Mimicry of CAG

[Omar81]

Hi. As you may know from my other posts, I recently got a 3 year old CAG. Till now it has only been making 'natural parrot sounds' (the whistles, screams..etc that I assume wild CAG make in the wild). No mimicry whatsoever. I am just curious about the mimicry of a CAG. I have read that talking greys are excellent at mimicking human voice and may words in the exact voice of various family members. This brought a question to my mind. If the parrot hears two different people saying the same word (for example a an adult male and a young girl), since the voices are so different, do you think to the parrot this is the same word or two different words? I mean let's say each of those two people are repeating the word "Apple" in very different voices, do you think the parrot recognizes them as the same word or two different words?
Also, another curiosity question. Let's say a CAG always hears the word "Apple" repeated very loudly, but always hears the word "bannana" always said in a very low voice, if the CAG learns both words, will it always say apple in a loud voice and banana in a low voice? Or will it simple learn the word and then varry the volume depending on the situation or it's preference/mood? When I say low and high voice, I mean the same voice but at a low or high volume.
These are just curiosity questions. I am very interested in hearing your opinions.
Thanks

 

[bigfellasdad]

good question, Enzo has had a few homes and says several words in different voices. When im on the telephone she talks in her last owners female voice, 'ok, bye, yep' etc. But when im not on the telephone she says the words in a different voice. I dont think she understands what the words mean but she knows the context when the words are used and which voice to do them in.

I think only a third of her words/sounds she knows exactly what they mean, dad, come here, bye bye, come on, good night, night night, time for bed, cup of tea, give me a kiss, what?, time for a shower, tickle tickle etc etc.

For the soft/loud question, Enzo will shout me when im not around 'Dad!', if i reply she is fine. if I dont reply she will say 'Dad, come here' in a gentle but assertive way, again if i dont reply she will shout 'DAD, COME HERE!' in a very demanding tone, which although funny is a little bit of a PITA as who wants a demanding hen in the house.... So, she knows the same words and also knows how to add attitude to those words when required. One other thing, when she says her name she says it under her breath, a very quiet Enzo, but when she says 'com on Enzo' it is much louder. She knows her name is Enzo btw. Does that help??

 

[Omar81]

Thank you very much

 

[texsize]

In a way my Bella imitates tone of voice but the words she has learned from our household are all spoken in the same "voice"

there are 3 adults in my home. The words and phrases she has learned from us all use the same tone so far as I can tell.

there are a couple of things she learned from her original owner and those things are said in a different tone of voice.

When she imitates the answering machine she kind of mumbles and that is also in a different tone of voice.

I guess it come down to the fact that we (my family) all use/say the same things to her so she has a "general" voice she uses. The closest thing I can think of that is only used by one person is this.
My wife says "look at you" and that is something nobody else says. so when Bella says "look at you" it has more of the tone of voice of my wife instead of her "normal voice"

texsize

 

[MooshieBird]

Hi. As you may know from my other posts, I recently got a 3 year old CAG. Till now it has only been making 'natural parrot sounds' (the whistles, screams..etc that I assume wild CAG make in the wild). No mimicry whatsoever. I am just curious about the mimicry of a CAG. I have read that talking greys are excellent at mimicking human voice and may words in the exact voice of various family members. This brought a question to my mind. If the parrot hears two different people saying the same word (for example a an adult male and a young girl), since the voices are so different, do you think to the parrot this is the same word or two different words? I mean let's say each of those two people are repeating the word "Apple" in very different voices, do you think the parrot recognizes them as the same word or two different words?
Also, another curiosity question. Let's say a CAG always hears the word "Apple" repeated very loudly, but always hears the word "bannana" always said in a very low voice, if the CAG learns both words, will it always say apple in a loud voice and banana in a low voice? Or will it simple learn the word and then varry the volume depending on the situation or it's preference/mood? When I say low and high voice, I mean the same voice but at a low or high volume.
These are just curiosity questions. I am very interested in hearing your opinions.
Thanks

Mushka copies several peoples voices. Her female voices are much more accurate than male voices. When she uses my voice it sounds more like Mushka imitating my voice. If she imitates my daughter she sounds just like my daughter. As far as knowing the meaning of the same word from multiple people the answer is yes. Mushka knows yes, no, her name my name, treat stand, hi, ant other words/phrases no matter who says it or how it is said. Furthermore she understands some words have the same meaning. For example she knows "Good night" and "Night night" mean the same thing. She also recognizes "Mushka" and "Moosh" as referring to her. Interestingly she also copies accent's very well. She says many things with a thick southern accent and also sometimes with a thick Russian accent. Hearing "come here, step up." in a girly southern accent than in a male Russian accent is quite fun.

To your second question, Mushka does not always say a word as she hears it. If I taught her apple in a shout, she would eventually use it in different ways. Once Mushka has learned a word she will repeat it in many different ways. When she has learned a new word or phrase she often gets "stuck" on it for a while, repeating it over and over in different ways and mixing it up with other words or phrases she knows. For example, my mother recently taught her "I love you Matt." She has been repeating it constantly for a couple of days and mixing in different things she knows. Sometimes it makes since, like saying "I love you Rivers." replacing my name with my daughters. Sometimes it makes no since like "I love you wanna sing."

You can hear Mushka use several voices for the same words in the video's on Mushka T.V.. In those you can see her say the same words and phrases in different combinations, voices, and volume levels for a visual and auditory answer to your questions.

 

[cnyguy]

Scooter, the CAG I adopted almost two years ago, has picked up several new words and phrases since she's been here, and she says them in my voice. She still says things she learned in her previous home in the voices of her former owner and her daughters. She doesn't vary the volume of words very much (she's usually on the quiet side), and really only is loud when she does the smoke detector impression she brought from her former home.

 

[Kentuckienne]

There is a difference between knowing a sound and knowing a label. A parrot might learn two different person's "hello" as two different sounds and not connect them. But if she learns that "apple" means that particular delicious fruit, then she knows the word as a meaningful thing, and not just as a sound. For example, Alex knew words for things like "wool", "metal" and "green" no matter who said them, and he answered in his own voice, not a mimicry of the person's voice.