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Mathematical Parrot Reveals His Genius With Posthumous Paper

Posted by Soulskill on from the math-is-for-the-birds dept.

ananyo writes "Even in death, the world's most accomplished parrot continues to amaze. The final experiments involving Alex – a grey parrot trained to count objects – have just been published (abstract). They show that Alex could accurately add together Arabic numerals to a sum of eight, and correctly add three small sets of objects, putting his mathematical abilities on par with (and maybe beyond) those of chimpanzees and other non-human primates."

13 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Alex is Dead? by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why wasn't that on Slashdot?

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
    1. Re:Alex is Dead? by kanweg · · Score: 5, Funny

      Because some people on Slashdot don't like parroted stories. I see complaints about that frequently.

      Bert

    2. Re:Alex is Dead? by Relic+of+the+Future · · Score: 4, Informative

      It was (you insensitive clod).

      --
      Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
    3. Re:Alex is Dead? by sideslash · · Score: 5, Funny

      'E's just resting, you know.

    4. Re:Alex is Dead? by KatchooNJ · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's an X parrot! "What does X equal, Alex?"

      --
      "Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
  2. Re:Sea animals? by dietdew7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They (octopuses sic) have trouble with base 10, they're pretty good with octal.

  3. Things that still need to be done by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Alex was clearly pretty smart. However, it is as yet still unclear if Alex was actually a representative parrot or was smarter than other parrots. A lot of the current work being done will help answer that. There's also some concern that some of the early experiments with Alex didn't adequately handle the Clever Hahns problem- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans where an animal rather than give actual answers uses subtle cues from the examiner on how to answer correctly. The more recent experiments help address that. It seems clear at this point that Alex's intelligence, and that of the other African Greys, is genuine, but what the average is like is still unclear. One thing is certain though: the use of the word "parrot" to mean mindlessly repeat is deeply unfair.

    1. Re:Things that still need to be done by Tharsman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I dare "blindly" guess Alex was an average African Grey. My mother happens to own one and it is honestly as smart as a very young child. It's hard to explain. He knows what kind of words use for anger, happiness, request food, denote you are eating (without requesting food for himself, and actually rejecting it, just because he noted you are eating does not mean he WANTS some,) dance, sing, laugh at jokes on the TV (i think it’s more a matter of intonation on that one than actually understanding the joke) and even tell the dog to get the hell away from him. That on top of many other tiny behavioral things.

      I think their learning is mostly hindered or boosted by their teacher. My mother is an elder woman, though, without much science or math skills to go trying to impart that knowledge on the bird.

      I can’t help but smile in amazement every other week for some new thing he reacts to intelligently.

      My doubt does not lie on them being able to learn, but instead being able to transfer knowledge to their children. It would take insane decades, but I would love to find a species in this planet we can teach to, that in turn teach their children the same skills.

  4. From the title I thought Alex WROTE the paper! by wisebabo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That would've been even more impressive than his math abilities.

  5. Re:Mathematical Parrot Reveals His Genius With Pos by jeepien · · Score: 4, Funny

    It also looks like your English teacher Hated and was Afraid of English, and Past that Hate to you.

  6. Re:Sea animals? by miknix · · Score: 4, Informative

    How do dolphins and octopuses rank? I tried a search w.r.t. octopuses but didn't find anything (and wikipedia has nothing about it).

    Octopuses are the smartest invertebrates on Earth. I do sparrow fishing as hobby and they don't stop amazing me, from their ability to deploy decoy legs able to walk alone, annoying ink jets and their fantastic camouflage they are pretty good stealing items too! They should join thepiratebay!
    (it's a joke, I know the difference between stealing and copying)

  7. Re:implication for dinosaurs by sexconker · · Score: 4, Funny

    With time, the dinosaurs might have evolved to create civilization.

    They actually had an advanced civilization but it collapsed. When the time came to actually DO something about the massive rock heading for the planet, they built a trajectory altering rocket that would land on the asteroid, dig itself in, and then fire its engines to steer the asteroid the necessary fraction of a degree away to save the planet.
    Unfortunately they used touch screens for everything (instead of keyboards and mice) to cater to the T-Rex crowd with their short arms. When it was time to launch, they futilely pawed at their dPads but they just couldn't get any actual work done.

  8. So much for the "bird brain" insult.. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Corvids are as, or may even be more, intelligent. There's the classic story of the Caledonian crow who custom fashioned it's own tool to get at grubs, a trait previously only known to primates, to cite one example. Others abound, but I'm feeling too lazy right now to go hunt them down. Heckle and Jeckle would've outsmarted Wiley E. Coyote any day of the week.

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