PSY BEH 11B Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: African Grey Parrot, Irene Pepperberg, Behaviorism
14 Feb 2019
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No animal that learned at complexity that alex has. Trained him for the next 31 years of his life. Alex is an african gray parrot & dr. irene pepperberg got him from pet store. Parrots are famous mimics & some have larger vocab than alex did. Chimpanzees & dolphins can perform equally complex tasks but they do not have ability to vocalize like alex. Linguists have been quick to say that what alex is doing is remarkable, but it is a complex ability to make discriminations & respond to stimuli in environment. Recognize quantities of objects up to 6. Distinguish 7 different colors & say what they are. Could say what matter something made of using his beak. Dr. pepperberg does not use language to describe what alex does. Argument: language learning is remarkable subtle & complex. Will look at what children have going for them. Which sounds are words with some sort of meaning in environment.
