Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-8gtf8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T06:29:22.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An interactive modeling technique for acquisition of communication skills: Separation of “labeling” and “requesting” in a psittacine subject

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Irene M. Pepperberg
Irene M. Pepperberg*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
*
Irene M. Pepperberg, Department of Anthropology and the Program on Language and Cognition, Northwestern University, 1810 Hinman Avenue, Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An African gray parrot, previously taught by an interactive modeling technique to vocalize labels for several objects and instances of color and shape, was similarly taught to employ the vocalization “want” before an object label so as to discriminate functional “labeling” from “requesting.” The parrot's use of “want” subsequently generalized to novel situations. There was no decrease in the accuracy of labeling ability during training, a problem that arose when nonmodeling techniques were employed with chimpanzees. The results suggest that the procedure might be applicable to intervention programs for humans with specific communicative deficits.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 59 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bandura, A. (1971). Analysis of social modeling processes. In Bandura, A. (Ed.), Psychological modeling (pp. 1–62). Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1977). Social modeling theory. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Beer, C. G. (1982). Conceptual issues in the study of communication. In Kroodsma, D. E. & Miller, E. H. (Eds.), Acoustic communication in birds. Vol. 2: Song learning and its consequences (pp. 279–310). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1978). Semantic and syntactic development. In Schiefelbusch, R. (Ed.), Bases of language intervention (pp. 97–189). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Brown, A. L., & Campione, J. C. (1986). Psychological theory and the study of learning disabilities. American Psychologist, 14, 1059–1068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, I. (1976). Role of referent concreteness in the acquisition of passive sentence comprehension through abstract: modeling. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 22, 185–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1983). Child's talk: learning to use language. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Cheney, D. L., & Seyfarth, R. M. (1985). Social and non-social knowledge in vervet monkeys. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, B 308, 187–201.Google Scholar
Collis, G. M. (1981). Social interaction with objects: a perspective on human infancy. In Immelmann, K., Barlow, G. W., Petrinovich, L., & Main, M. (Eds.), Behavioral development (pp. 603–620). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Courtright, J. A., & Courtright, I. C. (1979). Imitative modeling as a language intervention strategy: The effects of two mediating variables. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 22, 389–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Villiers, J. G., & de Villiers, P. A. (1978). Language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fay, W. H., & Schuler, A. L. (1980). Emerging language in autistic children. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, B. J., Ritvo, E., & Miller, R. (1975). An operant procedure to teach an echolalic, autistic child to answer questions appropriately. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 5, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furrow, D., & Nelson, K. (1986). A further look at the motherese hypothesis: A reply to Gleitman, Newport, & Gleitman. Journal of Child Language, 13, 163–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R. A., & Gardner, B. T. (1969). Teaching sign language to a chimpanzee. Science, 165, 664–672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleitman, L. R., Newport, E. L., & Gleitman, H. (1984). The current status of the motherese hypothesis. Journal of Child Language, 11, 43–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, H. (1984). The effects of modeling and corrected practice on generative language and learning of preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 49, 389–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gossette, R. L. (1969). Personal communication to O. H. Mowrer, quoted in Psychology of language and learning (1980), p. 105. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P. M. (1978). Developmental processes in the language learning of child and chimp. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 573–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, P. M. (1984). A theory of the teacher in the learning activities of everyday life. In Rogoff, B. & Lave, J. (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 117–139). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Grosslight, J. H., & Zaynor, W. C. (1967). Verbal behavior in the mynah bird. In Salzinger, K. & Salzinger, S. (Eds.), Research in verbal behavior and some neurophysiological implications (pp. 5–19). New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosslight, J. H., Zaynor, W. C., & Lively, B. L. (1964). Speech as a stimulus for differential vocal behavior in the mynah bird (Gracula religiosa). Psychonomic Science, 1, 7–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1980). In vivo language intervention: Unanticipated general effects. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 13, 407–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, C. P., & Adamson, L. B. (1987). Language use in mother-child and mother-child-sibling interactions. Child Development, 58, 356–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalfus, G. R. (1984). Peer mediated intervention: A critical review. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 6, 17–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koehler, O. (1943). ‘Zähl’-Versuche an einem Kolkraben und Vergleichsversuche an Menschen. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 5, 575–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koehler, O. (1953). Thinking without words. Proceedings of the XIVth International Congress of Zoology, Copenhagen, p. 75.Google Scholar
Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kroodsma, D. E., Baker, M. C., Baptista, L. F., & Petrinovich, L. (1984). Vocal “dialects” in Nuttall's white-crowned sparrow. Current Ornithology, 2, 103–133.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. II (1986). Discussion: On social interaction as a type of explanation of language development. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 289–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, L. B. (1975). Modeling as a clinical procedure in language training. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 6, 72–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lock, A. (1980). The guided reinvention of language. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lovaas, I. (1977). The autistic child: Language development through behavior modification. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
Macphail, E. M. (1982). Brain and intelligence in vertebrates. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Macphail, E. M. (1985). Vertebrate intelligence: the null hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, B, 308, 37–51.Google Scholar
Marler, P. (1970). A comparative approach to vocal learning: song development in white-crowned sparrows. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 71, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marler, P. (1975). On the origin of speech from animal sounds. In Kavanaugh, J. & Cutting, J. (Eds.), The role of speech in language (pp. 11–43). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Moerk, E. L. (1977). Pragmatic and semantic aspects of early language development. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O. H. (1950). Learning theory and personality dynamics. New York: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Mowrer, O. H. (1954). A psychologist looks at language. American Psychologist, 9, 660–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowrer, O. H. (1958). Hearing and speaking: An analysis of language learning. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 23, 143–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nottebohm, F., & Nottebohm, M. (1969). The parrots of Bush Bush. Animal Kingdom, 19–23.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1978). Object identification by an African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Contributed paper, Midwest Animal Behavior Society (Abst.), W. Lafayette, IN, March.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1981). Functional vocalizations by an African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 55, 139–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1983). Cognition in the African Grey parrot: Preliminary evidence for auditory-vocal comprehension of the class concept. Animal Behavior & Learning, 11, 179–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1984). Vocal identification of numerical quantity by an African Grey parrot. Contributed paper, Psychonomic Society Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 11.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1985). Social modeling theory: A possible framework for understanding avian vocal learning. Auk, 102, 854–864.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1986). Acquisition of anomalous communicatory systems: Implications for studies on interspecies communication. In Schusterman, R. J., Thomas, J. A., & Wood, F. G. (Eds.), Dolphin cognition and behavior: Comparative and ethological aspects (pp. 289–302). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1987a). Interspecies communication: a tool for assessing conceptual abilities in the African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). In Greenberg, G. & Tobach, E. (Eds.), Language, cognition, and consciousness: Integrative levels (pp. 31–56). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.Google Scholar
Pepperberg, I. M. (1987b). Evidence for conceptual quantitative abilities in the African Grey parrot: Labeling of cardinal sets. Ethology, 75, 37–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrinovich, L. (1972). Psychobiological mechanisms in language development. In Newton, G. & Riesen, A. H. (Eds.), Advances in psychobiology, Vol. 1 (pp. 259–285). New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
Plooij, F. X. (1978). Some basic traits of language in wild chimpanzees? In Lock, A. (Ed.), Action, gesture, and symbol: The emergence of language (pp. 111–131). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Premack, D. (1976). Intelligence in ape and man. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.Google Scholar
Rice, M. (1980). Cognition to language: Categories, word meanings, and training. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, T. L., Zimmerman, B. J., & Durning, K. (1970). Observationally induced changes in children's interrogative classes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 681–688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rumbaugh, D. M. (Ed.). (1977). Language learning by a chimpanzee: the Lana project. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, D. A. (1983). Vocal repertoire and individual recognition in the short-billed white-tailed Black Cockatoo. Calyptorhynchus funereus latirostris Carnaby. Australian Journal of Wildlife Research, 10, 527–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1984). Veral behavior at a procedural level in the chimpanzee. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 41, 223–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., McDonald, K., Sevcik, R. A., Hopkins, W. D., & Rupert, E. (1986). Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 211–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Rumbaugh, D. M., & Boysen, S. (1980a). Do apes have language? American Scientist, 68, 49–61.Google Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Rumbaugh, D. M., Smith, S. T., & Lawson, J. (1980b). Reference: the linguistic essential. Science, 210, 922–925.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiefelbusch, R. L., & Hollis, J. H. (Eds.). (1979). Language intervention from ape to child. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Shatz, M. (1982). On mechanisms of language acquisition: Can features of the communicative environment account for development? In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. R. (Eds.), Language acquisition: the state of the art (pp. 102–127). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1979). The role of social interaction in language acquisition. In Collins, W. A. (Ed.), Children's language and communication (pp. 157–182). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.Google Scholar
Sonnenschein, S., & Whitehurst, G. J. (1984). Developing referential communication: A hierarchy of skills. Child Development, 55, 1936–1945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spradlin, J., & Siegel, G. (1982). Language training in natural and clinical environments. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 47, 2–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tinbergen, N., & Tinbergen, E. H. (1972). Early childhood autism: an ethological approach. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, Supplement 10.Google Scholar
Todt, D. (1975). Social learning of vocal patterns and models of their applications in Grey parrots. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 39, 178–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Glasersfeld, E. (1977). Linguistic communication: Theory and definition. In Rumbaugh, D. M. (Ed.), Language learning by a chimpanzee: The Lana project (pp. 55–71). New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, S. F., McQuarter, R. J., & Rogers-Warren, A. K. (1984). The effects of mands and models on the speech of unresponsive language-delayed preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 49, 43–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wellen, C. J. (1985). Effects of older siblings on the language young children hear and produce. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 50, 84–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woollett, A. (1986). The influence of older siblings on the language environment of young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 235–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar