Re: [ba-ohs-talk] Fwd: CG: Conceptual structures in parrots
Now you're talking! (01)
Yes, this kind of stuff IS very interesting. The insights provided may well
become building blocks toward the technology and practice of digital
augmentation of the human mind. May be even of parots' and crows'. (02)
Henry (03)
Jack Park wrote: (04)
> Now, I think this is interesting...
> Jack
>
> >From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@bestweb.net>
> >To: cg <cg@cs.uah.edu>
> >
> >There is an interesting article that supports Peirce's claim
> >that parrots are not merely "parroting" when they generate
> >intelligible speech:
> >
> >http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/in_depth/sci_tech/2002/boston_2002/newsid
> >_1821000/1821654.stm
> >
> >Following is the opening section of the article. I'm not at all
> >surprised by this story. It is just one more confirmation of the
> >hypothesis, as presented in my 1984 CS book, that conceptual structures
> >are commonplace in all higher mammals, independently of their speaking
> >ability. This study suggests that birds (and probably more advanced
> >reptiles from which both birds and mammals evolved) share similar kinds
> >of conceptual structures.
> >
> >John Sowa
> >_________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >Meet Griffin, the grey parrot, whose astonishing vocal and physical
> >skills are demonstrating just how smart the avian world really is.
> >Griffin has recently begun to play with objects and speaks English in
> >a way that raises fascinating questions about the thought processes
> >going on inside a bird's brain.
> >
> >The parrot will stack different-sized bottle caps in the right order,
> >for example. He will also mix up the English words he has learned, and
> >will say simple phrases, like "wanna green nut". This type of behaviour
> >was once thought to be exclusive to humans, great apes, and monkeys.
> >Griffin suggests Parrots should be added to the list.
> >
> >"Human children start combining their labels at about 22 months," says
> >Dr Irene Pepperberg, who works with Griffin at the Massachusetts
> >Institute of Technology. "So, they start not just identifying 'cookie'
> >and 'milk', but will say 'want milk' or 'want more cookie'. And they
> >also tend to develop this combinatorial behaviour at the same time as
> >they start doing physical combinations of their toys. So, they will
> >start stacking cups in serried sizes, and things like that."
> >
> >She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science
> >meeting in Boston: "The simultaneous emergence of both vocal and
> >physical combinatorial behaviours was always thought to be a purely
> >primate trait, derived from primate brain area. "The fact that we are
> >finding this in animals so far removed from primates is exciting."
> >
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