• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Counting Parrot

Counting Parrot

October 31, 2005
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/051031_sciup_coun.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
What’s none got to do with it? I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Alex is a 28-year-old African grey parrot. Brandeis University comparative psychologist Irene Pepperberg has taught him to identify colors, shapes, objects, and numbers.

IRENE PEPPERBERG (Brandeis University):
Alex, how many green wool?

Alex: "One."

IRENE PEPPERBERG:
OK, Good parrot.

HIRSHON:
Now Alex has become the first bird to understand the concept of zero, which is hard even for children. During a training session, he spontaneously used the word "none" to describe the absence of objects on a tray.

IRENE PEPPERBERG:
Now he had understood none in terms of absence of same or different in two objects, but he had never been trained using none for a quantity.

HIRSHON:
Pepperberg says Alex is helping to convince people that even birdbrains are capable of abstract thought. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Animal Behavior
Previous Post: « Shark Roundup
Next Post: Laughing Animals »

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

Recent Posts

House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket
Biologist E.O. Wilson with children
Diagram showing Earth's tilt

Copyright © 2022 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos