G'day G'day Folks,
Alex's life was committed to research. So involved was he with
research that for all practical purposes you could say he lived in a
research establishment. Alex's forte was modeling the acquisition of
spoken foreign languages. In academic institutions like this there
were some prejudices about Alex learning languages. Even though Alex
had an English_as_a_second_language vocabulary of about 800 words,
which was something of a record. and used these words in appropriate
contexts, there were those who doubted that he really understood what
he was saying.
This was quite surprising really as a vocabulary of 300 words will
get you by in most street conversations or so I am told. Such are the
prejudices permeating academic institutes.
Still there was no doubting Alex's success. This was attributed
largely to a modeling technique sometimes called the rival/model
technique which utilizes a special form of dissociated-before-associated learning. (As if anyone would waste
their time doing it any other way) An assistant would come in and be
given a new foreign (English) word by the instructor and if he or she
got it right, would receive a reward. Alex would watch this and
squawk out things like "Come on, don't you know that one. It's
*easy*. Give me a go." Not that the instructors followed a word of this
as he was careful not to use English. Just watching someone else get
a reward for something he could do really ruffled his feathers. Of
course this little charade allowed him the luxury of never being
knocked off his perch by being given a word before he was fully
prepared for it.
They say accelerated learning requires an appropriate
physiological state.
Seems like dissociation and maybe a hint of jealousy will work even
with an African grey parrot. .
Maybe it even works with classes/clients.
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