A lesson in science media gullibility. This time it concerns a duck.
Tag: parrots
At Mind Matters News: Do birds really understand what they are saying?
No one involved hopes that any of us will ask the obvious question: If the birds understand currency, why are they not using currency themselves?
Michael Egnor: The bird does NOT do math
Egnor: Dr. Pepperberg could have been more forthright: Parrots can’t do statistics. No animal (except man) can do statistics, because statistical reasoning is abstract and only human beings are capable of abstract thought. Parrots think concretely—they think of particular things and relations between particular things, but they cannot think without particular things—they can’t think abstractly.
Do genes unique to parrots enable them to mimic human language?
The find kind of disappointed researchers who really wanted to know how humans come to use language but it is interesting in itself.
Why birds mimic well: Contradicts earlier claims
Further to how cats get the rodents they will eat to lose their fear of them, we are now beginning to understand how parrots become excellent voice imitators. From Duke University, An international team of scientists led by Duke University researchers has uncovered key structural differences in the brains of parrots that may explain the Read More…