Referential learning of French and Czech labels in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus): different methods yield contrasting results.
Abstract
Some African grey parrots are able to produce labels referentially. We taught ten African grey parrots from two laboratories to label items.
Training with the Model/Rival method developed by Pepperberg where two humans talk about an object in front of the parrot led to disappointing results. Four different teaching methods were tested with 2 birds: the Model/Rival; Repetition/Association: repeating a label and presenting the item only when the parrot produced the label; Intuitive: the experimenter handled an item and repeated its name; Diffusion: labels were played back daily to parrots.
One bird learned 3 labels, one of which was used referentially, with the Repetition/Association and 1 label non-referentially with the Model/Rival. This study demonstrates that different methods can be efficient to teach labels referentially and it suggests that rearing conditions and interindividual variability are important features when assessing learning ability of African grey parrots.