Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process
Irene Pepperberg, 2008
HarperCollins
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061673986
Summary
On September 6, 2007, an African Grey parrot named Alex died prematurely at age thirty-one. His last words to his owner, Irene Pepperberg, were "You be good. I love you."
What would normally be a quiet, very private event was, in Alex's case, headline news. Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous-two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Yet, over the years, Alex proved many things. He could add. He could sound out words. He understood concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none. He was capable of thought and intention. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures.
The fame that resulted was extraordinary. Yet there was a side to their relationship that never made the papers. They were emotionally connected to one another. They shared a deep bond far beyond science. Alex missed Irene when she was away. He was jealous when she paid attention to other parrots, or even people. He liked to show her who was boss. He loved to dance. He sometimes became bored by the repetition of his tests, and played jokes on her. Sometimes they sniped at each other. Yet nearly every day, they each said, "I love you."
Alex and Irene stayed together through thick and thin—despite sneers from experts, extraordinary financial sacrifices, and a nomadic existence from one university to another. The story of their thirty-year adventure is equally a landmark of scientific achievement and of an unforgettable human-animal bond. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 1. 1949
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Education—B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University
• Awards—Fellow, American Association for the Advancement
of Sciences; Nominee, L'Oreal Women in Science; Purdue
University "Old Masters" Award; Selby Fellowship, Australian
Academy of Sciences; Fellow, American Psychological
Society.
• Currently—lives in Massachusetts, USA
Irene M. Pepperberg is an associate research professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts and teaches animal cognition at Harvard University. Her work has been featured in major newspapers and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Asia, as well as on television, including the now-famous interview of Alex by Alan Alda on Scientific American Frontiers. She is the author of one previous book, The Alex Studies (Harvard, 2000). (From the publisher.)
More
is a scientist noted for her studies in animal cognition, particularly in relation to parrots. She is an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University and a lecturer at Harvard University. She is well known for her comparative studies into the cognitive fundamentals of language and communication, and was one of the first to try to extend work on language learning in animals other than humans (exemplified by the Washoe project) to a bird species. Dr. Pepperberg is also active in wildlife conservation, especially in relation to parrots.
Although parrots have long been known for their capacities in vocal mimicry, Pepperberg set out to show that their vocal behavior could have the characteristics of human language. She worked intensively with a single African Grey Parrot, Alex, and reported that he acquired a large vocabulary and used it in a sophisticated way, which is often described as similar to that of a two year old child. Pepperberg and her colleagues have sought to show that Alex can differentiate meaning and syntax, so that his use of vocal communication is unlike the relatively inflexible forms of "instinctive" communication that are widespread in the animal kingdom. Although such results are always likely to be controversial, and working intensively with a single animal always incurs the risk of Clever Hans effects, Pepperberg's work has strengthened the argument that humans do not hold the monopoly on the complex or semicomplex use of abstract communication.
Some researchers believe that the training method that Pepperberg used with Alex, (called the model-rival technique) holds promise for teaching autistic and other learning-disabled children who have difficulty learning language, numerical concepts and empathy. When some autistic children were taught using the same methods Dr. Pepperberg devised to teach parrots, their response exceeded expectations.
From work with the single subject Alex, Pepperberg and her colleagues have gone on to study additional African Grey Parrots, and also parrots of other species. A final evaluation of the importance of her work will probably depend on the success of these attempts to generalise it to other individuals.
Alex the African Grey Parrot was found dead on morning of September 6, 2007, and was seemingly healthy the previous day. On September 10, 2007, the necropsy of Alex revealed no discernible cause of death.
The model rival technique involves two trainers, one to give instructions, and one to model correct and incorrect responses and to act as the student's rival for the trainer's attention; the model and trainer also exchange roles so that the student sees that the process is fully interactive. The parrot, in the role of student, tries to reproduce the correct behavior.
The use of this model rival technique resulted in Alex identifying objects by color, shape, number and material at about the level of chimpanzees and dolphins. His language abilities were equivalent to those of a 2-year old child and he had the problem solving skills of a 5-year old. Alex was learning the alphabet, had a vocabulary of 150 words, knew the names of 50 objects and could count up to seven when he died. He could also answer questions about objects.
Pepperberg countered critics' claims that Alex had been taught a script by explaining that the controls and tests she used made it impossible for him simply to recite words when she asked questions. The Clever Hans effect did not apply, she argued, as Alex would talk to anyone, not just to her. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
In her charming new book, ... Dr. Pepperberg—an associate research professor at Brandeis and a teacher of animal cognition at Harvard—describes her three-decade-long relationship with [the grey parrot] Alex and her struggle to win recognition from the scientific establishment, which was dominated, when she began working with the parrot, by “the behaviorists’ gospel,” which held that “animals are automatons, responding mindlessly to stimuli.” ... Her book movingly combines the scientific detail of a researcher, intent on showing with “statistical confidence” that Alex “did indeed have this or that cognitive ability,” with the affectionate understanding that children (and children’s books about animals) instinctively possess: that “animals know more than we think, and think a great deal more than we know.”
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
This ornery reviewer tried to resist Alex’s charms on principle (the principle that says any author who keeps telling us how remarkable her subject is cannot possibly be right). But his achievements got the better of me. During one training session, Alex repeatedly asked for a nut, a request that Pepperberg refused (work comes first). Finally, Alex looked at her and said, slowly, “Want a nut. Nnn . . . uh . . . tuh.”
Elizabeth Royte - New York Times Book Review
Alex is the African gray parrot whose ability to master a vocabulary of more than 100 words and answer questions about the color, shape and number of objects-garnered wide notice during his life as well as obituaries in worldwide media after his death in September 2007. Pepperberg, who teaches animal cognition, has previously documented the results of her 30-year relationship with Alex in The Alex Studies. While this book inevitably covers some of the same ground, it is a moving tribute that beautifully evokes "the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievements" during a groundbreaking scientific endeavor spent "uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible, and challenging science's deepest assumptions about the origin of human cognitive abilities." Pepperberg deftly interweaves her own personal narrative-including her struggles to gain recognition for her research-with more intimate scenes of life with Alex than she was able to present in her earlier work, creating a story that scientists and laypeople can equally enjoy, if they can all keep from crying over Alex's untimely death.
Publishers Weekly
Pepperberg, an animal cognitive scientist and associate research professor at Brandeis University, made history with her landmark research involving Alex, an African Grey parrot. Her detailed findings based on two decades of research were published in 1999 in The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots. She was able to prove that African Greys possess cognitive and communicative abilities beyond what scientists had previously believed possible in animals other than humans. After her previous book, Pepperberg had almost another decade of interactions with Alex before his sudden death in September 2007. Her latest is more memoir than research work, focusing on her personal relationship with Alex while introducing lay readers to her extensive research on these remarkable birds. This is a nice companion to Pepperberg's more scientific writings. Recommended for academic and public libraries alike.
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, take a look at these LitLovers Talking Points to help get your discussion started for Alex and Me:
1. Would you like to have understood more about Pepperberg herself? She reveals little about her parents, failed marriage, and relationships with colleagues. Nor does she explain, as one critic puts it: "how she ended up in her 50s, alone and jobless, reduced to eating 14 tofu meals a week (to save money, not the earth). Her approach to herself is neither scientific nor humanistic: the woman remains an enigma."
2. Talk about the scientific community, which initially rejected Pepperberg's observations and papers about Alex. Why? What did Pepperberg have to overcome to prove the scientific worth of her work with birds, especially Alex?
3. Questions have been raised about Pepperberg's cruelty of confining to a cage a creature that has the cognitive skills of a 5-year-old. Where do you stand on this?
4. When reading about Alex, did you get the sense that he reminded you of "someone you know?"
5. Discuss the degree of Pepperberg's grief over Alex's death. What is so profound about his dying—or the dying of any beloved pet ? Might Alex's death be different than a dog or cat?
6. What is the connection—the degree of affection—that bonds humans to? How can it be explained...whether cat or dog or bird or ferret or horse? Why are animals or birds so deeply appealing to humans...and what makes them relate to us?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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