ALEX And Like-Minded Birds: Environmental Determinants In The Occurrence of Rival-Model Learning Among Four Birds.

Comparisons among four birds, their early development and behavioral determinants.

ALEX, our finest feathered colleague in the Laboratory of Cognitive Scientist Dr. Irene Pepperberg has died before his work, or hers, was completed. He was somewhat of an avian guru, a teacher, who participated in the Rival-Model learning method, ultimately developing clear human speech. He helped us answer many important questions about cognition and learning in general. He left Dr. Peppergerg and the rest of us who knew him and followed his progress with even more questions about the still largely unexplored animal-to-human interface.

Following the death of ALEX it seems the right moment to sum up some of my own informal observations about the linguistic and emotional language behavior of our own grays in the light of recent Rival-Model Learning discoveries.

ALEX, early years and environment:

ALEX was raised in Dr. Pepperberg’s laboratory, surrounded by students and researchers who kept him busy, interacting nearly all day as they explored his cognitive abilities, and as he learned to use human language. His was a formal, academic society. He lived a life of protocols, affection, repetition of protocols, affection, rest, and he slept alone, retiring gratefully (or so he seemed to indicate) to his cage at night. He did this work five days or more per week for thirty years.

There were also times when he visited friends with Dr. Pepperberg for days at a time. There were hours spent in the care of avian veterinarian Dr. Marjorie McMillan. , and many hospital days in Chicago, There were times he was interviewed in the company of strangers in small rooms or many in large auditoriums; he did not often disappoint.

He befriended Alan Alda, and it appears that ALEX impressed him, but more to the point ALEX made Alda laugh. That Alda laugh—that easy accepting sound—that accompanies so much of what he does, expresses his curiosity, and his pleasure in discovery. ALEX seems to have provided him with all of this in each meeting. Documented evidence of ALDA’s intelligent use of human language can be found on the Discovery Channel, and on video.

Nashi, early years and environment:

Nashi, my own African Grey Parrot is the same species (Psittacus erithacus) as ALEX, but she has had a different kind educational history, physical setting and social environment. Nashi’s life has not only been unlike ALEX’s, but also quite different from the lives of most domestically raised African Gray Parrots, and radically different from her conspecifics in wild flocks.

Nashi hatched-out with birth defects in Marblehead Massachusetts as the featherless, helpless and sick chick born to a breeding pair of otherwise wild and unapproachable birds. It was evident to both her parent birds and to the breeder that something was wrong within hours of her hatching.

The parent-birds reacted to the sick nestling by attacking her with apparent intent to kill. The breeder, Mary Jo McConnell, who works mostly with Bower-Birds in New Guinea , had the courage to snatch this failing Nashi from the nest and place her in a small dry aquarium that would serve as an incubator for this highly stressed avian neonate. Nashi was successfully hand fed. However, her feathers were stunted and deformed. The veterinarian (McMillan) recognized calcium deficiency as the cause and set up a regimen of supplementary calcium. Nashi thrived in her small glass box. The bird bonded with the breeder and her daughter who feed her at two-hour intervals around the clock for about a week. In the process, they physically handled and interacted with Nashi. Most particularly, as they worked to save the bird, they talked with each other—and to the bird. Nashi may have heard the sounds and calls of her parents for a few hours, but did not interact with them. English speech was her nearly total exposure to interactive ‘calling’.

Nashi is not laboratory educated and has grown up within a human family, hearing and observing what went on among us in a human-dominant domestic environment where she has became an unintended experiment. Probably the first observational anecdote in her language-learning life occurred on the morning that McConnell approached the aquarium with spoon in hand and was startled to hear the puffball inside pipe out—“Aren’t you the sweetest little thing”. Nashi was barely three months old, her vocal tract probably nowhere near mature, and her brain still growing. She may have imprinted upon McConnell. I do not know when her eyes opened, or more importantly, when she first began to hear and organize sounds from her environment—which might possibly have as much influence on imprinting for an intelligent, vocal and social species as does vision.

Nashi was introduced to her brother Gigi and placed in the same huge aviary. Gigi was from a later clutch and was about one year older. He was not vocalizing or talking much at that time. They have remained cage-mates and companions since then.

Jump forward13 years to 2007. Nashi had become our bird (along with her brother-bird Gigi) at about age eight. Since she came to live in our house she has occupied a large custom made home- aviary that dominates the space in the living-room. It is an aviary with a view into the interior of the house and the natural bird-filled world of trees outdoors from where she hears both the sounds of nature and the conversations in the house.

Like a lot of domestically kept ‘pet’ African Gray’s, Nashi talks quite clearly and often. She has never been intentionally taught to speak—we do not train or repeat cute phrases. She seems to have simply absorbed or learned some human English language on her own. I did not particularly wish to have a parrot talking repeated nonsense in the house. So she did this herself, without our intention or assistance, forcibly convincing me that she was not parroting nonsense, but speaking.

Some of the vocalizations that Nashi utters spontaneously:

The first occasion (perhaps it was a warning) that we were in for an adventure occurred within a week or two of her arrival in our house many years ago. I was pouring maple syrup on a plate of waffles when Nashi clearly said, with some emphasis: “BLUEBERRIES!”.

She regularly asks for what she needs or wants using the first person. For instance, I might ask her “do you want to go out?” she will often answer or volunteer “I want to go out”. She often requests that I bring her out of the cage and let her walk all over me (not a metaphor in this case) by calling out “Nashi-Mayer”. The first time we heard her use this self invented joined-word in context we were stunned. It is a word we never use and could therefore not have taught her. She has invented other conjoined words to indicate her needs. She combines words in sentences and phrases that we may hear only once, and these are most often contextually appropriate to the setting and activity implying understanding beyond her vocalizations. For instance:

Nashi—“Want to come out”.
My wife—“Not now Nashi, we are busy”.
(repeat both sides of this exchange three or more times)
Nashi —walking in a circle on the floor of her cage— “Damn, I’m never going to get out of here!”

Recently she has begun to announce her bedtime (meaning that we are being asked to pull the cover over her cage and dim the lights). She blurts out sometime after sunset— “goodnight”. In the same week she initiated saying “breakfast” while I empty the dishwasher prior to preparing her food for the day.

Seeing rain dripping off the edge of the roof outside the window she has said “water”. It seems that she identifies the substance water, and generalizes that concept and word to indicate that what is in her water dish is also the same substance she sees outside. In this case, I have often said “water” while placing the water dish into her cage. But, if I have commented on the weather within her hearing I have referred to the “water” as rain.

She recognizes people she sees infrequently with unique ritualized greetings, reserved for them only, by calling out the words or sounds they have used together perhaps over a year previously. She may speak their name while they are in the room, or more often, within the first minutes after they have left the house.

She reliably demonstrates intense emotionality in words and phrases by varying the volume, repetition rate and number of repetitions, by using human intonation with subtle nuance. For instance if she wants my attention she will call “Mayer?” in a simple requesting tone and pause. If I don’t answer or appear immediately I will hear “Mayer!” in a more insistent tone and louder. If I have not responded she is likely to shout “MAYER!!” in a commanding tone of voice (Please feel free to imagine whatever intonations are most familiar to you from your own mother.). She may also add selections from her repertoire of shouting, barking, whistling, creaking, singing wordlessly, grumbling, and sometimes she may bite if frustrated or frightened.

She climbs energetically in circles upside down using her beak and feet. Once upside down she rings bells while suspended only by her beak and kicking them with both feet while flapping her wings and squawking in a greeting, making exuberant noise. She cuddles and preens for attention. She will call me and others by name if left alone in her cage for too long. She craves companionship and appears to suffer in it’s absence. She has learned all this without anyone teaching her anything, at least by any formal method. She is certainly untrained.

Nashi began to innovate in human language the way a human child would. She babbled out syllables, song, clucks, clicks, squeaks, squawks, barks and parts of words and phrases she had heard, and did this out-of-context, apparently as word-playfulness. Eventually she began to ‘speak her mind’ more, so it seemed, and to babble and imitate less often. Soon babbling nearly disappeared completely. Certainly many words and phrases could be heard by that time, (as they are still), muttered ‘under-her-breath’ so quietly that one must make an effort to overhear and not distract her. There have been prolonged quiet mutterings that sounded like one side of a telephone conversation she had heard and remembered. This largely has been replaced by an effective in-context use of English. Her speech these days is often novel in surprising ways, similar to the word-use inventions made by human children. Nashi continues to excel as a talkative social bird, far out-talking Gigi, who listens and observes what is being said and done among humans and birds in the household.

Animals, possibly all animals including ourselves, may form their initial impressions of their surroundings and establish their working comprehension of their ecological niche in a largely associative manner. The neural networks they establish at the outset of their lives will be associative and therefore syncretic , as opposed to being linear and logically constructed.

From this continuing stream of anecdotal evidence we might reasonably build the hypothesis that Nashi appears to have learned English by the same interactive (rival-model) method used by human children pioneered in research with birds by Dr. Pepperberg. For Nashi, a bird who craves my attention and company, my wife is her rival and her model. If she were human, and her language development were on track, by now she would be in a debating society, but she remains only an interesting bird/child who is developmentally delayed for her age by any human standards but appears as brilliant by the kinds of standards that we humans have been mistakenly applying to birds.

Gigi, early years and environment:

Gigi, Nashi’s brother (from an earlier clutch of eggs) was parent- imprinted and parent- raised. He was healthy at birth, produced a fine set of feathers, and he learned to fly while Nashi could not. Gigi never has had the intense focus and attention that Nashi had during his the first days of life. As Nashi became healthier and more competent, the breeder, who had previously bonded with Gigi, was able to return to her earlier patterns and give Gigi more time and attention. Gigi was “her bird” by mutual choice. Gigi has become more of an ‘ordinary guy’ by comparison, and is somewhat of a jazz singer. But Gigi’s language skills have been relatively slower to develop.

Gigi learned what English he has acquired by hearing and observing Nashi as she interacted with us humans within in a spontaneously occurring naturalistic version of Dr. Pepperberg’s Rival-Model learning method. In Gigi’s case, Nashi was his rivals and models and we humans (particularly me because Gigi craves the attention of my wife) served as rival models as well.

Gigi is talking more these days, and more often in context than even one year earlier, while Nashi continues to build upon her already strong interactional and cognitive-linguistic base. Comparatively, Gigi speaks appropriately and in context occasionally, using an apparently well understood vocabulary of perhaps a less than one dozen words. At first, his pronunciation was fuzzy and indistinct, having the rhythm, intonation and some sounds of familiar English words. Over time, his pronunciation has become far more precise and he now speaks in the vocal tonalities of Nashi and ourselves (mostly my own tonalities), evidence that he has modeled his speaking on all of us. He usually sounds like a human adult male, most like my own voice. He is a spooky acoustic mirror.

Nashi on the high end of the spoken spectrum talks a great deal. She speaks clearly. Her words and voice are indistinguishable from that of my wife. This tonal identity is evidence that Nashi modeled her attention, emotion, and language upon my wife, competing with her, my human companion and also therefore her rival, for my attention. It seems that the rival-model method has appeared strongly in this naturalistic (non-laboratory) setting.

Jadebird, early years and environment:

Jadebird has provided us with an unintended contrast and control in this informal experiment. We have for several years housed Jadebird, an adopted bright green adult Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), really in most ways a small parrot, in a cage with all the same amenities and opportunities that are available to Nashi and Gigi who together share the adjacent aviary.

When Jadebird arrived at our aviary, he spoke a few stereotypic phrases, “oh-oh, kitty”, “Ricky Ricky Ricky” (the name of his former owner), “pretty bird, good bird” “hi there” and “good bird-Jadebird”, along with a variety of whistles and squeaks. In the years he has been with us he has not added to or varied these vocalizations until recently. Within the past few months his vocal exchanges with us and with the ‘grays’ (who also talk to each other) has begun to include some quiet and tentative new words and phrases, so far heard only by my wife. He is far slower in developing useful speech than the grays. Clearly he merely mostly babbles, mimics, or imitates phrases he has heard long ago, or that may have been trained into him repetitively by a former owner. Many of his vocalizations or phrases are context appropriate. He sounds out “oh-oh, kitty” when there is actually a cat in the room, but not always, and often the phrase appears as a form of greeting to me or in greeting the dog. Jadebird is not learning language with the same facility. He seems to be neurologically less equipped to do so. Jadebird is energetically social, alert to changes around him, yet he still seems to act from within the context of a wild bird, with limited specialized cognitive capacities even though has been raised among friendly talkative humans and birds.

The latest anecdote:

Within a few minuets of the time that I finished writing the above paragraphs, as my wife left for the day we kissed in view of the birds. As if to add strength to the ideas I set out above, Gigi made the sound of a “kiss!”, strongly suggesting that I am his rival for her attention and affection. As she went out the door, Nashi called out “OK, by now”. My wife had just said something similar to me, again strongly suggesting that she is the rival for Nashi for my attention and affection. Life in this experiment in interspecies living is always interesting.

Nashi has fooled everyone who has hear her speak, at least for a few moments, that she is a person calling to them and responding to them regarding some ongoing activity. All she needs is a visual barrier to cloak her real identity and the game is on. I know most of her capabilities and still I answer her on a daily basis believing that I am talking to my wife. How do I know the truth? My wife has no feathers.

Conclusions:

Nashi has is so resourceful that she seems to be able to vary her interactions enough to sound completely convincing, keeping her comments within the context of the place, time, and activity of our human lives. She is innovative in the use of words, and she taught herself presumably by Rival-Model Learning, the ‘system’ that may be ‘native’ to her species and to many or most social species that have potential capacity for language and syntax. Gigi is somewhat behind her in accomplishment.

In view of these experiences it seems reasonable to offer the hypothesis that the rival-model method may be ‘native’ in the neural capacities of intelligent social animals, and that if we search, we may successfully find examples of it outside of laboratory settings where it may only require our own interested and motivated watching and listening. I suggest that rival-model learning spontaneously has been the underlying structure, and determined the form and sound of learned language for both Nashi and Gigi.

A Final Complex Hypothesis:

ALEX, Nashi, Gigi, and other African Gray Parrots, as well as many other species demonstrate that they have the capacity to use sounds, calls and postural indications in ways and times that are appropriate to particular social and environmental contexts. It is likely that these abilities evolved to support life-critical archetypal place requirements. Like many vertebrates, these birds appear to have a keen sense of setting , and within that, probably also have an awareness of their current behavior setting .

Nested within that awareness we may one day find specific memories associated with each behavior setting, each of which may be categorized within an archetypal, (or, in other terms, fundamental) kind of behavior-associated place.

Each memory engram may be part of a neurological network that simultaneously links the animal’s whole repertoire of expectable place-appropriate and time-appropriate behaviors with abstract representations of the complex actions that have been repeatedly experienced in these place-types. These networks might be termed associative/syncretic networks of memories and representations.

These networked memory locations keyed to social and physical-spatial experience, encoded and accessed within the brains of social creatures (including ourselves) that have the capacity for converting them into expression via vocal or postural (sign) language, may be the essential neural substrates for both the evolution and the development of language.

A Note About Research Funding: Dr. Pepperberg’s research has always been dangerously under-funded. Perhaps, following the death of ALEX, that has so ironically focused the world’s attention on her innovative work, an individual or foundation will step up to support this scientific effort. ALEX has died but the research has not. There are three other birds in the same laboratory insuring that Dr. Pepperberg’s work will continue.