On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, Laura Duvall wrote:
> Can you say "Double Blind"? 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. 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
OK, I checked out the sites. The first is certainly impressive as a
high school project, and so is the bibliography. However, in my short
scan of it (less than a minute, I admit), I spotted nothing that
suggested a double-blind test of the dog's ability to detect
explosives. And come to think of it, I can understand single-blind
(handler unaware). But what does double-blind mean in this context?
So how about it, Laura? Can you lead us through the bibliography to
the one critical paper that establishes once and for all that dogs can
detect explosives? The ideal paper would not only control for
experimenter cuing, but would show that the dogs could do this in a
setting that approximates a real-life situation. As a bonus, it would
show that the dogs perform at a higher level of accuracy and
sensitivity than the best explosives-detecting machines now available.
I'd have to say (saving face disclaimer) I wouldn't be too surprised
if it turns out that dogs can do this. The question is whether there
exists a scientifically-trustworthy published demonstration. I'm more
sceptical about the claims about nosing out people.
As for dogs detecting cancer. Same thing: it's a nice story. But
where's the publication?
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at:
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