I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
Alex - what a parrot! After I read it I looked at footage of him online, and was impressed by how clearly he spoke. It does make you wonder about conditioning vs. language comprehension. It does appear that Alex is thinking and using language, and not just responding to a set of stimulus...
I don't think we will ever know, either. I just could not quite decide from the book. There are moments where Alex volunteers an exceptional combination of words to communicate.
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Alex - what a parrot! After I read it I looked at footage of him online, and was impressed by how clearly he spoke. It does make you wonder about conditioning vs. language comprehension. It does appear that Alex is thinking and using language, and not just responding to a set of stimulus...
I had a linguistics teacher who was adamant that it was totally stimulus response. I s'pose we'll never really know for sure.
I don't think we will ever know, either. I just could not quite decide from the book. There are moments where Alex volunteers an exceptional combination of words to communicate.
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