OT- Something Lisa could never do.

No Birdbrain, Parrot Grasps Concept of Zero

Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Senior Writer
LiveScience.comFri Jul 8, 2:06 PM ET

A parrot has grasped the concept of zero, something humans can't do
until at least the toddler phase, researchers say.

Alex, a 28-year-old African gray parrot who lives in a lab at Brandeis
University in Massachusetts, has a brain the size of a walnut. But when
confronted with no items on a tray where usually there are some, he
says "none."

Zero is thought to be a rather abstract concept even for people.
Children typically don't grasp it until age three or four, Brandeis
researchers say. Some ancient cultures lacked a formal term for zilch,
even as recently as the Middle Ages.

Feathered phenom

Alex is a fairly skilled counter. In a test, he said "none" when items
on his tray were cleared. More trials were done, and the avian Einstein
"consistently demonstrated the ability to identify zero quantity by
saying the label 'none,'" the study concluded.

Alex's null may be slightly different than your nada.

"Alex has a zero-like concept; it's not identical to ours but he
repeatedly showed us that he understands an absence of quantity," said
Irene Pepperberg, who led the research

The result, published in the current issue of the Journal of
Comparative Psychology, adds to growing evidence that birds and other
animals are smarter than we thought.

A 2003 study in the journal Nature, for example, found that common
marsh birds called coots can recognize and count their own eggs, even
when other eggs are in the nest.

Black-capped chickadees were recently found to warn colleagues of
danger by chirping about the size and actual threat of individual
predators. The language of prairie dogs includes a word for humans.

Some animal intelligence is hauntingly familiar, like the male monkeys
that pay to see female monkey bottoms. And studies show that monkeys,
dogs and rats all know how to laugh.

There are obvious limits to animal intelligence, of course. Take the
450 sheep who recently jumped to their deaths for no apparent reason.

Parroting behavior?

One question that dogs animal intelligence research is whether
remarkable, humanlike behaviors are innate and truly cerebral or if a
creature is just parroting a trainer.

"It is doubtful that Alex's achievement, or those of some other animals
such as chimps, can be completely trained," Pepperberg said. "Rather,
it seems likely that these skills are based on simpler cognitive
abilities they need for survival, such as recognition of more versus
less."

Pepperberg said the study could help shed light on human learning
disabilities.

She now plans to find out how well Alex can add and subtract.
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