Parrot Becomes the First Bird to Comprehend Zero

Environment News Service, July, 2005

WALTHAM, Massachusetts (ENS) — --> A Brandeis University researcher has shown that an African grey parrot with brain the size of a walnut understands a numerical concept akin to zero – an abstract notion that most humans do not understand until age three or four, and that can challenge learning disabled children

Alex, the 28 year old parrot who lives in a Brandeis lab run by comparative psychologist and cognitive scientist Dr. Irene Pepperberg, spontaneously and correctly used the label "none" during a testing session of his counting skills to describe an absence of a numerical quantity on a tray.

This discovery prompted a series of trials in which Alex consistently demonstrated the ability to identify zero quantity by saying the label "none."

Pepperberg's...

Read the full article with a Free Trial at MyWire.

Premium Content Partnership | MyWire provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.