Alex, a Parrot Who Had a Way With Words, Dies
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: September 10, 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 Grey parrot, died, apparently of natural
causes, said Dr. Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis
University and Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most
of its life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals.
The parrot 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, trained by Penny Patterson
at the Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org in Woodside, Calif., or Washoe the
chimpanzee, studied by R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner at the University
of Nevada in the 1960s and 1970s.
When, in 1977, Dr. 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. Most of the research
had been done in pigeons, and was not promising.
But by using novel methods of teaching, Dr. Pepperberg prompted Alex to
learn about 150 words, which he could put into categories, and to count
small numbers, as well as 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, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Pepperberg used an innovative approach to teach Alex. African Greys
are social birds, and pick up some group dynamics very quickly. In experiments,
Dr. 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 off some of his skills on nature shows, including programs
on the BBC and PBS. He famously shared scenes with the 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
Grey parrots; two others, named Griffin and Arthur, are a part of Dr.
Pepperberg’s continuing research program.
Even up through last week, Alex was working with Dr. Pepperberg on compound
words and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the
night last Thursday, Dr. Pepperberg said, 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, and was determined to
have died late Thursday night.
See Alex doing amazing things at http://www.pbs.org/saf/1201/video/watchonline.htm.
The
Alex Foundation is at http://www.alexfoundation.org/.
