Use of experimenter-given cues by African gray parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Abstract

One advantage of living in a social group is the opportunity to use information provided by other individuals. Social information can be based on cues provided by a conspecific or even by a heterospecific individual (e.g., gaze direction, vocalizations, pointing gestures). Although the use of human gaze and gestures has been extensively studied in primates, and is increasingly studied in other mammals, there is no documentation of birds using these cues in a cooperative context. In this study, we tested the ability of three African gray parrots to use different human cues (pointing and/or gazing) in an object-choice task. We found that one subject spontaneously used the most salient pointing gesture (looking and steady pointing with hand at about 20 cm from the baited box). The two others were also able to use this cue after 15 trials. None of the parrots spontaneously used the steady gaze cues (combined head and eye orientation), but one learned to do so effectively after only 15 trials when the distance between the head and the baited box was about 1 m. However, none of the parrots were able to use the momentary pointing nor the distal pointing and gazing cues. These results are discussed in terms of sensitivity to joint attention as a prerequisite to understand pointing gestures as it is to the referential use of labels.

Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

“…This is supported by the inconsistencies in human cue reading in other species (Gácsi et al 2005;Hostetter et al 2001;Theall and Povinelli 1999;Virányi et al 2004). On top of domestication, socialisation and training enhance the horse's ability to read human cues as in other species such as apes (Itakura et al 2001;Povinelli and Eddy 1996), dolphins (Pack and Herman 2004;Tschudin 2001), seals (Scheumann and Call 2004;Shapiro et al 2003), ravens (Schloegl et al 2008), parrots (Giret et al 2009), and wolves (Gácsi et al 2009b). Further studies on wild equids are urgently needed to clarify whether domestication set the stage for these abilities.…”

Finding good acoustic features for parrot vocalizations: The feature generation approach

“…African gray parrots show complex vocal behavior (Cruickshank et al, 1993;Pepperberg, 2007), are known for their ability to imitate human language (Pepperberg, 1999;Giret et al, 2010), and exhibit complex cognitive skills (Pepperberg, 2006;Al Aïn et al, 2009;Giret et al, 2009). They produce many types of vocalizations with a diverse range of frequencies, amplitudes, and durations.…”

Stereotypic behaviours in Melopsittacus undulatus: Behavioural consequences of social and spatial limitations

“…Yet, captive breeding of parrots raises a series of ethical considerations. In particular, the cognitive complexity of these birds makes it difficult to fully satisfy their eco-ethological needs in captivity (van Hoek and ten Cate, 1998;Mettke-Hofmann et al, 2002;Giret et al, 2009;Pepperberg, 2009).…”

“…The unique cognitive abilities that parrots share with crows within the Aves class (Emery and Clayton, 2004;Enkerlin-Hoeflich et al, 2006;Giret et al, 2009;Pepperberg, 2009;Péron et al, 2011), such as number comprehension (Pepperberg, 2009) and tool manipulation and use (Emery and Clayton, 2004), have strongly influenced their popularity as pets and animal models for studies in comparative psychology. Yet, captive breeding of parrots raises a series of ethical considerations.…”