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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mine Detection Rats: Effects Of Repeated Extinction On Detection Rates, Amanda M. Mahoney
Mine Detection Rats: Effects Of Repeated Extinction On Detection Rates, Amanda M. Mahoney
Dissertations
In recent years, giant African pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) have been used successfully for detecting landmines in Mozambique. The rats are trained to detect mines through the use of operant conditioning techniques, in which the indicator response (stopping and digging) is rewarded (reinforced) with food when it occurs within one meter of a landmine and not rewarded when it occurs under other circumstances. Because handlers do not know the location of landmines when the rats are used operationally, and therefore cannot ascertain if an indication response is correct (near a mine) or incorrect, no rewards are delivered in …