex's loss will
not stop the research, but will be a setback.
The lab has two other birds, but they are
not comparable to Alex.
The Alex Foundation posted the pathology results
on October 4:
Alex died quickly.
He had a sudden, unexpected event associated
with arteriosclerosis.
It was either a fatal arrhythmia, heart attack
or stroke, which caused him to die suddenly
with no suffering.
There was no way to predict his demise.
All of his tests, including his cholesterol
level and asper levels, came back normal earlier
that week.
His death could not be connected to his current
diet or his age; our veterinarian said that
she has seen similar events in young birds
on healthy diets.
Most likely, genetics or the same kind of
low-level inflammatory disease that is related
to heart disease in humans was responsible.
Alex's last words to Pepperberg were: "You
be good, see you tomorrow.
I love you."
These were the same words that he would say
every night when Pepperberg left the lab.
Criticisms
Some in the scientific community are skeptical
of Pepperberg's findings, pointing to Alex's
communications as operant conditioning.
Critics point to the case of Clever Hans,
a horse who could apparently count, but who
was actually understanding subtle cues from
the questioner.
In another case, Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee
was thought to be using language, but there
is some debate over whether he simply imitated
his teacher.
Dr. Herbert Terrace, who worked with Nim Chimpsky,
says he thinks Alex performed by rote rather
than using language; he calls Alex's responses
"a complex discriminating performance", adding
that in every situation, "there is an external
stimulus that guides his response."
However, supporters of Alex mention that Alex
was able to talk to and perform for anyone
involved in the project as well as complete
strangers who recorded findings unassisted
and during first contact with the bird, making
the arguments of rote learning and operant
conditioning difficult to substantiate.
See also
Animal language
Talking bird
Batyr
N'kisi
Koko
Kosik
Washoe
Chantek
References
External links
Alex Foundation
Obituary article at the web-site of The Economist
magazine
NY Times obituary article
New York Times article
Listen to Nature article "The Language of
Birds" includes a transcript and audio sample
of Alex
Alex, on season 12 , episode 1 of Scientific
American Frontiers.
Audio of Australian radio interview with Irene
Pepperberg
Wired: Parrot Proves It's No Birdbrain
