Exploring ‘Scent Work,’ a Sophisticated Application of Learning Theory

Throughout the pandemic, Assumption faculty have developed innovative teaching strategies to engage students. Prof. Amy Cirillo, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, is adapting another unique method in her General Psychology class, examining scent work training for canines. 
 
“Scent work training requires every facet of learning and conditioning I teach,” shared Prof. Cirillo. “It begins with the dog’s simplest association – slices of cheese turning up in cardboard boxes – and culminates in the dog locating a very specific scent in a distracting environment. Here, the utility of the theory and its application are undeniable.”
 
Prof. Cirillo invited a Grammy-nominated artist based in Los Angeles, Jean Krikorian, to speak to her class on her training of rescue dogs, a highly sophisticated application of learning theory. Dogs, for example, possess about 300 million olfactory receptors and we have only six million. The part of their brains that analyze smells is 40 times larger than humans. 
 
“Students almost universally find certain things inherently interesting such as dogs and the communication between animals and humans; the seemingly supernatural abilities of some animals,” added Prof. Cirillo. “When students are truly interested and engaged in the subject matter, they will remember the material. They will retain not only knowledge of how learning occurs, but also memories of these very vivid and meaningful examples. Through this exercise, students gained a deeper understanding of learning theory and how it is applied.”