5 Categorical class formation by an African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus)

Abstract

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the categorical class formation by an African gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus). It discusses the way Psittacus erithacus categorizes individual items in numerous ways, to demonstrate emergent relationships, to exhibit competence in understanding several unrelated concepts (same/different, bigger/smaller, quantification), and to form new arbitrary categories. Studies on the formation of categorical classes must be designed to take into account the ecological and ethological framework of the creature that is being studied—that is, a framework consisting of the niche in which the subject lives and its species-specific behavior patterns. The findings must be interpreted within this same framework. Certain level class formation is one of the most basic of capacities, and the level of such categorization is a consequence of the subject's general ecological and ethological circumstances.