Saturday, July 09, 2005

African Gray Parrot Grasps Zero Concept

"Although his brain is the size of a walnut, scientists say Alex's ability to understand the concept of zero is amazing, as humans do not typically grasp it until the age of 3 or 4.

"According to Irene Pepperburg, who led the reasearch, Alex possesses a zero-like concept, which although different to ours, still demonstrates his ability to understand an absence of quantity."

9 comments:

Carol said...

This anecdote about Alex spelling (at the end of the article) gives me goosebumps every time I re-read it.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pepperberg03/pepperberg_index.html

Mac said...

Ha! That's great!

razorsmile said...

Douglas Adams was wrong.

Kyle said...

Turns a term like "bird-brain" on its little, walnut-sized head, eh?

We constantly apply human motivations and behaviors to our animal brethren at our peril.

We ignore clear signs of it however, at even greater peril.

Remember how the animals took to the hills ahead of the tsunami? If we weren't so quick to dismiss such behavior, lives could have been saved.

If you see all the dogs and cats heading down the street in the same direction, I'd highly suggest following suit, rather than heading in the opposite direction to see what's happening.

Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com

Ken said...

"Some animals can feel and think in ways not too dissimilar from us, welfare campaigners say. The weight of scientific opinion is that it's certainly right to give the benefit of the doubt to all vertebrates. They say there is evidence of altruism, with some animals acting disinterestedly for the good of others." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3014747.stm

"African Greys are probably best known for their amazing ability to mimic not only the human voice but also an impressive array of environmental sounds. A Who's Who of African Greys includes Prudle and Alex. Famous for mimicry or intellect, Prudle holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest vocabulary, at 800 words, while Alex, incredibly, exhibits what can only be called cognitive abilities - he can talk, count, and…read-a little. Alex lives in the laboratory of Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., at the University of Arizona where she has been conducting extensive research over the past two decades." http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat;=1840&articleid;=2268

"The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world. About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material."..."Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication"...." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3430481.stm

"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." http://www.usatoday.com/life/2001-02-12-parrot.htm

It is my personal belief that many animals are sentient, at least to one degree or another. Both Eastern Religions and Modern Science teach an underlying reality, the quantum level, however it be named. Some posit a brain to be a receptive organ, the physical "receiver" of actions/thoughts from a quantum brain. As computer scientists believe that a quantum computer can be designed, and as Nature has beaten us to concepts and technology so many many times, often by millions or hundreds of millions of years, I can find the appreciation of Elmo as sentient both appealing and logical.

A quantum brain might also explain the rare condition of hydrocephaly, "where cavities form in the brain that can be so large that they account for 95% of the brain's mass. this leaves only a fluid-filled bubble of the outermost cerebral tissue which, in extreme cases, has been found to be less than one millimeter thick. (Ordinarily, the walls of the cerebrum are 45mm thick.)"..."Despite the seriousness of this condition, in some people it appears to have little or no affect on their intellectual abilities. Indeed, to the surprise of the medical establishment, in a study of 253 hydrocephalus sufferers carried out by the University of Sheffield, Professor John Lorber discovered tat there is no relation between volume of brain tissue and IQ.

Surprising Results.

Of the 253 subjects in the study, 9 were found to have approximately only 5% of the normal amount of brain tissue. Despite this, 4 had IQ's of above 100, the national average, and another 2 had IQ's of above 126, while one of the subjects proved to be as intelligent as those studying him, he had a first-class degree in maths.

One possible explanation for such achievements as this is the neopallium, which forms the very outermost layer of the brain. Since the brains are larger with hydrocephalus sufferers, they have larger neopalliums while the brain mass is diminished in bulk. The neopallium is the site for some of the most important mental functions, such as the power of reasoning." http://www.mysteries.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/6,2.htm

The neopallium might also be the physical "receiver" of the quantum brain. Or, maybe not. Suart Hameroff has some interesting ideas concerning consciousness, some of which I think I understand. http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/

Therefore, whilst I find Alex the parrot's concept of nada somewhat suprising, I can't say it was entirely unexpected. And, I'm pretty sure Elmo has a sense of humor.

Ken

Mac said...

Animals can sense the presence of UFOs, too.

W.M. Bear said...

"AWRK!...The gravitation force between two bodies is proportional to a constant times the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them....AWRK!"

Kyle said...

Polly wanna Valium?

Kyle

UFOreflections.blogspot.com

Mac said...

WMB--

Ha! I'd love to teach a parrrot to say that.