Grey Intelligence and Playful Obstinance

[JeffNOK]

I was recently reading about Dr Pepperberg's studies with Alex and the difficulty of getting good data because Alex often got bored and began to answer questions deliberately wrong. He would comply accurately for a few trials 90% of the time and then began to throw objects around and answer randomly, giving seemingly deliberately wrong answers. I have noticed the same tendency in Gracie. She knows the meaning of many words and generally communicates accurately based on her desires. However, when she thinks I am testing her or trying to get her to perform, she seems to intentionally switch the script, but in highly intelligent ways. I will give three examples. First, she knows the names of many of my friends and family. Usually when she sees someone she knows, she greets them by name. But, if they try to get her to say their name, she answers with someone else's name. For example when my friend Pam says "Say Pammy", she says. "Gracie wanna see Marie". Pam then says, "Marie?". And Gracie says, "Gracie wanna see Bill." She refuses to give the desired answer but replaces it with a name from the same class. The same is true with food. Gracie asks for the food she wants, but when I say "Gracie want corn?", she responds with "Gracie want peas," or "Gracie want cheese." Again, items from the same class--food. Finally, Gracie knows the animal sounds of dog, cat, chicken, and monkey. When she is just having fun and vocalizing, she says "Where's the chicken--cluck, cluck, cluck", or "where's the monkey?--ooh ooh ooh ahh ahh ahh". She definitely knows which sounds go with which animal. But If I ask her \..."Where's the monkey?"--she often says "cluck, cluck, cluck". If I say, "Where's the chicken?" She responds with "ooh ooh ohh aah aah", or "meow", or "woof woof!"--anything BUT the answer she knows I want. The thing is, she never mixes categories and she intentionally avoids the answer I'm looking for when she is being cheeky or perceives I am testing her or wanting her to show off in front of company. To be honest, this almost seems to show a higher level of intelligence than simply responding with the expected answer as if merely conditioned. She understands classes and groups, she knows what I WANT her to say, and she deliberately chooses answers within that class while avoiding the "desired" answer. Do any of you see this in your greys?

[BaileysPapa]

Though I know this seems obstinant and truculent, maybe it's a sign of a Grey's sense of humor. During these episodes, does she seem annoyed, or amused? I have heard of this before, and find it very curious.

[Timbersmom]

Timber does similar at times. I think they are toying with us!

[JeffNOK]

Oh I definitely think it is play and sense of humor. She is having fun for sure. I just am amazed how she processes the information.

[katana600]

I believe you are right Jeff. I think Gracie knows exactly what she is doing and playfully giving the same category so you know she knows what you want but not quite rewarding you with her cleverness. There is so much more we are going to learn from our winged companions.

[Ray P]

And we think we are the smart ones.

[danmcq]

Nice post Jeff. There is no doubt they have fun and amuse themselves by toying with us when we are expecting an accurate response. The problem sometimes, is distinguishing for example on food items as we are making them a meal and describe what's going in it. If they start giving wrong answers, is it because they do not want some of the items we're using? Sometimes they will keep repeating items we are not using, then give them their food bowl we've prepared and they start tossing items because it's not what they wanted. They told us what they wanted and we ignored it. They function at a very high mental level as we all know. They joke, tease and also ignore us if they become bored with a new thing we're trying to teach them, as DR. Pepperberg noted. I learned long ago to only try teaching something new for around 2 minutes. Any longer, unless Dayo was still interested was wasted time and he would just start ignoring me. They are masters of changing the subject of conversation.