jackson@utzoo.uucp (Don Jackson) (02/28/88)
Carolyn Bissell (4369@aw.sei.cmu.edu) writes: >larger hookbills have a mind easily as intelligent as a 3+ year old human >child packaged within a body around a pound in weight. Birds relate to >the world around them mainly through sight and sound as we humans: inter- >action between our two species can be far more complex than that between >us and other animals. The conclusion that your parrot (or any other organism) is more intelligent than a child (or any other organism) is questionable! The fact that you can carry on a *conversation* with your pet does not necessarily indicate intelligence on the part of the participants. Quantifying intelligence remains difficult, if not impossible. This is certainly demonstrated in the inappropriateness of many measures of intelligence (e.g. I.Q. tests). Many of these tests become trivial if the participant has the ability to solve puzzles. The fact that I have found many of these puzzles simple, and score well on the tests does not mean that I am exceptionally intelligent nor even intelligent (flame away!). It simply means that given someone's preconceived idea of what constitutes intelligence, I do well. The fact that we cannot appropriately test intelligence of subjects from different cultures emphasizes the point. Therefore, I would strongly suggest that your statement about the great intelligence of your parrot is unwarranted and highly biased. The debates about the intelligence of cetaceans (i.e. whales, dolphins, etc.) certainly emphasizes this problem of defining intelligence. Some researches consider the cetaceans of lower *intelligence* than Homo sapiens while others consider them comparable or even superior. Defining intelligence remains a puzzle and is definable only within a given framework. The response to words, phrases, etc. by your parrot is obviously sufficient for you to believe it to be highly intelligent. However, I do not feel this denotes anything different than any other learned or innate response. I do not believe humans are unique in possessing intellect, but I do not believe it is possible to rank intelligence among species. Your example of a parrot and child may represent nothing more than development (i.e. the child appears more intelligent later due to its increased ability to respond to its environment). -- Name: Don Jackson Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!jackson