APA Testimony for Fiscal Year 2004 Appropriations for NSF, NASA, and VA

Written Testimony of Timothy D. Wilson, Ph.D.
On behalf of the American Psychological Association

Submitted April 4, 2003 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 2004 Appropriations for the National Science Foundation,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
and Department of Veterans Affairs

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I'm Dr. Tim Wilson, Chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia. 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. Because 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), APA will address the proposed Fiscal Year 2004 research budgets for each of these three agencies.

National Science Foundation
As a member of the larger science community and an active leader in the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), APA thanks the Congress and the Administration for completing the NSF Authorization Act of 2002. We strongly support funding NSF at the authorized level of $6.39 billion for FY04, in contrast to the President's budget request of $5.48 billion (which includes only a 1.2% annual increase for NSF research). We also would like to highlight the importance of fully funding two NSF priorities in 2004, the special research initiative in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, slated to receive $24.5 million, and the foundation-wide Science of Learning Centers (SLCs), proposed at $20 million.

Core Psychological Research at NSF
NSF is the only federal agency whose primary mission is to support basic research and education in math, engineering and science - including behavioral and social science. NSF's investment in basic research across these disciplines has allowed for extraordinary scientific and technological progress, ensuring continued economic growth, improvements in the design, implementation and evaluation of public education, and strengthened national security. My own NSF grant, funded through the Small Grants for Exploratory Research or SGER program, is examining the antecedents of public support for U.S. military incursions into foreign states, using social psychological methodologies to look particularly at factors that motivate U.S. citizens to support the invasion of Iraq.

The necessity to support basic research continues to be paramount. With the increasing globalization of science, the U.S. faces greater-than-ever competition for scientific innovation and discovery. At the same time that we must work in international communities of researchers and scholars, we must find new ways to make our country safe from threats not only to our physical structures but to the American tradition of free and shared science and to the many challenges we face at home. Our best defense is an offensive strategy in which we continue a tradition of producing the best science, ideas, and technology. We can do this only on the basis of a solid foundation of basic research.

Although psychologists receive funding from diverse programs within NSF, most core psychological research is supported by the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE), with its focus on the variables that determine human behavior across all ages, affect interactions among individuals and groups, and decide how social and economic systems develop and change. In addition to core research in cognitive neuroscience, human cognition and perception, learning and development, and social psychology, SBE also will support a Special Research Priority in Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) in 2004. Given the pace and demands of our increasingly technological society, APA strongly supports NSF's proposed investment of $24.5 million in Fiscal Year 2004 for the HSD priority area, to further explore interactions among society, its institutions, and technology. Psychologists and other behavioral and social scientists are uniquely poised to address the complex issue of how people and organizations can better understand and manage profound or rapid societal changes - through research on decision-making, risk and uncertainty; adaptation and resistance to technological change; the evolution of society and its interaction with climate, geography and environment; and ways in which human performance can be enhanced in conjunction with advances in biology, engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and information technology.

[back to top]

The Biological Sciences Directorate also provides support for research psychologists who ask questions about the very principles and mechanisms that govern life at the level of the genome and cell, or at the level of a whole individual, family or species. Our increasing sophistication about the genetic mechanisms of life allows us to ask increasingly complex questions about brain functioning. These kinds of questions cannot be answered by biology alone. An understanding of behavior requires analysis at all levels of functioning, from the cell to the whole organism, and an appreciation of the complex ways in which the environment impacts on the individual.

Investment in research on the learning process, the context of learning and learning technologies is crucial to both successful educational reform and effective workforce development, and the NSF Science of Learning Centers (SLCs) will continue to serve as the foundation-wide centerpiece of the Learning for the 21st Century Workforce priority area in Fiscal Year 2004. These multidisciplinary, multi-institutional centers are building collaborative research communities of scientists, educators, community groups and industries capable of addressing fundamental questions in learning and applying that knowledge to schools and workforce contexts. APA strongly recommends that Congress support the proposed $20 million for the SLCs in 2004, with the longer-term goal of making strides in math and science education analogous to the tremendous leaps forward we currently are making by applying research on reading. NSF scientists can engage investigators from the range of disciplines it supports, from cognitive psychology and neuroscience to geography, engineering and robotics, and examine learning in adult and child populations to support both workforce and formal education needs.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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 enhance the national capability to explore the stars and understand our own planet while contributing to the safety, affordability and efficiency of aerospace operations.

Office of Biological and Physical Research
In order to continue advancing our understanding of human adaptation to space, APA supports the Administration request of $973 million in Fiscal Year 2004 to advance investigator initiated, peer reviewed research within the 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 and the recognition that a multicultural workforce is building and occupying the International Space Station. Psychologists are involved at many levels within NASA, studying everything from basic neuroscience in rats to optimization of the habitability of next-generation space suits. Much of this research has been funded through OBPR.

The Bioastronautics Research Division supports research designed to reduce threats to humans exposed to physiological and psychological health risks during space flight. NASA has focused considerable energy on sleep and circadian rhythms, performance related to neurovestibular function and psychophysiological monitoring on short- duration missions. There is increasing recognition, however, that NASA needs to devote greater attention to behavioral health and psychosocial adaptation as these factors could significantly impact the success of long-duration missions.

Human factors considerations for long-duration spaceflight extend far beyond physical crew interfaces into considerations of behavioral, psychological, physiological, and operational factors' influence on human performance and safety. The use of isolation chambers such as the Bioplex facility at Johnson Space Center offer the potential, and have been used successfully, to study individual behavior and performance measures under conditions of extended isolation and confinement. It is critical that these unique facilities continue to be used to monitor and model the effects of long duration space flight. Such models will be useful in predicting changes in human performance as well as guiding the development of potential countermeasures.

[back to top]

Office of Aero-Space Technology
This arm of NASA makes good use of psychological science closer to Earth. APA applauds NASA for its attention to human factors research and recommends at least the $959 million requested for the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) to allow for critical research in Aviation Security as well as the successful transition to the next generation National Airspace System Aviation.

Two of NASA's long-term interests have been to reduce the aircraft accident rate and increase the aviation throughput. 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 needs to make an extraordinary investment in human factors research to achieve these ambitious milestones. Fortunately, several NASA programs support these important goals - most notably the Aviation Safety Program but also Aerospace Operations Systems, Engineering for Complex Systems, Advanced Air Transportation Technologies and Virtual Airspace Modeling Systems. Critical research focuses on data mining, modeling and visualization for the proactive management of aerospace system risk, allowing for the monitoring of incidents and normal operations to identify precursors of error and mitigate risk before accidents happen.

However, in order to do this, enormous volumes of qualitative and quantitative data must be transformed into useful information for expert analysts through the application of new information technology tools. For example, the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is a national aviation safety resource consisting of first-hand verbal reports of accidents and mishaps from a broad spectrum of aviation professionals. These reports provide critical data for expert trend analyses and queries that are then made available to the public and private sector. Further, the Aviation Performance Measuring System (APMS) provides a set of information technology tools to support content analysis of the hundreds of flight data recorder parameters that are collected on every commercial airline flight. These tools allow the reconstruction of problems and entire flights from the collected data set and can identify common problems across flights. Finally, from the control tower, the Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS) routinely collects, processes and disseminates Air Traffic Control radar track data for use in identifying normal operations and anomalous flightpaths.

Collectively, such data tracking systems will become part of a model to assess the impact of perturbations in the National Airspace System, which could include proposed technical innovations (such as advanced automation-assisted decision support) and changes in organizational structure or procedures, as well as accidents or terrorist attacks. Such a model will require a distributed simulation capability that can represent the full range of system behaviors at multiple levels of analysis, including people - the current backbone of the aviation system.

[back to top]

Department of Veterans Affairs
Investments in investigator-initiated research projects at the VA have led to an explosion of knowledge that promises to advance our understanding of disease and unlock new strategies for prevention, treatment and cures. Psychological researchers play crucial roles in addressing the many health challenges still confronting the veteran community. APA joins the Friends of VA Medical Care and Health Research (FOVA), a coalition of over 50 organizations concerned about veterans' health, in recommending $860 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Account in Fiscal Year 2004 (of which $400 million would go to the President's proposed centralization of direct and indirect costs of research in the VA Office of Research and Development).

Psychological Research in the VA
Through its Medical and Prosthetic Research Account, the VA funds intramural research that supports its clinical mission to care for our nation's veterans. VA psychologists play a dual role in providing care for veterans and conducting research in all areas of health, including high-priority areas particularly relevant to veterans such as mental health, substance abuse, aging-related disorders and physical and psychosocial rehabilitation. Psychological researchers also have specific expertise critical to helping the VA address its expanding concerns about deployment health and racial and ethnic disparities in health care among veterans. Because research has such a positive impact on the quality of care, APA strongly encourages the VA to ensure that neither research nor care suffers by developing mechanisms to designate time for clinicians to conduct research.

Summary
APA appreciates this opportunity to provide written testimony in support of psychological research sponsored by NSF, NASA and the VA, and strongly encourages the Subcommittee to reaffirm its commitment to basic behavioral science at all three agencies in FY 2004. We recognize that this year there is a special need to strengthen research programs and operations related to national security, and we hope that Congress also will reinvest in the longer-term basic research which enables us to meet the full range of social, economic, health, and security challenges ahead.

Suggested Report Language for NSF and VA:
National Science Foundation, Priority Area in Human and Social Dynamics: The Committee recognizes the role of the social, behavioral and economic sciences in addressing complex problems facing our nation, including how people and organizations can better understand and manage profound or rapid societal changes. The Committee applauds NSF for investing in a multi-year priority area of research in Human and Social Dynamics (HSD), which will refine knowledge about decision-making, risk and uncertainty; examine adaptation and resistance to technological change; model complex networks such as communication grids and economic markets; further our understanding of the evolution of society and its interaction with climate, geography and environment; and investigate how human performance can be enhanced in conjunction with advances in biology, engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and information technology.

Department of Veterans Affairs, Medical and Prosthetic Research Account,
Psychological Research in the VA: The Committee recognizes the unique and important role played by psychologists in providing care for veterans and in advancing scientific research in areas particularly relevant to veterans, including mental health, physical and psychosocial rehabilitation, and aging-related conditions. The Committee also recognizes that psychological researchers have specific expertise critical to helping the VA address its expanding concerns about deployment health and racial and ethnic disparities in health care among veterans.

Back to Top^