At 2:27 PM -0600 12/3/99, Laura Duvall wrote:
>>>> dogs to be 100% accurate in sniffing out guns in baggage>>>
>
>>>>Can you say "Clever Hans"?>>>
>
>Can you say "Double Blind"?
I can say it -- did you _see_ it in the case referred to?
>The olfactory abilities of dogs is well researched, in fact, a dog's nose
>has over 220 million cells associated with the sense of smell, while the
>human nose has only 5 million.
An actual discrimination is a function of both the sensory capacity _and_
the appropriate reinforcement contingencies (training). Since the
reference was to a very specific odor discrimination (individual human body
odors) I'd want to see good evidence of actual stimulus control.
I'll take a look at some of the references below and see where's the beef...
>I don't know about 100% accuracy, but below is a website with references
>on dog's ability to detect explosives. It is a personal webpage, but if
>you scroll to the bottom there is a very impressive list of over 100
>different references.
>
>http://users.aol.com./sprite710/mainpage.htm#MYPROJ
>
>Now HERE is something to think about, some doctors believe that a dog can
>be trained to smell and detect skin cancer! The following website
>discusses the research with George, the first melanoma sniffing dog:
>
>http://www.canoe.ca/HealthNews/980910_jones.html
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
