Alex (parrot)
| Alex | |
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Alex participating in a numerical cognition experiment
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| Born | 1976 |
| Died | September 6, 2007 (aged 31) Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, US |
| Cause of death | Sudden death secondary to atherosclerosis |
| Years active | 1977–2007 |
| Known for | Intelligent use of language |
Alex (1976 – 6 September 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. When Alex was about one year old, Pepperberg bought him at a pet shop. The name "Alex" was a backronym for avian language experiment, or avian learning experiment.
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; birds were not considered to be intelligent, as their only common use of communication was mimicking and repeating sounds to interact with each other. However, Alex's accomplishments supported the idea that birds may be able to reason on a basic level and use words creatively. Pepperberg wrote that Alex's intelligence was on a level similar to dolphins and great apes. She also reported that Alex seemed to show the intelligence of a five-year-old human, in some respects, and he had not even reached his full potential by the time he died. She believed that the bird possessed the emotional level of a human two-year-old at the time of his death.
Animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg bought Alex at a pet store near O'Hare Airport in Chicago while she was doing research at Purdue University (a couple hours' drive southeast). Pepperberg believes that Alex may have had his wings clipped when he was young, which could have prevented him from learning to fly.
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. Pepperberg reported that during times when she and an assistant were having a conversation and made mistakes, Alex would correct them.
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