Ever wonder what’s going on in your Grey’s mind? Probably every time you look at him, right? Dr. Irene Pepperberg has devoted her life to discovering what’s going on in the minds of Alex, Kyaaro and Griffin. Much of her research requires the birds to actually tell her what they’re thinking. Which object is bigger? How many are four-corner blue wood? For her study of object permanence, however, the parrots’ abilities to use an English language-like communication code was not a prerequisite. In this study the birds’ behavior provided the answers to the questions.

Object permanence is the understanding that an object still exists, even when it is out of sight. Children develop object permanence in six stages during their first two years of life. Pepperberg knew from a previous study with Alex that adult Greys are capable of completing complicated object permanence tasks. Her question now was, "How long would it take a baby Grey parrot to progress through all six stages?" Griffin, obtained by Pepperberg when he was barely two months old, helped her answer that question.

In Stage 1, subjects don’t even look for an object they have watched disappear from sight. If they at least follow the object’s movement, they are at Stage 2. Next, they are able to find a partially hidden item (Stage 3) and then retrieve a completely hidden object (Stage 4) from where they last saw the object. Stage 5 is attained when the subject can find an item that has been hidden, exposed and then hidden again several times.

At Stage 6, invisible displacements, an item is hidden in a container. That receptacle is then moved behind another container which hides the first one from view, and the item is transferred to the second container. The child (or parrot) is shown that the first container is empty and is able to infer where the item is now located. Various controls are used to prevent the subjects from responding to odor cues or hand or eye movements by the experiment.

In studies done thus far, great apes, psittacids and perhaps dogs, can attain Stage 6 object permanence. Cats, monkeys, Ring Doves, hamsters, and domestic chickens did not.

Pepperberg and her students used plastic boxes, cups, toy barrels and crumpled pieces of paper towel and construction paper to hide the objects. The items hidden included small toys from Griffin’s play sessions and a few foods.

Griffin was the main subject of the study. He was eight weeks old when the research began and had only arrived from his breeder a few days before. Though Alex had participated in a previous study, he was included in one task and several control trials for this project.

The sample size is small, but Pepperberg states that "the results of our single-subject study can provide a baseline for future research and permit preliminary cross-species comparisons." In her paper, (Development of Piagetian Object Permanence in a Grey Parrot [Psittacus Erithacus], 1997, Journal of Comparative Psychology, 111:63-95), Pepperberg explains why using a sample size that would lend statistical significance to this study is virtually impossible. Recruiting multiple Grey Parrots of an appropriate age is, however, extremely difficult: a) reputable breeders do not allow outsiders to handle unweaned birds because of the fragility of chicks that are less than 12 weeks old and the possibility of introducing disease into the aviary; and b) Grey Parrots may not adapt to multiple successive owners; thus, purchase of birds for use in such a study, with intent to resale, would be unethical.

At eight weeks old, possibly younger, Griffin was capable of Stage 2 object permanence. He also searched for hidden objects at eight weeks (Stage 3). At nine weeks he reacted to the "object loss" (e.g. hiding of the object) which indicated Stage 4, but could not retrieve it. He didn’t complete Stage 4 until he was fifteen weeks old. It’s possible that he initially wasn’t physically capable of removing the cover or that he was distracted. He was learning to fly and spent a lot of time practicing during the testing sessions.

Griffin reached Stage 5 at eighteen weeks, and at the ripe old age of twenty-two weeks, Griffin graduated to Stage 6.

What does any of this mean in the big picture of the parrot’s life? Until someone is able to study wild African Grey Parrots comprehensively from infancy to adulthood, we may never have a definitive answer. But Pepperberg did get some clues from parrot breeders. Apparently Stage 2 is demonstrated by very young parrots: nestlings follow feeding syringes at 2-3 weeks, essentially as soon as their eyes open. By 18 days, they follow syringes through a 180 degree arc; by 20 days, they track until a syringe goes out of sight and cheep as soon as it disappears. (T. Clyne, personal communication to I. Pepperberg, 1996).

Because a baby Grey in the nest must compete with its siblings for parental attention (food), the ability to track the food source enhances survival.

Was Griffin simply "following the action" as the examiner moved objects and containers? Was he simply focusing on the "arena of activity?" Or did he actually search for the object? Pepperberg explored this question with both Griffin and Alex.

This task used successive invisible displacement in which Griffin sees the object that is initially hidden but cannot see that object transferred to several successive containers. He must infer the location of the object. Students and DR. Pepperberg showed Griffin a cashew (YUM!!!) But then hid a bird diet pellet (YUCK!!!). Griffin immediately uncovered the last box, turned it over and discovered the pellet. Then he turned over all the other (empty) boxes, found nothing and ran to the experimenters. This was repeated with the same results. But when they really hid the cashew, Griffin found it immediately and didn’t bother searching any further.

Alex responded as only Alex can. When he found the pellet, he stared down the experimenters and narrowed his eyes to slits. Pepperberg and the students have learned that the slit-eye look means Alex is angry. (It is a final warning before he bites if the cause of anger is not removed.) When they repeated the test Alex banged his beak on the table---- (See above!!!).

Alex and Griffin’s behavior indicates that they focus on the object and not just the activity inherent in the test.

This final task presents a challenge to anyone. Pepperberg and her students set up six versions of a shell game: