Does Alex the parrot use language to express preferences, make choices or comment on the world around him?
Yes, Alex is quite insistent about using his speech to get what he wants. If, for example, he requests a grape and I give him something else, most of the time he says “Nuh (his word for ‘no’) and requests the grape again. We can’t really document if he is commenting on the world around him….if he says “yellow” when a student is wearing a yellow shirt, he might simply be practicing the term. Irene Pepperberg Animal Einsteins, January 1999 Do you believe that cooperation and peacemaking may be instinctive behaviors among non-human primates and among humans, too? We don’t use the term “instinct” anymore because everything people and animals do is determined by both biology and the environment. But if you mean that the tendency and capacity to restore relationships after fights is part of primate nature, I’d say yes. It is part of it, and the environment (for example, the culture in which you live, or the educational system) can either strengthen or weaken this tendency. This is also tru
Does Alex the parrot use language to express preferences, make choices or comment on the world around him?