Reddit mentions of Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence-and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process

That's absolutely untrue, Pepperberg's experiments with Alex were quite systematic and rigorous. It's not a light read, but if you want to learn more about the methodology of her work and the data gained, read The Alex Studies.

Additionally, the lab is having similar success with the other birds in the program, so while Alex is a heck of a story, I don't think he can be considered a fluke.

 
 

(Bonus: if you want a less academic and fluffier read, pick up a copy of Alex & Me)

He's seen the human do it, and the human seems to get praise and attention for doing it. So he wants to do it.

After food, shelter and warmth, praise and attention are what pretty much all creatures want.

In fact, Alex the Parrot, was trained using a method wherein a human "model" would give the right answers to questions, and be praised for it; because Alex wanted the praise, he learned to give the right answers as well.

(Alex was also kind of a dick, particularly to the other parrots - in her book, Pepperberg recounts the story of a time when she was training another parrot and Alex kept on yelling out the wrong answers to confuse him)

Yes. They do. If you want some good resources that get sciency with it:


Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process: Dr. Irene Pepperberg's studies on language and cognitive theory with African Greys. Alex could do complex abstract conversions with things like number and counting, for instance he knew what "5" is as a symbol and could equate it to a representation for a number of objects like x, x, x, x, x means there are "five" "x"s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXoTaZotdHg


Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot University of Georgia PHD who shares her life with her CAG, and has created a language for conversing with him she calls "Cosmish" which incluses tenses (future, past, future possible, etc.) and an number of other advanced linguistic constructs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyWYzuV6WYk


Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans: A fascinating and highly entertaining book about cognition in corvid populations. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE AUDIOBOOK if you've got a 6-hour road trip, it is GREAT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0OAWFn02Lg


I've seen my birds pick up spontaneous conversational associations. The original Dr. Doolittle was fabled to "talk with animals" because he kept an African Grey and for grey owners, it's just accepted as "the norm" and taken for granted. It wasn't until I got Ollie, my "new" bird after losing "Smokey" the bird I'd had for most of my life that I saw the process develop again.


One striking example was "whoops". The second day Ollie was home, he broke a toe. He temporarily became clumsy as a result, so if I dropped or startled anything near him or he stumbled, I was very careful to say "Whoops, you're all right." Over time, it just became "Whoops". His toe healed and he regained his footing and I'd long since forgotten about it. At about 9 months old, he had his first molt of flight feathers. When I'd gotten him he had a HORRIBLE clipping, so his wings were useless. After his flight feathers came back in and he began fledging, I noticed him using "Whoops" whenever he had a shaky landing.


He was doing this on his own. Additionally, any time anything is dropped in his vicinity, he exclaims "whoops", if he's on me and I do something he's not expected "Whoops". The cat falls off the couch "Whoops". So I'm pretty certain, he knows that there are appropriate contexts for saying "Whoops" and he in those contexts he predictably says "whoops"...


This is one of probably dozens of examples, but, yes, based on both reading and practical experience with greys, I fully believe that they both TALK and cognitively use language.

I have been contributing to The Alex Foundation for years, ever since I read "Alex and Me". Dr. Pepperberg has worked for years to understand the intelligence levels of Parrots, and her dedication is phenomenal, though her funding has been uncertain, at best, and I would like her to be able to continue to learn about these amazing little characters.

Highly recommend Pepperberg's book, Alex & Me. Great read of what they went through together.

If you're interested in Alex the Parrot, there's a book about him, called Alex and Me, by Dr Pepperberg: http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Me-Scientist-Discovered-Intelligence/dp/0061673986 It's pretty interesting, and not very long. I recommend it.

Read the book!
http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Me-Scientist-Discovered-Intelligence--/dp/0061673986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348597233&sr=8-1&keywords=book+alex+and+me

I'm sorry you had such a short time with your friend. Parrots are awesome.

I don't know if the timing is right, but Alex and Me tells an amazing story. One of the kind that makes one wonder about the nature of the soul.

Peace

Irene Pepperman wrote a great book Alex and Me about her training of Alex. It is a good read, sad ending.

I guess it might not count as "in nature", but in the book Alex and Me the author claims the bird could answer questions like "how many blue" things are there. This was from a parrot who was trained over many years though, not sure if parrots can do stuff like that in the wild.

Really great memoirs about the whole starting of this study by Dr. Irene Pepperberg

Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061673986/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rlGIybGJC4J5W