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Schusterman devised an elaborate procedure to ensure against cuing: signals to Rio were delivered by a trainer who did not know the correct answer. Rio would start the test by choosing one of two randomly selected symbols on a scoreboard-like apparatus next to her tank. She would then be presented with two new icons and asked to pick which one was logically equivalent to the symbol she had chosen earlier.
Unlike dolphins, sea lions seem to treat training as if it were a life-or- death matter. At the start of each session Rio rivets her stare on her trainers. When wrong, she barks in frustration. But on one particular day she had little to complain about, answering correctly 24 out of 28 times. Schusterman takes this performance as proof that the animal has at least some of the cognitive skills required for language. Thus, he says, it is now much easier for him to accept that bigger-brained dolphins and apes understand and manipulate their vocabularies symbolically as well.
Words of Love from a Parrot
If the animal-language experiments had an awards dinner, the prize for best accent would go to the befeathered Alex. The parrot acquired his Midwestern accent from his mentor, Pepperberg. She became intrigued by the language work with great apes in the 1970s and decided to examine the abilities of an animal with an entirely different brain structure. She chose parrots in part because they can actually talk and because studies had established that the birds could perform as well as chimps on some psychological tests, suggesting that brain size is not the only determinant of mental ability.
Like Kanzi, Alex learned his vocabulary in a social setting, though the approach was more contrived. Pepperberg would, for instance, show a student a cork (one of Alex's favorite objects). If the student said the word cork, Pepperberg would give it to her; but when another word was used, the student would be scolded. Alex quickly got the drift of this game, and over the years has acquired more than 71 labels denoting objects, actions, colors, shapes and materials. Apart from answering several different questions about the same object, Alex also seems to understand quantity. Most impressively, he can look at an assortment of objects on a tray and say how many pieces of green wool or how many blue blocks lie amid the clutter.
At some level, Alex apparently understands language as a social interaction and uses it to maintain contact and get attention. "The way Alex uses English does not necessarily have all the aspects of language," says Pepperberg, "but it provides a two-way communication system that allows me to explore the way he thinks." At times his choice of words is touchingly apt, even if he uses phrases to get results rather than express emotion. When the parrot, who lives with Pepperberg, became sick a few years ago, she had to take him to a vet and leave him overnight in a strange place for the first time in his life. As she headed for the door she heard Alex calling in his plaintive child's voice, "Come here. I love you. I'm sorry. Wanna go back."
Why Did Intelligence Evolve, Anyway?