A Brandeis psychologist, with the help of her feathery research subject, finds funding in unusual places.

David Holzman

Alex the parrot understands the concept of zero and can distinguish objects by shape. Through him, scientists have learned much about animal cognition.

But in these lean funding times, Irene Pepperberg, the Brandeis psychology professor who has been training and studying Alex for nearly 30 years, has been forced to seek funding from unusual sources, such as parrot enthusiast clubs. Other scientists in Boston and across the country are also struggling, but Pepperberg is unique in that she has a research subject with public appeal that she uses to help her raise money.

Irene Pepperberg of Brandeis trains Alex, a grey parrot (left), in her studies on animal cognition. (Credit: Mike Lovett, Brandeis)

Most of her lab’s funding comes from speaking engagements at parrot enthusiast clubs around the country, such as the Reno Area Avian Enthusiasts, and private donors. Some of these groups pay a fee, while others sell tickets or have raffles or auctions. The money goes to The Alex Foundation, which Pepperberg founded to raise funds for her research. It also sells T-shirts, mugs, and other gift items.

All this fundraising work is taking its toll. Pepperberg estimates that her productivity has dropped from several papers and one or two book chapters annually, down to about one of each. She doesn’t complain, though. “We’re doing exciting stuff, it’s just not going as fast as it should be,” she says.

Brainy bird

Marc Hauser, a psychology professor at Harvard, says that Pepperberg has helped address one of the big questions in the study of human cognition and intelligence: to what extent do humans have unique capabilities, compared to animals? Pepperberg has shown that humans may not be as unique as once thought. For example, Alex can identify colors and understands that the number six is greater than five.

But Pepperberg’s research suffers from a prejudice against cognitive research on birds, says Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center within Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Center in Atlanta, GA, who also praises Pepperberg’s research. “It is tough for behavioral scientists, because some people don’t consider this hard science,” says de Waal. “There are people in the funding agencies who believe that if you don’t scan the brain, the research can’t be serious.”

The field favors studies of what animals can do spontaneously in their own environments, as opposed to Pepperberg’s approach of training animals under artificial conditions, says Hauser. Both methods are valuable, he adds.

More generally, though, federal funding is tight. The National Science Foundation’s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, where Pepperberg has a grant application pending, funded only about 13 out of 100 grant applications last year.

Here to stay

Pepperberg has had it tough during most of her time in Boston. She left a tenured position at the University of Arizona in 1999 to take a contract position in MIT’s Media Lab, studying birds as models for how robots and computers might “learn.” She had her contract extended to 2006, but it was cut short due to budgetary pressures within the Media Lab. Since then, she’s struggled to run a lab at Brandeis.

Pepperberg is committed to staying in Boston, despite the lack of senior faculty positions in animal cognition. “Boston’s one of the most scientifically exciting places to be,” she says. And she will stick with Alex and her other parrots as her research subjects, which means that at least in the short term, she’ll have to continue traveling the country to raise money.

“In the current climate, anywhere you can get money, you should get it,” says de Waal.