A tribute to Alex

When reading the news today, I came across a story about the death of an exceptional bird - Alex the African Grey Parrot, to be precise. Alex was a part of psychologist Irene Pepperberg’s research at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. For the last 30 years, he has been remarkable for his advanced language and recognition abilities. While parrots are widely known to be remarkable mimics, mimicry is not necessarily a sign of intelligence. Alex, however, went beyond merely aping back the sounds that he heard. He seemed to grasp abstract concepts, a benchmark of higher cognition. According to Dr. Pepperberg, Alex did not simply imitate human speech – he vocalized thoughts that were a result of reasoning and choice.

Alex (derived from Avian Learning Experiment) became a part of Dr. Pepperberg’s research in 1977, when she bought him from a pet store in Chicago. Alex, who was only a year old at the time, had no particular pedigree, and no particular indication of intelligence, but Dr. Pepperberg wanted to study him anyways. It turned out to be a very smart move. Over the years, he learned to count to 6 (including 0), identify colors and objects, express frustration with both his human and avian companions, and understand the concepts of “same,” “different,” “bigger,” “smaller,” “over” and “under.”

Here are some examples of his abilities. When asked about the color of a common object (such as corn), he would tell you the correct color of the object (in this case, yellow) even if it was not in sight. You could hold up a tray full of complex objects of different shapes, colors and materials, and he would pick an object based on shape, explore it with his beak, and tell you both what material it was made of and its color. He occasionally told other parrots in his room to “talk better” if they were mumbling. If you showed him 2 objects of different shape, color and material, and ask him what was the same, he would reply “none.” And he would say things like “I want” something, or “I want to go” somewhere. Dr. Pepperberg argues that these abilities require abstract thought – an understanding of color and objects, similarities and differences, location labels, and the concept of nothing-ness. He had the emotional equivalence of a 2-year old, and the intellectual equivalence of a 5-year old. Not bad for a creature with a brain the size of a walnut!

Of course, sometimes he was stubborn, too. (If you’ve ever encountered an African Grey Parrot, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes they have the mindset of a mule!) I came across a story where Dr. Pepperberg was attempting to show a journalist Alex’s ability to distinguish colors, and he didn’t want to play along. He just wanted a treat.

While scientists agree that Alex’s abilities were remarkable, they do not all necessarily agree on what it really means. Do birds such as Alex really understand the words they are using? There have been past examples of scientists claiming that they have shown intelligence in an animal. Perhaps the most famous is a horse named Clever Hans. At the turn of the 20th century, Clever Hans could supposedly count, tell time, and make change by tapping his hoof on the ground. However, further studies showed that Hans was responding to his trainer, who tipped him off to the right answer by movements with his head. And studies from the 1970s on chimpanzees claiming to demonstrate that they could generate grammatically correct sentences have also been shown to be the result of the chimps mirroring their teachers. However, the experiments on Alex have withstood the test of time and close scrutiny. Effects on Alex’s abilities being influenced by his keepers have been rigorously controlled for. Studies on Alex have been published consistently in well-regarded journals such as the Journal of Comparative Psychology. He has been featured not only in scientific literature, but also in the popular press. He made appearances on PBS, the BBC, and Discovery. He was well known for interacting with host Alan Alda in an episode of Scientific American Frontiers, as well as in the PBS nature series “Look Who’s Talking.” He has been featured in the USA Today, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He even has a book entitled “The Alex Studies.” Even his skeptics all agree. There was something unique about Alex.

So let me just say that science is better off for having known a small African Grey Parrot named Alex. I’m sure he will be missed.