Romney want a crackerrr???
A lost parakeet in Japan was returned safely to its owner last week after it told police its home address. Why do captive birds mimic human speech, and how do they decide what to say?
They’re trying to fit in with the flock, and they’ll say whatever it takes.
— “Why Parrots Parrot: When birds mimic human speech, do they know what they’resaying?”, Will Oremus, Slate, today
Romney want a crackerrr???
(Sorry, sorry, sorry. But I couldn’t resist.)
The report mentioned Alex, the gray parrot, who had a vocabulary of 100 English words or so, and could, when asked, correctly answer certain characteristics of an object, such as its color. The report said that skeptics argued that Alex’s apparent abilities might be attributed to the Clever Hans effect. That is doubtful.
Clever Hans was a horse who apparently could do simply arithmetic, indicating the answer by tapping the ground (or floor) with its hoof. It was unable to do so when no human who knew the answer was present, however. It seems like the trainer’s body language (or some other human’s) cued Hans when to stop tapping. Now imagine that kind of effect for naming the color of an object. Even assuming that the parrot understood that a color was called for, he would have to guess until he got it right: “Blue? Squawk. Green? Red? Yeah, red, I mean, red.” What a flip-flopper! 😉
Geeez. Wish I’d swallowed that sip of wine before I finished reading your comment. Thanks for the chuckle.
Well, as far as “do they know?” I baby sat my daughters small green parrot… no, i don’t know what kind.
I put its cage in the window so it could see outside. Getting about dark, I decided to close the curtains.
“What are you doing!” it screamed.
It knew.
As for the Clever Hand effect, I am sure it explains most of what goes on in a graduate seminar.
coberly
Well, as far as “do they know?” I baby sat my daughters small green parrot… no, i don’t know what kind.
I put its cage in the window so it could see outside. Getting about dark, I decided to close the curtains.
“What are you doing!” it screamed.
It knew.
As for the Clever Hans effect, I am sure it explains most of what goes on in a graduate seminar.
Beverly, I hope you don;t make your living as a comedian. :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTuiE1_Oe8&feature=related
If you have a border collie, this won’t come as a surprise. Otherwise, here’s a smart dog demonstrating what they can do. BC’s are generally regarded as the smartest. They can herd flocks of up to a thousand sheep with no human assistance. People don’t do as well at herding as BC’s. So, you see, it depends on what you mean by “smart.” 😎 NancyO
This blog has gone to the birds so I will add some noise. Yesterday as I was going to the barn I noticed a barn swallow flying with something white in its beak. It dropped the object and then swooped about and caught it again. Then it repeated the act and another swallow swooped and caught it. This went on for some time. Only thing I could think of was it was swallow play or momma swallow was teaching baby swallows to catch insects on the wing. No matter it was fun to watch.
Nancy
arrrr they’re not so smart. a couple of em used to come out to chase away me and my two german shepherds and crazy eddy. we showed em smart.
and yesterday they must have seen we were getting older and tried again. so young werf had to teach em manners.
depends on what you mean by smart.
Ahem, Coberly. I did say, if you will take note, “it depends on what you mean by smart”, didn’t I? QED. 😉 NO
Nancy
you have to remember that i went to school during the height of the B.F.Skinner daze. during that time we learned you can teach a Professor to do anything you want just by dangling an m&m’s in front of him.
psychology has moved on from there. but Harvard still hires professors in economics who say “incentives matter” as if they had said all there is to say.
like i said, it all depends on what you mean by smart.
for instance…
me and the dogs used to go for long walks and they would see a rabbit. ta ra ta ra ta ra and dogs and rabbit disappeared in a cloud of dust. the dogs over the horizon, presently the rabbit stepped out from behind a bush, looked at his watch, folded his newspaper, tipped his hat and went lippity lippity hopping down the bunny trail in another direction.
it all depends on what you mean by smart.
but one day i was baby sitting my daughters … border collie. she watched all this, and when the big dogs came back dragging their tongues behind them, she said, oh, is it a rabbit you want, then?
then she walked into the bush and came back out with a rabbit with those little x’s over its eyes.
then just to prove it was no fluke, a quarter mile later she said, oh, excuse me, i have to go behind the bushes for a moment. and she came back with another rabbit…. with the little x’s.
well, this had to stop. or there would be no Easter for the children. so we sent the border collie home, and went back to chasing rabbits our own way.
depends on what you mean by smart.
later I asked the collie her secret. it’s easy, she said. just ask them for the time. rabbits love to show off their watches.
dilbert
thanks for sharing that picture.