Doc is one of the animal mascots for the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences. The MAS runs out of Morrill here on the UMass Amherst campus. He lives in Peg Riley's lab. Doc is only about a year old at this point, which means he is in the very early stages of learning how to communicate. African Grey Parrots are capable of learning complex behaviors, understanding language, and learning to speak. So far Doc's progress is coming along well, and he has a few words like "Good Boy!" and "Hello" mastered. He will also give kisses if he really likes you. He just keeps learning more and more!
Doc is the same species as an even more famous parrot named Alex. Alex has been a huge part of avian studies. He learned over 100 vocal labels for different objects, actions, and colors. He can also identify objects by the material they are made of. To learn more about Alex go to this link: http://www.alexfoundation.org/alex_the_parrot.html
In addition to his vocabulary, Doc is being trained to respond to the clicker method. Everytime Doc does something correctly he is given a raspberry and a clicking sound is made. This is used as positive reinforcement for his behavior. This will later be used to train him in some more complex tricks beyond just dropping the correct toys in to his bowl. Doc is being trained this way so that the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences can have him be a social bird that can be a big a part of science-outreach programs. For more information about Doc go here: http://www.massacademysciences.org/content/say-hi-doc
Bailey Mannix (2)
I have heard of clicker training for dogs but not for parrots. do they use the clicker training for tricks only or to teach him words as well? do you know if they have done any research on weather parrots can teach other parrots how to use the skills they learn from humans?
ReplyDeletePosted by Amber Kapchinske
I didn’t know about Doc before reading this! It’s cool to have the MAS on the UMass Amherst campus. If he’s a year old, what is the normal developmental/learning timeline for parrots? Is there ever a time when their learning ability peaks?
ReplyDeletePosted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
Doc's learning process is at the level of a two year old human right now. One of the people who works with us has a different kind of parrot and brings him in to see Doc sometimes. I don't know if he learns from him, but the other bird is much more advanced and their interactions are pretty funny. The clicker method we use applies to words, tricks, and simply good behaviors. Sometimes he gives little bites and thats when we just put him down and ignore him. But he's very click spoiled bird!
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