An interactive modeling technique for acquisition of communication skills: Separation of “labeling” and “requesting” in a psittacine subject

Abstract

An African gray parrot, previously taught by an interactive modeling technique to vocalize labels for several objects and instances of color and shape, was similarly taught to employ the vocalization “want” before an object label so as to discriminate functional “labeling” from “requesting.” The parrot's use of “want” subsequently generalized to novel situations. There was no decrease in the accuracy of labeling ability during training, a problem that arose when nonmodeling techniques were employed with chimpanzees. The results suggest that the procedure might be applicable to intervention programs for humans with specific communicative deficits.