Emergence of linguistic communication: Studies on grey parrots

Abstract

Most studies on the evolution of communication systems concentrate on the primate lineage, ignoring the concept of parallel lines of evolution. Although phylogenetically remote from humans, some birds-particularly Grey parrots-share many cognitive and communicative abilities with humans. On certain tasks, they demonstrate processing abilities comparable to 5-6 year-old humans; they learn very simple vocal syntactic patterns and referential elements of human communication, but only through social interaction and in a manner that proceeds in ways similar to those of humans. Given this knowledge of vocal learning in birds, of the effects of social interaction on such learning, and of birds' complex cognitive abilities, we should not ignore the avian line if we wish to determine the evolutionary pressures that purportedly affected the evolution of complex communication systems-particularly vocal systems-and develop theories and models that can be tested. © 2007 Springer-Verlag London.