Posted on 07/04/2005 5:44:16 PM PDT by upchuck
Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero
A bird seems to have hit on a concept that eluded mathematicians for centuries - possibly during a temper tantrum.
June 22, 2005
Special to World Science
Researchers are exploring whether a parrot has developed a numerical concept that eluded mathematicians for centuries: zero.
Oddly, it seems he may have achieved the feat during a temper tantrum, the researchers say.
Although zero is an obvious notion to most of us, it wasn't to people long ago. Scholars say it came into widespread use in the West only in the 1600s by way of India, which had it about a millennium earlier.
Yet Alex, a 28-year-old Grey parrot, recently began - unprompted - using the word "none" for an absence of objects, according to Irene Pepperberg and Jesse Gordon of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Alex thus possesses a "zero-like concept," they wrote in the May issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology, a research journal.
Years earlier, Alex had learned another meaning of "none," as a lack of information, they added. But his feat was to extend the concept to a context involving numbers, during a test of his counting skills.
Alex's apparent insight into nothingness doesn't necessarily extend to other arithmetical talents, though: the researchers found these to lag in some respects behind those of young human children.
The scientists also said it will take further study to determine whether Alex - who has been the subject of intelligence and communication tests throughout his life - really understands zero.
Zero and none "are not identical," Pepperberg wrote in a recent email. But since Alex never learned "zero," the researchers said, it's impressive that he started using a word he knew to denote something like it: an absence of a particular number of objects.
Chimps and possibly squirrel monkeys show some understanding of zero, but only after training, the researchers said. So Alex's feat is the first time this has been documented in a bird, "and the first time it occurred spontaneously," Pepperberg said via email.
But the insight didn't come without a few bumps.
The story began when researchers began testing Alex to see whether he understood small numbers, between one and six. Zero wasn't expected of him. The researchers would lay out an array of objects of different colors and sizes, and asked questions such as "what color four?" - meaning which color are the objects of which there are four.
After performed well on this, with no training, for dozens of trials, the researchers recounted. But then he balked. Alex started ignoring questions, or giving wrong answers, seemingly deliberately. He seemed to enjoy the experimenters' frustrated reactions, they said.
There was evidence, they added, that his stubornness stemmed from a boredom with the the rewards he had been getting for right answers. The researchers found some more interesting toys to give as rewards. After two weeks of obstructionism, Alex grudgingly returned to the game, though he occasionally seemed to lapse back.
One of these apparent lapses occurred one day when an experimenter asked Alex "what color three?" Laid out before Alex were sets of two, three and six objects, each set differently colored.
Alex insisted on responding: "five." This made no sense given that the answer was supposed to be a color.
After several tries the experimenter gave up and said: "OK, Alex, tell me: what color five?"
"None," the bird replied. This was correct, in that there was no color that graced exactly five of the objects. The researchers went on to incorporate "none" into future trials, and Alex consistently gave a solid performance, they said.
"We cannot determine what cognitive process led to this behavior," the researchers wrote. "We suggest only that his action, occurring soon after a period of noncompliance, resulted from a lack of interest in the given task and was a possible attempt to make the procedure more challenging."
In the future, the researchers said they want to test Alex for his ability to add and subtract small quantities, including possibly zero.
As they try to determine whether Alex really understands zero, they will also have to untangle the meanings of "none" and "zero."
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines zero, to begin with, as follows: "the arithmetical symbol" denoting the absence of all magnitude or quantity," or "the number between the set of all negative numbers and the set of all positive numbers." The entry continues with several more definitions.
By contrast, the dictionary defines "none" entirely with the following terms: not any, not one, nobody, not any such thing or person, no part, nothing.
Of course, what these words mean to the authors of a dictionary is one thing. What they mean to a parrot is another.
A related question is the history of both words. "None" seems to also have an older history than "zero."
Zero was common in the West only from the 1600s on, though similar concepts appeared earlier in fits and starts, according to J.J. O'Connor of the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland.
In pre-zero times, O'Connor wrote in an online essay, some mathematicians tied themselves in knots to solve problems that would have been much easier with a zero. But ancient peoples as a whole probably didn't think of it because they didn't need it: "If ancient peoples solved a problem about how many horses a farmer needed," he wrote, "then the problem was not going to have 0 or -23 as an answer."
"None" is considerably older than "zero" in Western cultures. It's related to a "neinn" - an early medieval Viking word - and is similar to the still older Latin word "noenum," meaning "not one," according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Whatever the etymological roots of Alex's utterances, his performance has its limitations, the researchers said. Several years ago, they tried to teach him to recite a number line by presenting written numerals on their own, without reference to groups of items. Alex performed rather poorly, unlike normal schoolchildren, who can usually be fairly easily taught to recite their numbers, like the alphabet, without this tangible reference.
Thus Alex's apparent insight into zero, if that's what it is, doesn't necessarily reflect across-the-board mathematical genius. "Alex's abilities might provide an important parallel not with normal children but with those who have trouble learning language and counting skills," the researchers wrote.
Or, how 'bout nuthin' from nuthin'?
At Dad's house we watch squirrels and bluejays eat out of Dad's hand. Both squirrels and bluejays pick up the offered peanuts and seem to weigh them--taking the heavier of the options.
Go figger.
Bet he tries to divide by zero.
I wonder how much of our tax dollars went to fund this important research?
... leaves nuthin'.
They do, however, pine for the fjords.
My dog understands a similar concept. Sometimes I throw him a scrap of food from the counter, and he naturally waits for another piece. I put up my hands, palms open, and say "all gone." He goes into the other room and sits down.
Lets see if these researchers understand the concept of zero, starting with their paychecks and grant money.
LOL!!!
Alex must be shown Hillary Clinton, and how much crackers the average parrot will have left after taxes if she is elected President. "Zero zero zero baaawwk! Zero zero zero baaawwk! Alex has zero crackers! Bawk!"
Compare that to the implications of Einstein's special theory of relativity, that you can exceed the speed of light, but you can't come back.
Food for thought. LOL.
Please! Alex is 28 years old. Must not scare an old parrot like that. Just hearing her voice might do him in. :)
Is that sorta like, "You can never go home again?" :)
Sorry to inform you, but Alex is a privately owned pet.
Someone show me their dog or cat with a 1000+ word vocabulary, that can initiate conversations. Not just answer questions, but actually communicate.
After hearing about Alex a while back, I did a bunch of internet searches about parrot behavior and intelligence.
When I finally quit a few hours later, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. Straight up!
For an animal with a brain smaller than a walnut, their perceptions, acuity, and reasoning are, well, frightening.
I suspect the reason it hasn't been studied alot more is that it might basically throw 100 years of psychiatry and neurology out the window.
Try having birds for pets.......They're like children. Except they don't grow up and go away - they remain pretty much as children until they get old.
28 isn't old, most large parrots live to be as old as humans.
My two macaws are smarter than some of my college students.
Their vocabularies exceed the average LA Unified School District high-school student.
See, Einstein always said one cannot exceed the speed of light - but his math says, one can.
But your odds of coming back are infintessimally small - like finding a razor-blade, edge on, in the pacific ocean.
Your milage may vary.
high-school student = high-school student's. (vocab.)
Yeah - they're great! Parrots rrrwaa-ck!
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