{"id":36229,"date":"2023-01-23T01:57:10","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T07:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?p=36229"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T18:39:12","slug":"inside-dr-pepperbergs-lab-understanding-using-human-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/inside-dr-pepperbergs-lab-understanding-using-human-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Understanding And Using Human Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"African
Griffin and Athena at breakfast. Athena watches as Griffin gets something to eat; she will get something next\u2014they take turns, mostly patiently. Courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve written on this topic several times already, but it is one that consistently tends to surprise people who are rarely around parrots; moreover, parrot owners seem to enjoy hearing about these anecdotes from my lab. And, yes, these are anecdotes<\/em>, because we can\u2019t study these types of behaviors that are exhibited by the birds in a scientific manner. For science, one needs to observe or reproduce the behavior numerous times to see whether it happened just “by chance” (i.e., was a fluke) or is something that is a stable part of the repertoire.<\/p>\n

Anecdotes are definitely in the “by chance” category. Nevertheless, these incidents help us understand something about parrot intelligence, and sometimes, as I\u2019ve noted before, can even lead to actual experiments. None of the following have led us to design any new studies, but they are of interest, even if only to c<\/p>\n

Typical Day in the Lab<\/h3>\n

A typical day starts out with our feeding the parrots part of their breakfast in the kitchen of the apartment that we are currently using as our lab. Athena and Griffin sit on identical small wooden T-stands that are about a foot apart (although she often climbs down, as you can see in the accompanying photo), and our research assistants (RAs) give them, among other foods, spoonsful of warm yam, the beans from cooked green beans, and sliced up steamed Brussels sprouts and broccoli (all organic!). Last month, Athena didn\u2019t like something about one of her sprouts, and threw it\u2026whether she was actually aiming at Griffin wasn\u2019t clear, but she bonked him. He immediately looked at the RA and said, \u201cWANNA GO BACK!\u201d\u2026his phrase when he wants to return to his cage. Even though he hadn\u2019t finished eating, clearly he was through for that<\/em> morning!<\/p>\n

A few days ago, Griffin was beaking through the dry food in the bowl attached to the top of his cage when he looked toward me and, very deliberately, said, \u201cGREEN.\u201d Unlike Alex, he doesn\u2019t normally practice his labels when on top of his cage, so I looked back at him, quizzically. He repeated \u201cGREEN!\u201d quite emphatically. I went to look at his bowl\u2026it was empty of the green pasta, his favorite in his mix of tricolor items. We refilled his bowl, and he happily crunched away.<\/p>\n

The Greys Know What’s Going On<\/h3>\n

Both birds also have a much greater understanding of English speech than can be determined by their production, and it has become very clear that they understand context. Recently, we\u2019ve been doing an experiment that neither of them likes very much. I won\u2019t go into detail at the moment, but it requires them to sit in front of some stimuli and allow us to film their reactions. They don\u2019t get any immediate reward (just a small piece of nut when the time period is over). So, whenever the RA involved in that study is present, neither of them will willingly climb on our hands to leave their cages, because they have figured out that such an action would mean working on this experiment.<\/p>\n

However, they make two exceptions; f we tell them it is \u201ccracker time\u201d (when they get to go back into the kitchen and get some lovely organic seeded cracker) or if we ask whether they want to \u201csupervise meal time\u201d (when they go back to the kitchen and watch the RA microwave their lunch or dinner grains)\u2014then both of them climb without any hassle whatsoever, even for the RA involved in that disagreeable study.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve clearly made associations with those phrases and activities they enjoy. [Note: Associations are just that\u2026we can\u2019t claim they know the meaning of all the words in those phrases.] But it isn\u2019t just the time of day, because we\u2019ve mixed up \u201ccracker time\u201d a bit, and sometimes try to get them to climb when it is mealtime without specifically asking them about “supervising.” They also really like their studies on “exclusion” (figuring out where a reward is hidden after being given information about where it can\u2019t possibly be), probably because they get rather large nut rewards\u2014the trials are difficult and require quite a bit of deduction, so they get a bigger nut piece than usual. Thus, even though the task is challenging, as soon as they see us setting up for that study, the clamber to the edge of their cages, waiting to be picked up\u2026again, in this case, they\u2019ll even climb for the RA associated with the study they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

None of these anecdotes are, individually, all that exciting, but when you add these to the other ones I\u2019ve reported\u2026well, you start to appreciate how much these birds can communicate with us, even with a rather limited vocabulary!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her latest blog[, Dr. Irene Pepperberg talks about a less scientific category but nonetheless worthwhile one when it comes to wrapping our minds around parrot intelligence. 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