fifty objects and seven colors and five shapes in quantities up to about six over the

years

but the issue was we started with objects that he wanted to obtain

so it's very easy to teach him to label those things

so we had to teach him

the label want

so that he could ask us for what he wanted as his reward

separate identification from requests 0:00:36.380,0:00:38.380 but sometimes he still

just didn't want to

work and he started with

this little nuh

we do things like show him an object

give you a time out

so he learned to say I'm going to go away he walk

to the edge of the perch away from us

sometimes you get all the wrong answers so if the answer was one color

he would repeat the six wrong colors

yeah

I think it was more fun for him made it more interesting

I think at some point if he could have said I've already done that

he would have because

I would need sixty sometimes a hundred trials

the statistical significance

he would sip through the first dozen and even twenty trials it was fun it was a new

project

and it then it was like hello

we've done this we've done this already don't make me do it again

I boring

you described in your book which I must interject is a wonderful book what a wonderful read

in any event you you say that in your years at purdue

you and Alex are like vagabonds as I recall well we

we did not have our own lab space basically

they shifted us from whatever was convenient from one place to another

I I I think we had you know for at least three maybe four different laboratories depending

on who needed what space

you know it's just okay whatever in as long as you let me do the work

but it was really difficult because each time we moved the lab

it interrupted

the training and I would imagine that it was difficult for alex initially to

make those transitions am I wrong about that no it was you know this a different space

is it safe

and it took him a while to to get used to each space

the test for colors and shapes tell the audience a little bit what that was

all about

well the idea was could and animal understand

categories and categories in a hierarchical sense

the idea is not just that this is you know what's green what is not green

but that green and blue in yellow formed a

category

they could be lumped under the term color

and in other categories like two three four five six that could be lumped under shape

and paper wood and rawhide under material

so the idea was learning categorical

concept label

color shape matter

and then learning which colors went under that

so that I could show him an object that had color and shape and material and say alex what's

this block

what color green

what shape four corner

what matter wood 0:03:22.489,0:03:25.859 so he understood all those concepts and also meant

that I was getting away from rote responses

so that's when I showed him an object he never knew what to say

until he heard me ask the question

that is significant not simply stimulus responds

oh I see this thing every time I see this thing I say green he had to think

he had to wait for my question

another particular comment that alex sometimes would make was the use of I'm

sorry

I can't wait to ask you this did he feel remorse there was no contrition 0:04:14.539,0:04:17.509 it was what he learned to defuse

a tense situation

it's the same thing that you see ritualized in animals

where a dog will will present its jugular as if to say you know up

I I'm sorry you know kill me it's okay

of course that difuses an aggressive

situation

and so alex learned to say I'm sorry

to do that and it it started because

he was sitting on a perch and I had some coffee and I wanted to go outside

for something

and I put the

coffee cup away from where I thought he could possibly get it

and I come back whatever it later and there he is on the floor with the coffee cup

in pieces all around him

and of course the first response like any mother type person you say AHH!

you know what happened how did you do that

then you stop and go this is a bird

your you're ranting it's not his fault this was an interesting thing he went to

explore it

he knocked it off the shelf then you are worried that he's hurt

so you pick him up and say I am sorry

and he put the two together and she's yelling at me and she says I'm sorry

if I say this she'll stop yelling at me

wow

what a great story

if Texas law

before

the patient

it's the progress