[extropy-chat] "Bird Brian" - Not!

[Ian Goddard]

Anyone whose had a pet bird knows the stupidity of the
derogatory phase "bird brain." To the contrary, birds
can be smart! Some of the best examples of animal
intelligence come from birds. [1] Crows, for example,
make tools to perform desired tasks. [2] And note that
tool making involves deductive reasoning as opposed to
inductive reasoning, which was formally assumed to
account for all nonhuman thought.  

Now the University of California, San Diego reports
what may be a new and important example of animal
intelligence coming once again from our feathered
friends. These findings may not only expand our
understanding of nonhuman minds, but may also
challenge prevailing theories of language:

"The European starling [...] can learn syntactic
patterns formerly thought to be the exclusive province
of humans. Led by Timothy Q. Gentner, assistant
professor of psychology at the University of
California, San Diego, a study published in the April
27 issue of Nature demonstrates that starlings have
the capacity to classify acoustic sequences defined by
recursive, center-embedded grammars." 

Full Report:
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/gentner_starling06.asp
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[1] African grey parrots have remarkable skills:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm
http://www.alexfoundation.org/index2.htm

[2] Crows make and use tools:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/tools/tools_main.shtml
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kgroup/tools/media.shtml
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050115/fob7.asp
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1209_041209_crows_apes_2.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/av/crow_080802.ram

http://IanGoddard.net 




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