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Irene Pepperberg: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Irene Pepperberg, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• An African grey parrot spontaneously showed he understood the concept of zero

  Alex, a parrot trained for decades by researcher Irene Pepperberg, had learned to name quantities and objects but was never taught the word 'zero.' During a test, shown a tray with…

  — Irene Pepperberg and Jesse Gordon, Number Comprehension by a Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus), Including a Zero-Like Concept

• An African grey parrot spontaneously grasped a 'zero-like' concept

  Alex, trained for decades by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, already used the word 'none' to mean no difference between two objects. In a 2005 test he spontaneously applied it to an…

  — Irene Pepperberg, Alex (parrot)

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