{"id":23891,"date":"2018-06-20T13:31:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T18:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/staging\/PB18\/?p=23891"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T02:45:37","slug":"inside-dr-pepperbergs-lab-do-parrots-understand-process-of-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/inside-dr-pepperbergs-lab-do-parrots-understand-process-of-elimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Dr. Pepperberg&#8217;s Lab: Do Parrots Understand &#8220;Process of Elimination?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Grey Parrots\u2019 Deductive Reasoning \u2014 Part I<\/h3>\n<p>Studies of deductive reasoning have allowed researchers to compare the intelligence of many nonhuman species with one another and with humans (see review in V\u00f6lter &amp; Call, 2017). The most common study involves what is technically called \u201cinference by exclusion\u201d or, in layman\u2019s terms, \u201cprocess of elimination.\u201d Here a reward is hidden in one of two cups: A, B. One cup is shown to be empty, and the successful subject searches for the reward in the other cup: the assumed logic is \u201cA or B; not A, therefore B\u201d; which is also known as a \u201cdisjunctive syllogism.\u201d It turns out, however, that a successful subject may be using something other than deductive reasoning to succeed \u2014 some logic that is actually much simpler \u2014 and that\u2019s the subject of this posting.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_23894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23894\" style=\"width: 100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23894 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-1-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-1-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-1.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first problem is one of avoidance \u2014 the subject might just be avoiding the empty cup, or the cup that was most recently touched by the experimenter. Such a strategy has nothing to do with inference, which is what we are trying to test. One way around this is to give several trials in which two equally desirable different foods are shown to be hidden in the A and B cups (see Figure 1).<\/p>\n<p>Then the experimenter engages in two different actions: in one, the researcher places a screen between the cups and the subject, removes one of the foods (say from cup A) so that the subject doesn\u2019t see the cup being emptied, removes the screen, and then eats that food while the subject watches; in the other, the experimenter simply eats a replica of one of the foods in front of the subject, with no removal or manipulation taking place. In both cases, the experimenter touches both cups and then presents them to the subject.<\/p>\n<h3>Good Choices<\/h3>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_23893\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23893\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23893 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-2.jpg\" alt=\"African grey parrot given choice of cups with only one reward\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-2.jpg 200w, https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-2-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nIn the first case, the subject should <em>infer\u00a0<\/em>that the food in cup A was eaten and choose cup B in order to get some kind of reward (see Figure 2). In the second case, the subject should choose at random, because there is no reason to expect that anything has been removed or that any reason exists to choose one cup over another if the treats are equally desired. Grey parrots succeeded very nicely (Pepperberg et al., 2013; see also Mikolasch et al., 2011).<\/p>\n<p>These tests solve the problem of avoiding \u201cempty\u201d or the most recently touched cup, and suggest some level of inference, but do not address the problem of avoiding a cup from which a particular item has been removed. To deal with that possibility, we did the following experiment.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_23892\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23892\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-23892 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-3.jpg\" alt=\"African grey parrot given choice of cups with different rewards\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-3.jpg 200w, https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pepperberg-elimination-test-3-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23892\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On some trials, we placed two treats, of <em>differing\u00a0<\/em>value, under each cup in full sight of the birds\u2026e.g., two hearts versus two pieces of chow (see Figure 3). Then we would, behind the screen, remove either one piece of chow or one piece of candy, and show them what we had removed. If they understood the task, in either case they should choose the candy side, as even one piece of candy is worth more than two pieces of chow \u2014 and they succeeded (Pepperberg et al., 2013).<\/p>\n<p>We also, of course, had to perform control trials for odor (showing them pairs of cups with food in only one side and making sure they would choose randomly), check for interobserver reliability by having multiple people score the birds\u2019 behavior, and making sure that humans weren\u2019t cuing the birds by some inadvertent movement. All the birds also did well on all these trials.<\/p>\n<p>Although it would seem that these studies clearly showed that the birds were inferring the placement of the rewards by exclusion, it turns out that there are actually additional explanations that refute the \u201cA or B; not A, therefore B\u201d rationale. We\u2019ve recently done several experiments to eliminate some of those possibilities, but that will be the subject for \u201cPart II\u201d in a few months!<\/p>\n<p>Mikolasch, S., Kotrschal, K., &amp; Schloegl, C. (2011). African grey parrots (<em>Psittacus erithacus<\/em>) use inference by exclusion to find hidden food. <em>Biology Letters, 7, <\/em>875\u2013877. doi:10.1098\/rsbl.2011.0500<\/p>\n<p>Pepperberg, I.M., Koepke, A., Livingston, P., Girard, M., &amp; Hartsfield, LA.\u00a0 (2013). Reasoning by inference: Further studies on exclusion in Grey parrots (<em>Psittacus erithacus<\/em>). <em>Journal of Comparative Psychology<\/em>, <em>127<\/em>, 272-281\u00a0 doi: <a href=\"http:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/doi\/10.1037\/a0031641\">10.1037\/a0031641<\/a><\/p>\n<p>V\u00f6lter, C.J., &amp; Call, J. (2017). Causal and inferential reasoning in animals. In: <em>APA Handbook of <\/em>766 <em>Comparative Psychology <\/em>(Call, J., Burghardt, G., Pepperberg, I.M. &amp; Zentall, T.R., eds.). American Psychological Association Press, Washington, DC, pp. 643-67<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Process of elimination and inference are two powers of reasoning, and Dr. Pepperberg conducted fascinating tests to determine the existence of inference in African greys. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":23894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior","bird-type-african-grey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Inside Dr. Pepperberg&#039;s Lab: Do Parrots Understand &quot;Process of Elimination?&quot; 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Working for the Health of Animals","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/#\/schema\/person\/e2384637ed0fac4b764f548a0441622d","name":"Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pepperberg3crop-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pepperberg3crop-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pepperberg3crop-96x96.jpg","caption":"Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D."},"description":"Dr. Irene Pepperberg is a lecturer and research associate at\u00a0Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her research lab is located. You can help Dr. Pepperberg continue the groundbreaking parrot research she began more than 30 years ago with Alex, the African grey parrot who won admirers from around the world with his cognitive abilities. If you shop online through sites such as Amazon.com, you can designate the Alex Foundation to receive a percentage of your final sales, or register with the Alex Foundation at iGive.com and a percentage of sales from companies associated with iGive will go to the foundation. The Alex Foundation also has a \u201cDonate\u201d button linked to PayPal. Visit\u00a0The Alex Foundation\u00a0and click on the \u201cSupport Us\u201d link for more information. Read more about the lab at The Alex Foundation Facebook page and at The Alex Foundation Twitter account.","url":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/author\/irene\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44651,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23891\/revisions\/44651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}