Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero

Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero

Alex the parrot recently surprised researchers by beginning to use the concept of zero in a counting game. The game consisted of the researchers presenting a group of objects of different colors and asking Alex what color has a particular number of objects (e.g. if there were 9 objects and 2 were blue and 3 were red and 6 were yellow, the researchers might ask what color 2 and Alex would respond blue). Alex was very good at this task and eventually became bored, not responding or doing other ornery parrot things. One of the ornery parrot things Alex did was instead of responding with a color he repeatedly responded with another number (using the above example it might be 5). Eventually the researcher gave up and asked what color five and Alex replied none.

This might not seem like a big deal, but western humans only began widespread use of zero in the 1600s (Indians had used it much earlier). The unprompted nature of the discovery is also very interesting. This might have implications for understanding human development and autism.

Via Eyebeam Reblog