Parrot Memory and Human Memory – Teaching My African Grey to Memorize Words

I am teaching my African Grey Parrot (Hugin) how to memorize. Here is a pic of us working together.

As I work with Hugin (named after Odin’s ravens in Norse mythology – Hugin and Munin – known as ‘thought’ and ‘memory’) I am remembering a bit about human memory. This makes me see how parrots remember and humans have things in common.

1. He doesn’t always remember what is intended but what is emotional. He says ,’Ahh man….’ This is not something I intended to teach him but it was emotional when I said it and for him too so he remembers it.
   
   Just like you never set out to remember your car accident but you do. This is one way how parrots remember and humans remember is similar.
   
2. He remembers through repetition. He has heard me ask, ‘Are you hungry?’ many times and now he asks me if I’m hungry!
   
   You will also remember through spaced repetition.
   
3. He remembers what gets a response. When I leave I say, ‘See you later’ now he will often say , ‘See you later’ when I walk out of the room. He likes the laughter (response) this gets so he keeps doing it.
   
   In human memory, if we can tie a reward to remembering such as the pleasure of remembering someone’s name it will strengthen it in our memory.

These are just a few of the things I am seeing in common with how parrots remember and human memory. Here is a video we did for you.