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Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Alex The Grey Parrot, Colleague of Irene Pepperberg, Dead at 31 Alex had always been a healthy parrot, however, he once was gravely ill with aspergillosis, an infection of the lungs and other body tissues caused by the fungus, Aspergillus [free PDF (scroll down) and PDF] (my own experience with aspergillosis in parrots is that is is nearly impossible to cure). Pepperberg named him "ALEX", the acronym for the research project, Avian Learning EXperiment, was randomly chosen by the shopowner from his collection of African grey parrots at Pepperberg's request, since she sought a bird that was an average representative of its species. Alex's learning process is based on the rival-model technique in which two humans demonstrate to the bird what is to be learned. scienceblogs.com /grrlscientist/2007/09/alex_the_grey_parrot_colleague.php   (4348 words)

Science News Blog * Science News and Trends * Alex was raised and taught by Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her staff. Alex, the world renowned African Grey parrot made famous by the ground-breaking cognition and communication research conducted by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., died at the age of 31 on September 6, 2007. Her research with Alex shattered the generally held notion that parrots are only capable of mindless vocal mimicry. www.sciencenewsblog.com   (5209 words)

Bird brain Alex the parrot dies - CNN.com Alex was discovered dead in his cage Friday, she said, but she waited to release the news until this week so grieving researchers could get over the shock and talk about it. He also occasionally instructed two other parrots at the lab to "talk better" if they mumbled, though it wasn't clear whether he was simply mimicking researchers. Alex hadn't reached his full cognitive potential and was demonstrating the ability to take distinct sounds from words he knew and combine them to form new words, Pepperberg said. www.cnn.com /2007/TECH/science/09/12/parrot.obit.ap/?eref=rss_tech   (406 words)

NPR : Alex the Parrot, an Apt Student, Passes Away Alex the parrot was able to count up to the number 6 and could differentiate seven colors and shapes. All Things Considered, September 10, 2007 ·; Alex the famous African gray parrot, renowned for the landmark cognition research conducted by owner Dr. Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., has died at the age of 31. According to Pepperberg who is a faculty member at Brandeis University, Alex was able to identify 50 different objects, seven colors and shapes, and quantities of up to six. www.npr.org /templates/story/story.php?storyId=14293868   (311 words)

sociology - Parrot All parrots are zygodactyl, having the four toes on each foot placed two at the front and two back. Birds of the parrot family can be found in most of the warm parts of the world, including India, South East Asia and West Africa, with one species, now extinct, in the United States (the Carolina Parakeet). Other scholars claim that parrots are only repeating words with no idea of their meanings and point to Pepperberg's results as being nothing but an expression of operant conditioning. www.aboutsociology.com /sociology/Parrot   (623 words)

Alex Alex is often included in this procedure, and although his first - often unclear - attempts at the new vocalization are rewarded, he is shown by the model how he must improve. Alex hears the label the way it is to be used and learns that context, and he learns to reproduce the label without associating simple word-for-word imitation with reward. Using these techniques, Alex's trainers have, over a period of 12 years, taught him tasks that were once thought beyond the capability of all beings except humans or possibly certain nonhuman primates. www.parrotplace.ca /alex.htm   (3555 words)

[No title] When she leaves him, she says, Alex chews at his tail and wing feathers, giving him a rather threadbare appearance, and when she returns he is very demanding, turning his back and saying, "Come here!" "What matter is orange and three-cornered?" she asked Alex, holding the tray of objects in front of him. Pepperberg said, is that Alex "is a nonmammal, nonprimate, with a brain the size of a walnut." And Alex's accomplishments, she added, show that "animal intelligence is more widespread than we thought." Dr. Alex's achievements, she said, also underscore the need for stricter conservation of parrots, which are an endangered species. www.cs.wisc.edu /~dbs/ifmud/alex-nyt.txt   (1820 words)

News in Science - Alex the parrot makes up words - 19/01/2007 For the ongoing study, 27-year-old Alex, and companion three-and-a-half-year-old Arthur, were trained with two human speakers to comprehend and label objects, colours, shapes and quantities. Pepperberg, a parrot expert who is now a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, says Alex is also having trouble with the "v" in "seven". Avian students Alex and Arthur are continuing their English speech studies and, according to Pepperberg, recently demonstrated that they understand number symbols, colours and quantities. abc.net.au /science/news/stories/2007/1829820.htm   (609 words)

biology - Alex (parrot) Alex is an African grey parrot whose use of language has been studied intensively over the last 20 years by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The mystery of parrot communication is compounded by the fact that in the wild they neither mimic nor employ a complex communication system. Parrots are highly social birds, and it seems likely that when humans are their companions, they attempt to use the communication system of those humans (language). www.biologydaily.com /biology/Alex_(parrot)   (438 words)

Alex (parrot) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alex is an African grey parrot whose use of language has been studied intensively for over 20 years by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and currently at Brandeis University. Alex seems to be easily one of the most intelligent non-humans on Earth. Parrots are highly social birds, and it seems likely that when humans are their companions, they attempt to use the communication system of those humans (language). en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Alex_(parrot)   (542 words)

African Grey Parrot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The African Grey Parrot is a medium-sized parrot of the genus Psittacus, native to Africa. African grey parrots are particularly noted for their cognitive abilities, which are believed to have evolved as a consequence of their history of cooperative feeding on the ground in central Africa. The ancient Greeks also valued parrots as pets, and this custom was later adopted by the Wealthy Roman families often kept parrots in ornate cages, and parrots were prized for their ability to talk. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/African_Grey_Parrot   (1164 words)

Parrot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   (Site not responding. Last check: ) Parrots, which include cockatoos, have a characteristic curved beak shape with the upper mandible having slight mobility in the joint with the skull and a generally erect stance. Parrots can be found in most of the warm parts of the world, including India, southeast Asia and west Africa, with one species, now extinct, in the United States (the Carolina Parakeet). Parrots are kept as pets, particularly conures, macaws, amazons, cockatoos, african greys, lovebirds, minimacaws, cockatiels and budgerigars (also known as parakeets), because of their rich and varied colouration. www.knowledgehunter.info /wiki/Parrot   (609 words)

Alex, The Brainy Parrot Who Knows About Zero Alex is a 28-year-old grey parrot who lives in a lab at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and can count, identify objects, shapes, colors and materials. Alex insisted on responding: "five." This made no sense given that the answer was supposed to be a color. A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) that was able to quantify 6 item sets (including subsets of heterogeneous groups, e.g., blue blocks within groupings of blue and green blocks and balls) using English labels was tested on comprehension of these labels, which is crucial for numerical competence. www.primidi.com /2005/07/09.html   (758 words)

Alex the grey parrot Alex knows only about 100 words, but has a crucial edge over other parrots: When he says something, he means it. According to a variety of standard tests, Alex and his fellow gray parrots, a species native to west-central Africa, have cognitive abilities comparable to a 4- or 5-year-old child, she says. She demonstrated that Griffin, her youngest parrot, went through the same six stages that children do (and did so even faster) in developing a sense that objects still exist when they are hidden from view - what psychologist Jean Piaget called ''object permanence'' in his research with human children. pubpages.unh.edu /~jel/video/alex.html   (1574 words)

This parrot knows zero (which is more than the ancient Greeks knew) | Features | Connected | Telegraph Alex had previously used the label "none" to describe an absence of similarity or difference between two objects, but he had never been taught the concept of zero quantity. Chimpanzees and possibly squirrel monkeys show some understanding of the concept of zero, but Alex is the first bird to demonstrate an understanding of the absence of a numerical set, she noted. Dr Pepperberg points out, in defence of her parrot, that his initial response was not "none" but "five" and only after he was asked about "five" did he say "none". www.telegraph.co.uk /connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2005/07/27/ecfbird27.xml&sSheet=/connected/2005/07/27/ixconnrite.html   (1187 words)

Birds with Brains Alex went over to where he expected the item to be, picked up the cup, and found that the nut was not there; he started banging his beak on the table and throwing the cups around. A parrot with a 950-word vocabulary, a sense of humour and alleged telepathic powers is forcing a rethink of the scope for animals and humans to communicate. The captive African grey parrot Alex is one of a number of parrots and macaws now believed to have the intelligence and emotional make-up of a 3 to 4 year old child. flatrock.org.nz /topics/animals/pigeon_spotting.htm   (7255 words)

Animal Planet :: News :: Parrot Learns "Zero"? The pair are subjecting Alex to further tests to determine whether he truly understands the arithmetical concept of zero. In a typical test, the parrot was presented with three different sets of objects, each of a different quantity and color, and then asked to name the color of one of the sets. If further tests show that Alex truly understands arithmetical zero, he would be the first non-primate to grasp the concept, and the first animal to do so without training, according to the release. animal.discovery.com /news/briefs/20050711/parrot.html   (617 words)

How does parrot speech work? | Ask MetaFilter I imagine parrots modulate their voice to appropriate frequencies, in a similar manner to your average magnetic speaker. They think that Alex probably uses his esophagus, trachea, and glottis to create pressure build-ups and bursts that mimic the bursts created by our lips when we say a /b/ or /p/. The exact sound a parrot makes may not truly be a /b/ or /p/ or /t/ or whatever, but it could easily be close enough and be in the right context to sound like one to us. ask.metafilter.com /51683/How-does-parrot-speech-work   (1022 words)

Parrot Sounds Many other scholars claim that parrots are only repeating words with no idea of their meanings and point to Pepperberg's results as being nothing but an expression of operant conditioning. Parrots are commonly kept as companion animals in many countries. Some parrots, including the conures, macaws, cockatoos, cockatiels, and budgerigars are said to make good family pets. www.junglewalk.com /sound/parrot-sounds.htm   (325 words)

Alex   (Site not responding. Last check: ) Alex is an African grey parrot being studied at the University of Arizona where Irene Pepperberg is researching smart animals. Although many parrots can "talk", Alex has proven that he understands what he is saying. Pepperberg is currently testing two other birds to prove that Alex is not a "freak", but that all parrots possess this much intelligence. library.thinkquest.org /J002079F/alex.htm   (274 words)

Eclectus Parrot, Eclectus roratus Eclectus parrots make very affectionate pets and enjoy human attention, they can however be rather noisy pets and are best suited to environments where their loud calls are not a bother. They are a large stocky parrot, being 14 to 15 inches in length (35 cm), and have a short square tail and long round tipped wings. Provide your parrot with lots of activities in the form of large link chains, bird ladders, parrot swings, ropes, fresh branches for gnawing and chewing, and rotate new bird toys on a regular basis. animal-world.com /encyclo/birds/Eclectus/Eclectus.php   (2817 words)

LiveScience.com - No Birdbrain, Parrot Grasps Concept of Zero A parrot has grasped the concept of zero, something humans can't do until at least the toddler phase, researchers say. Alex, a 28-year-old African gray parrot who lives in a lab at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, has a brain the size of a walnut. Alex's null may be slightly different than your nada. www.livescience.com /animalworld/050708_parrot_zero.html   (479 words)

Brandeis University :: News Alex the parrot lives in a room at Brandeis University's Foster Biomedical Research Lab, where a team of grad students, a.k.a. Rather, Alex has made it as far as a parrot can go in academia by proving himself to be exceptionally smart, or at least better educated than just about any bird on the planet. Alex watches interactions between his trainer and another parrot or a human being, learns to answer questions correctly, and competes to show he knows the right answer - it's something like being a contestant on a parrot version of Jeopardy! my.brandeis.edu /news/item?news_item_id=103570&show_release_date=1   (500 words)

intro And while some of the bigger parrots have voices that are closer to human ranges, the world record holder for the most human phrases is a tiny budgie. But no matter how flowery their song is among the trees, he notes that the parrots still rely on a deep-rooted oral tradition of a few important phrases that signify basic communication between the parrots. While some cynics claim that Alex could simply have been taught a script, Pepperberg contends that the controls and tests she uses make it impossible for him simply to recite words when she asks questions. www.pbs.org /wnet/nature/parrots/html/body_intro.html   (702 words)

Alex the Parrot Alex's persona is based, very roughly, on an actual parrot. Alex is one of her best-trained subjects: he can count up to six and name literally dozens of different objects (some of which names he creates himself: "cork nut" is Alex-ese for "almond"). A quick interview with Alex is at http://www.sciam.com/0496issue/0496scicit06.html, while you can see him in action in a short movie at http://www.cages.org/research/pepperberg/alextheparrot.mov. www.cs.wisc.edu /~dbs/ifmud/alex.html   (821 words)

Parrot Alex causes much ado about nothing - World - theage.com.au This is the latest feat achieved by grey parrots in research that suggests these creatures are no bird brains but have cognitive power that in some respects can rival the achievements of primates and dolphins, according to Irene Pepperberg, of Brandeis University, Massachusetts, and the Radcliffe Institute. Alex is able to combine labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items. The zero concept emerged when Alex was shown a tray on which there were two blue blocks, three green, four yellow and six orange. www.theage.com.au /news/world/parrot-alex-causes-much-ado-about-nothing/2005/07/28/1122143961534.html   (599 words)

USATODAY.com - 'Psychic' parrot expected to ruffle scientific feathers   (Site not responding. Last check: ) The parrot's telepathic skills may be controversial, but Broom says N'Kisi's communicative abilities are "extremely impressive," perhaps surpassing the capabilities of those studied by Irene Pepperberg, a visiting associate professor at MIT and author of a 1999 seminal work, The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots. Her main research subject, Alex, learned how to identify such ordinary objects as a key, box and chalk, and classify them by color and shape. If we find that your parrot is able to regularly demonstrate potentially telepathic behavior, this log will help us to determine how to design simple experiments that you could perform with your pet, which could reproduce these phenomena in controlled conditions. www.usatoday.com /life/2001-02-12-parrot.htm   (1006 words)

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