One of my passions is to work on bridging the gaps between the science and the practice, between the lab and the field, and between traditional methods in the world of dog olfaction and the olfactory research with other species. I will discuss a few concepts and issues that have emerged in the past few decades of my research with biomedical alert canines and wildlife conservation canines. I will cover two of three main areas of interest (depending on the interests of the attendees): The issue of motivation in working dogs (incentive learning and incentive motivation theories; this topic involves a significant role for classical conditioning), the role of psychophysical methods in olfaction research (in particular signal detection theory), and general considerations about the brain and “mind”-related constructs (cognition, emotion, motivation). I will discuss how my time in the field with my dogs directly informs my work in the lab.
Event Timeslots (1)
Sunday
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