Ellie's Test

Some brainy stuff first.

Reading is considered a complex cognitive process utilizing many features of the brain - including the ability to visually process symbols into meaningful communication (orthography), the ability to hear sounds and combine them with the symbols (phonological awareness), the ability to put those sounds and symbols together for vocabulary development (semantic processing), etc.

The hallmark of literacy is the triggering of the self-learning mechanism - the ability to read something and add it to one's internal vocabulary - and thereby learn more things. (This is called lexical orthography.)

Pigeons and baboons have (shocking scientists) mastered orthography - the ability to decipher strings of words into 'possible meaning' - they weren't meaningful vocabulary, but they could do it. Over and over again, however, scientists say, "Reading is a uniquely-human skill."

Anyway, lots of mumbo jumbo to say, I've finished the article as far as it can go (12 pages) and have designed the tests. The first one is super easy (it may be too easy for Ellie - she gets bored and her scores go down on easy stuff), but it'll be simple words. Birds'll read them under blind conditions, easy peasy. Isabelle already does this, and she's only started learning to read two months ago.

The really cool test - the hallmark of reading - is whether the birds can decode words by sight, and then later recall them when verbally prompted. I tested her ability to silently read words and later recall the when verbally prompted...

AND OMG SHE DID IT!!! Afterward I cried with happiness and called Joe and my Mom! :)