Pepperberg(Parrot) Flashcards
What is the aim of this study?
To see whether a parrot could use vocal labels to demonstrate a symbolic understanding of the concepts same and different
What is symbolic representation?
When the concept of sameness or difference learned from one experience can be applied to an entirely new and different situation
What method and design of this study?
It was an animal case study involving one subject who was trained and tested over a couple of years
Who was the subject of this case study?
An African Grey Parrot named Alex
Before this study Alex had been what?
He was a test subject in other research on communication and cognition for
around ten years
When he wasn’t being studied, how was Alex treated?
He had free access to the whole laboratory and was confined in a wire cage at night. He was fed a diet suitable for his species and given toys to play with
How many times a week was Alex trained/studied?
Two to four times a week
How long did each session last?
Five minutes and one hour
Alex participated in other studies besides this one, true or false?
True
What training method was used on Alex in this study?
Model/rival or M/R approach
One human in Model/rival approach acts as trainer, what does he do?
Acts as trainer to the second human by presenting the second with objects, then asking questions about the objects and offering reward or praise to
desirable responses
The second human/learner in M/R approach acts as a what to the parrot?
A model
What does the second human or learner is seen as what by the parrot?
A rival and competes for the trainer’s attention
The roles of the M/R did what?
Reverse
In the study a system of continuous reinforcement was used, what is it?
When a learner receives a reward for a desirable behaviour it could one of several rewards that have already been scheduled will be used
During training on same/different, the trainer would ask the model what type of questions?
“What’s the same” or “What’s different”
If the learner responded with the right category label what would happen?
He would be rewarded by being given the object
If the learner responded with the wrong category label what would happen?
He would be scolded and have the object taken away
Prior to this study what labels did Alex already know?
The labels of color and shape