In the article, Alex the Parrot, writter by Sthephanie Spinner,

the author mentions how the relationship between the parrot

and irene began, she was always interested in parrots and
parakeets and even considered them Smart. Over time she will
continue to raise various birds, to which she even taught some
words, in fact she never imagined studying parrots, since she
had studies in chemistry, but after watching a series about
science on TV, to be more exact about animal intelligence, she
was very fascinated, especially in the birds. Animal
communication was a topic that attracted Irene a lot, starting to
find out everything she could. She read about dolphins,
chimpanzees, and gorillas. Back then it was believed that the
bigger the brain, the smarter the animal, no one was interested
in birds. Now there are many studies of parrots, some even
classify it as one of the most intelligent species. As a scientist,
she wanted to demonstrate at that time how intelligent parrots
were with the help of Alex, the parrot. It was not easy to start
studies with Alex, since it cost him to adapt to the laboratory,
but after tests, he began to see certain results