WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 3-1997 Development of Piagetian Object Permanence in a Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) Irene M. Pepperberg University of Arizona Mark R. Willner University of Arizona Lauren B. Gravitz Barnard College Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_asie Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Comparative Psychology Commons, and the Other Animal Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Pepperberg, I. M., Willner, M. R., & Gravitz, L. B. (1997). Development of Piagetian object permanence in grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 111(1), 63. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Development of Piagetian Object Permanence in a Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) Irene M. Pepperberg*, Mark R. Willner*, and Lauren B. Gravitz† * University of Arizona † Barnard College ABSTRACT The authors evaluated the ontogenetic performance of a grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) on object permanence tasks designed for human infants. Testing began when the bird was 8 weeks old, prior to fledging and weaning. Because adult grey parrots understand complex invisible displacements (I. M. Pepperberg & F. A. Kozak, 1986), the authors continued weekly testing until the current subject completed all of I. C. Uzgiris and J. Hunt's (1975) Scale 1 tasks. Stage 6 object permanence with respect to these tasks emerged at 22 weeks, after the bird had fledged but before it was completely weaned. Although the parrot progressed more rapidly overall than other species that have been tested ontogenetically, the subject similarly exhibited a behavioral plateau part way through the study.