Alex (1976 – September 6, 2007) was an African Grey Parrot and the subject of a thirty-year (1977–2007) experiment by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and later at Harvard University and Brandeis University. Pepperberg bought Alex in a regular pet shop when he was about one year old. The name Alex is an acronym for Avian Language EXperiment, but Pepperberg later cited the name as meaning Avian Learning EXperiment to evoke further acceptance in her research field, a then touchy topic (explained in her book, Alex & Me). His successor was Griffin.
Before Pepperberg’s work with Alex, it was widely believed in the scientific community that a large primate brain was needed to handle complex problems related to language and understanding and that birds were not considered to be intelligent as their only common use of communication was of mimicking and the repetition of sounds to interact with each other. However, Alex’s accomplishments indicated that birds may be able to reason on a basic level and use words creatively. Pepperberg wrote that Alex’s intelligence was on a par with that of dolphins and great apes. She also reported that Alex had the intelligence of a five-year-old human and had not even reached his full potential by the time he died. She said that the bird had the emotional level of a human two-year-old at the time of his death.
Alex’s training used a model/rival technique, where the student (Alex) observes trainers interacting. One of the trainers models the desired student behavior, and is seen by the student as a rival for the other trainer’s attention. The trainer and model/rival exchange roles so the student can see that the process is interactive. During times when Pepperberg and an assistant were having a conversation and made mistakes, Alex would correct them.
This technique helped Pepperberg succeed with Alex where other scientists had failed in facilitating two-way communication with parrots. In later years, Alex sometimes assumed the role of one of Pepperberg’s assistants by acting as the “model” and “rival” in helping to teach a fellow parrot in the lab. Alex sometimes practiced words when he was alone.
Pepperberg was conservative in her descriptions of Alex’s accomplishments, not claiming that he could use “language” but instead saying that he used a two-way communications code. Listing Alex’s accomplishments in 1999, Pepperberg said he could identify 50 different objects and recognize quantities up to six; that he could distinguish seven colors and five shapes, and understand the concepts of “bigger”, “smaller”, “same”, and “different”, and that he was learning “over” and “under”. Alex passed increasingly more difficult tests measuring whether humans have achieved Piaget’s Substage 6 object permanence. Alex showed surprise and anger when confronted with a nonexistent object or one different from what he had been led to believe was hidden during the tests.
Alex had a vocabulary of about 150 words, but was exceptional in that he appeared to have understanding of what he said. For example, when Alex was shown an object and was asked about its shape, color, or material, he could label it correctly. He could understand that a key was a key no matter what its size or color, and could figure out how the key was different from others. He asked what color he was, and learned “grey” after being told the answer six times.
Alex understood the turn-taking of communication and often the syntax used in language. He called an apple a “banerry”, which Pepperberg thought to be a combination of “banana” and “cherry”, two fruits he was more familiar with.
Alex could even add, to a limited extent, correctly giving the number of like objects on a tray. Pepperberg said that if he could not count, the data could be interpreted as his being able to quickly and accurately estimate the number of something, better than humans can. When he was tired of being tested, he would say “Wanna go back,” meaning he wanted to go back to his cage, and in general, he would request where he wanted to be taken by saying “Wanna go…”, protest if he was taken to a different place, and sit quietly when taken to his preferred spot. He was not trained to say where he wanted to go, but picked it up from being asked where he’d like to be taken. If the researcher displayed annoyance, Alex tried to defuse it with the phrase, “I’m sorry.” If he said “Wanna banana,” but was offered a nut instead, he stared in silence, asked for the banana again, or took the nut and threw it at the researcher or otherwise displayed annoyance, before requesting the item again. When asked questions in the context of research testing, he gave the correct answer approximately 80% of the time.
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