How do they train the parrot to do the act? How do they make use of associations to train Einstien? What do we know about animal training that might lend insight into this bird behavior? What are some other videos that show the variety of behaviors parrots can be trained to do?
Training of any kind is a clear indication of behavior modification.
The trainer would have started by setting a goal - a target behavior. In this case, it would have been to elicit the bird to say a specific word or phrase. Once the bird emitted the desired behavior, the trainer would have used classical conditioning and rewarded the bird with positive reinforcement. She would have started small and worked her way closer and closer to the desired behavior. While punishing undesired behaviors - via negative reinforcement - is another option, it probably would not habe been as effective because reinforcing behaviors is a much easier form of training.
Terms: set a goal, target behavior, elicit, emitted, classical conditioning, rewarded, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement (9).
I have had an African Grey parrot for about 5 years now (he is 7) and he is super smart. They are said to be one of the most intelligent birds. I am told that around the age 15-20, he will be able to have full conversations with me. Even at the age of 7 he can say a ton. Instead of squawking to get attention, he will sing his favorite song "take me out to the ball game", or just yell my name. To teach Rafiki a new word I have to follow a few steps:
1) Look him directly in the eye
2) Say the word clearly 15 times
3) Tell him he is a good boy and pet his head
4) Repeat every day for a week
By then he should be saying it constantly. He usually just picks up words and phrases on his own. He is a fantastic listener and loves to be talked to. Sometimes his words seem jumbled but its just because he is tying to figure out how to say something correctly.
Some of his favorite phrases are:
"Abby shut up/ bad dog!"- when our dog abby barks
"Lauren get the phone"- when my sisters phone rings
"Steve's the boss"-to my dad
"I love you"- to me :)
Training animals to do things like this is directly related to behavior modification. The way you would train an animal to do things like this would be through shaping. Shaping is when you reward an organism for doing behaviors until they learn the exact target behavior you want them to learn. This usually starts with successive approximations, which are behaviors that are accidental but are close to the behavior you wan an organism to do so you reward them. An example would be a rat touching the lever of a pallet machine. Then you would shape the rat to go over to the pallet button, then shape it to touch it, then to press it in and etc. This is how you get animals to perform such behaviors such as the one in this video.