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Thought and talk in animals focus of lecture series

11:12 a.m., Feb. 12, 2004--Windows on the Mind, a series sponsored by the University of Delaware’s Cognitive Science Program, will present three lectures this semester on the topic “Thought and Talk: Are Animals In or Out?”

Leading researchers will discuss their work concerning what animals know about language and how they think.

“These are three marvelous speakers who do absolutely fascinating work,” according to Roberta Golinkoff, H. Rodney Sharp Chair and director of the Cognitive Science Program. “Animals may think more like us than we ever imagined.”

The series, free and open to the public, starts with a presentation by Irene Pepperberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at 3 p.m., Monday, Feb. 16, in Room 303 Gore Hall. “We are hosting this series for the University community as a whole and hope that anyone interested will join us,” Golinkoff said.

Pepperberg will speak on “In Search of King Solomon’s Ring: Studies on the Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots.”

For more than 25 years, Pepperberg has trained Grey parrots to use English speech and has then used that to test their cognitive abilities.

The oldest bird, Alex, now can say the names of more than 50 items, seven colors, five shapes and quantities up to six.

Pepperberg said Alex combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He answers queries to judge category, relative size, quantity and the presence or absence of similarities or differences in attributes.

Alex exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates, Pepperberg said.

Sally Boysen of Ohio State University will speak on the topic “Great Minds Think Alike: Cognitive Capacities in the Chimpanzee” on Monday, March 15, and Diana Reiss of New York University will present “Reflections on the Dolphin Mind” on Monday, March 29.

All presentations will begin at 3 p.m. in Room 303 Gore Hall. For details, call the UD Department of Linguistics, which administers the Cognitive Science Program, at 831-6806.

Article by Neil Thomas

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