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Written Testimony of Barbara Landau, Ph.D.
on behalf of the American Psychological Association
Submitted to the
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies
The Honorable James T. Walsh, Chair
Fiscal Year 2002 Appropriations for the National Science Foundation
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Department of Veterans Affairs
March 21, 2001
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I’m Dr. Barbara Landau, the
Todd Professor of Cognitive Science at the Johns Hopkins University. I am
submitting testimony on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA),
a scientific and professional organization of more than 155,000 psychologists
and affiliates. Our behavioral scientists play vital roles within the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and I would like
to address the proposed Fiscal Year 2002 research budgets for each of these
three agencies.
National Science Foundation
As you know, NSF is the only federal agency whose primary mission is the
support of fundamental research and education in science, math and engineering.
Over the past half century, NSF has had monumental impact on our society. The
NSF investment in basic research has paid dividends in building the
infrastructure of the individual scientific disciplines – including psychology
– and has laid the groundwork for innovative interdisciplinary research to
meet modern day scientific and technical challenges. Leading edge advances in
science and engineering today, more often than not, need cross-disciplinary
perspectives, which depend on the vitality of the science, mathematics,
computing and engineering disciplines supported by NSF. It is clear that many of
the technology innovations enjoyed today are based upon research done twenty and
thirty years ago, and that innovations twenty to thirty years in the future will
depend upon significant investment in present-day research.
APA appreciates the efforts of this Subcommittee and your colleagues in the
Senate on behalf of NSF last year. We applaud the goal of doubling the NSF
budget and the FY 2001 appropriation clearly set us on the right path. We
believe it is critical not to lose the opportunity to build on this strong
start, and we strongly hope that the FY 2002 budget will continue this effort.
Although the new Administration is laudably focused on reinvigorating
education as well as medical research, there appears to be less appreciation for
the need to support the more basic scientific research underpinning true
educational reform and medical breakthroughs. Simply put, basic research is the
engine that drives applied developments. For example, geographic information
systems, World Wide Web search engines, automatic heart defibrillators, product
bar codes, computer aided modeling, retinal implants, optical fibers, magnetic
resonance imaging technology, and composite materials used in aircraft all arose
from NSF investments in basic research. These methods, products and advances in
understanding accrue from basic research performed over many years, not always
pre-determined research efforts aimed toward a specific result.
Just as basic research spawns new technologies, basic research also generates
new ideas. Psychologists funded by NSF’s Biological Sciences Directorate
have developed models for understanding the human brain, how it grows and
develops, and how it can deteriorate with aging and disease. This has profound
implications for understanding how young children learn and why our aging brains
often forget. My own work, funded by NSF’s Social, Behavioral and
Economic Sciences Directorate, aims to discover how normally
developing children learn language and how they develop other crucial cognitive
capacities, such as remembering where things are and finding their way through
their environment. I also study these capacities in children with
genetically-caused brain damage, seeking to understand how early brain damage
might affect development. The insights that we gain through this kind of basic
research are critical to understanding how we can avoid developmental
disabilities, or remediate them when they do occur.
Currently, NSF must decline almost as many highly-rated grant proposals as it
can fund. Increased funding for NSF will not only enable the funding of more
outstanding proposals that will help broaden the nation’s knowledge base, it
also will enable the agency to increase the size and duration of its grants. By
supporting basic research in all fields of science, this nation can ensure
continued economic growth, a better-educated workforce, technological
leadership, improved prevention of disease, and strengthened national security.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
APA joins the Coalition for National Security
Funding in its strong opposition to the President's proposed budget increase of
only 1.3% for NSF in FY 2002. We urge this Subcommittee to provide a minimum of
$5.1 billion (a 15% increase) for NSF in FY 2002. We believe this increase is a
crucial step toward doubling NSF’s budget by 2006 and reinvesting in the
critical basic research enterprise.
Humans perform critical functions throughout all aspects of every NASA
mission from concept development, system design and acquisition through
operations. People are critical elements of complex aerospace systems. The
ability to measure and predict human performance through all mission phases
enhances mission safety and mission success. NASA Human Factors research and
technology enhances the national capability to explore the stars, understand our
own planet as well as contributing to more affordable and efficient aerospace
operations.
Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR)
NASA is demonstrating an unprecedented interest in psychological and
behavioral research. That interest stems from historical observations of
astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard Mir, the recognition that a
multicultural workforce has built and is occupying the International Space
Station, and the longer term goals of sending astronauts to Mars. Psychologists
are involved at many levels within NASA studying everything from basic
neuroscience in rats to determining how to optimize the habitability of
next-generation space suits.
Much of this research has been funded through the Office of Life and
Microgravity Science and Applications [OLMSA, recently renamed Office of
Biological and Physical Research (OBPR)]. OLMSA has enjoyed active
collaborations with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With NASA priorities in mind, both of
these partner agencies have advanced psychological research. Last year, NSBRI
expanded from eight core research teams to twelve including one dedicated to
Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors. And last year, 10 NIH Institutes
joined NASA in the release of a joint program to help expand the breadth of
ground-based research with an increased emphasis on Behavioral and Psychological
processes. OBPR leads the nation’s efforts in using the attributes of the
space environment to advance knowledge about the effects of gravity on living
systems to improve the quality of life on Earth, and to strengthen the
foundations for continuing the exploration and utilization of space. However,
OBPR still lacks the resources it needs to attract the very best researchers.
Despite large numbers of meritorious applications OBPR funds only a small
percentage of the applications it receives with relatively short-term awards
during a single review cycle each year. APA congratulates NASA for recognizing
the critical role that psychological science must play in evaluating and
maintaining astronaut health and performance.
In order to redress budgetary short-falls across previous years and to
continue advancing our understanding of human adaptation to space, APA joins the
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in
recommending an increase of $50 million for investigator-initiated research in
FY 2002 for the Office of Biological and Physical Research at NASA.
Office of Aero-Space Technology (OAST)
Another arm of NASA makes good use of psychological science closer to Earth.
One of the stated goals of the NASA Administrator is to reduce the aircraft
accident rate by a factor of five within 10 years. A second goal is to triple
the aviation throughput in all weather conditions by 2007. The vast
majority of accidents are attributed to human error. Recent increases in
air traffic volume and airport delays make these challenges especially daunting.
NASA will need to make an extraordinary investment in human factors research to
achieve these ambitious milestones.
Human factors psychologists conduct research on the decision-making processes
of pilots and controllers, ensure that new technology is designed with the user
in mind, and have played a critical role in our understanding of why mistakes
happen when humans are required to operate in a complex environment. Continued
research on the complex interactions of flight crews with ground controllers,
with cockpit technology, and with other aircraft systems will provide the
insight needed to design error-tolerant systems. NASA is pursuing new
computational modeling approaches to human-system design and human-computer
interaction that permit human-in-the-loop simulation to evaluate new system
design concepts. Model-based evaluation of individuals, teams and organizations
will contribute to affordable and efficient aerospace systems. NASA has
continued to strengthen its existing ties with the Federal Aviation
Administration in an effort to advance the common research interests of both
agencies in the areas of aviation capacity and safety.
NASA OAST has also "raised the roof" on aerospace operations to
include low-earth orbit space operations supporting the International Space
Station, reusable launch vehicles and unmanned space operations. A growing
commercial space industry requires that the air transportation system of the
future incorporate space launch capabilities and new aerospace vehicles. NASA's
expertise in aviation human factors and human-centered computing is being
applied to the development of better cockpit displays for the astronauts and
improved mission support on the ground.
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Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical and Prosthetic Research Account
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) funds intramural research that
supports its clinical mission to care for our nation’s veterans, including
medical, rehabilitation and health services research. Mental illness has been
designated as a priority area of research, and psychological scientists within
the VA continue to make great strides in:
- developing more sensitive diagnostic tools to detect the early stages of
Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, problems increasingly seen both
in our veterans and our aging population in society at large;
- improving the diagnosis and treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder;
- developing and implementing important substance abuse prevention,
cardiac rehabilitation, stress management, vocational, and smoking
cessation programs; and
- evaluating the effectiveness of VA health services as they continue to
evolve.
We are deeply concerned that for the third year in a row, the initial budget
request from the Administration does not recommend a funding increase at all for
VA medical research. Despite being a highly productive research program that has
a direct impact on the quality and effectiveness of care provided to veterans,
the appropriation for VA research consistently has been inadequate to fund many
of the proposals rated "highly meritorious" by VA’s renowned peer
review process. Over time, VA has accumulated an enormous backlog of approved
projects awaiting funding. Each of these is a missed opportunity to advance
knowledge of Parkinson’s disease, or Alzheimer’s, or paralysis.
Additionally, because VA grantees must be VA employees, the VA research program
offers a dedicated funding source to attract and retain high-quality clinical
investigators. This in turn ensures that our nation’s veterans receive the
highest quality health care. When funding opportunity falls, VA loses this
valuable recruiting tool and is less able to leverage VA-appropriated research
dollars.
We strongly encourage the Subcommittee to support the VA research program –
for too long, this program has suffered from a roller coaster of threatened cuts
and flat funding, with an occasional hard-won increase. This instability has
made it difficult for the VA research program to maintain its momentum and to
attract to VA the talented and skilled personnel necessary to conduct
cutting-edge research and to care for veterans.
Summary
On behalf of APA, I would like to express my appreciation for this
opportunity to present testimony before the Subcommittee. Psychological
scientists address a broad range of important issues and problems confronting
our nation, from basic research on children’s acquisition of language, to
studies of how to design more error-tolerant aircraft systems and development of
tools to better detect Alzheimer's disease. As the Subcommittee considers
funding requests, I urge you to place a high priority on the issues I have
outlined in my testimony - the need to reinvest in vital behavioral research
within the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the VA so that our nation can
meet the millennium's scientific and technological challenges.
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