{"id":27057,"date":"2019-09-17T18:43:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T23:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?p=27057"},"modified":"2025-08-22T14:10:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:10:01","slug":"inside-pepperbergs-lab-vocal-turn-taking-in-parrots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/inside-pepperbergs-lab-vocal-turn-taking-in-parrots\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: Vocal Turn-Taking In Parrots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alex
Dr. Pepperberg’s parrots would respond flexibly to various human queries (e.g., \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d, \u201cWhat color?\u201d, \u201cWhat shape?\u201d, \u201cHow many?\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s same\/different?\u201d etc.) Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although some researchers argue that turn-taking \u2014 in all forms, but particularly with respect to communication \u2014 is a uniquely human skill (Melis et al., 2016), elements of such behavior are common in many birds. For example, almost all songbirds use what is termed \u201ccountersinging\u201d to defend their territories, their mates, and\/or their nests.<\/p>\n

Countersinging, depending on the species, shows an extreme range of flexibility \u2014 from exactly matching the song of the intruding bird to evaluating and singing one of several different songs in a neighbor\u2019s repertoire, with each response having a different meaning (see chapters in Marler & Slabbekoorn, 2004). If the species has a number of songs that are commonly sung, simply singing a song in the neighbor\u2019s repertoire acts as a somewhat gentle reminder for the neighbor to remain “neighborly”; matching exactly is reserved for times when the neighbor crosses the territorial boundary and is perceived as a threat.<\/p>\n

Somewhat more specialized are duets, which are generally used between mated pairs, and have been found in species from wrens to parrots. The flexibility again varies, depending on the species, and the functions can be manifold (Dahlin & Benedict, 2014) \u2014 from a mated pair using their duet to countersing with a pair of invaders in order to defend their territory, to a pair mutually singing to cement their bond. Duets often contain elements that are used exclusively with a mate so that pairs can locate each other aurally in dense foliage.<\/p>\n

My own research has been based on Todt\u2019s (1975) initial finding that Grey parrots will adapt their species-specific turn-taking interactions to interspecies communication. He started by training birds, using the modeling technique<\/a> I\u2019ve described previously, to interact with humans in short dialogues. For example, the human would say \u201cYou are my\u2026\u201d and the parrot would respond \u201c\u2026good little parrot.\u201d My students and I adapted and expanded his technique, and over the course of 40 years of study, I found that I could use interspecies turn-taking to examine Grey parrot intelligence.<\/p>\n

My parrots would indeed respond flexibly to various human queries (e.g., \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d, \u201cWhat color?\u201d, \u201cWhat shape?\u201d, \u201cHow many?\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s same\/different?\u201d etc.), often with respect to the same pair of stimuli (see photo), providing evidence that they processed each question, determined the meaning of the question and the category involved, and then chose the appropriate, specific response (e.g., Pepperberg, 1999).<\/p>\n

Although my students and I did not directly focus on the issue of turn-taking dialogues or instances in which the birds initiated vocal interactions, and thus did not consistently record occurrences of such behavior, several anecdotes were documented. Birds questioned experimenters for information about novel items (e.g., asking about colors, shapes, and object labels); the birds expected answers and repeated their requests if no responses were forthcoming. Alex, for example, learned the label \u201ccarrot\u201d by asking what we were eating, the color \u201corange\u201d by asking the color of the carrot, and \u201cgray\u201d by asking \u201cWhat color?\u201d when he saw himself in a mirror.<\/p>\n

“Duets”<\/h3>\n

Some interactions more closely resembled their species-specific duets. So, for example, we never were really sure if Alex understood exactly what all the sentences meant in our \u201cgood night routine,\u201d where the elements and roles of the speakers varied nightly (either one of us could say, \u201cI\u2019m gonna go eat dinner,\u201d \u201cYou be good,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll see you tomorrow,\u201d \u201cI love you,\u201d etc.) , but the dialogue definitely was something that reassured him that our leave-taking was a normal part of the daily routine.<\/p>\n

On occasion, Alex used turn-taking to further clarify interactions, so as not only to request a particular food, but also something very specific about that food. One time he kept stating \u201cWant grape!\u201d but then consistently tossed the fruit we gave him to the floor. Finally, he looked at us (in a parrot version of what could very easily have be interpreted as disgust) and said \u201cPURPLE!\u201d We had been giving him green grapes that day.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, turn-taking was also demonstrated with humans in a physical task to test for cooperation, where Griffin and a student took turns choosing cups as “tokens” (P\u00e9ron et al., 2014). Choice of a purple cup meant no one got anything, choice of a pink cup meant the chooser kept the nut, choice of an orange cup meant the other individual got the nut, and choice of green meant both got nuts. The human was told to replicate whatever Griffin did, and Griffin very quickly learned that the green cup was the best choice so that everyone got fed on every turn!<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said many times before, my parrots could not be said to have acquired a complexity of interaction in any way comparable to the richness of human language. Nonetheless, they did use what speech they had acquired in order to demonstrate that they understood and could referentially use certain elements of communication once thought beyond the reach of nonhumans.<\/p>\n

References
\nDahlin, C.R., & Benedict L. (2014). Angry birds need not apply: a perspective on the flexible form and multifunctionality of avian vocal duets. Ethology, 120, 1\u201310.
\nMarler, P., & Slabbekoorn, H. (2004). Nature\u2019s music. London, UK: Elsevier
\nMelis, A. P., Grocke, P., Kalbitz, J. & Tomasello, M. (2016). One for you, one for me: humans\u2019 unique turn-taking skills. Psychological Science, 27, 987-996.
\nPepperberg, I.M. (1999). The Alex studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
\nP\u00e9ron, F., Thornburg, L., Gross, B., Gray, S., & Pepperberg, I.M. (2014) Further studies on Grey parrot reciprocity. Animal Cognition, 17, 937-944.
\nTodt, D. (1975). Social learning of vocal patterns and models of their application in Grey parrots. Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Tierpsychologie, 39, 178-188.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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