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APA Hosts Meeting with FBI Behavioral Science Unit
On October 1st, the Science Policy Office hosted a meeting
between leaders of the behavioral and social science research community
and the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). The planning dinner was
convened as a follow-up to a successful half-day colloquium entitled,
“The Role of Human Factors in Homeland Security” at the annual meeting
of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) in Baltimore. The
overall purpose of these and other meetings APA has held in conjunction
with FBI Academy staff is to help facilitate their interaction with a
range of behavioral scientists to help guide the FBI as it begins
re-orienting to a domestic terrorism agenda. A full summary of the meeting
can be viewed at: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/fbimeeting.html.
NSF Funding Bills Wait in the Wings, but House Version
Includes APA Language Supporting Science of Learning Centers
On October 9th, the House Appropriations Committee
reported out a bill (H.R. 5605) funding a number of federal agencies,
including the National Science Foundation. Like the Senate version, which
was reported out of committee in July, the House bill now takes its place
in line on the voting calendar. Given the shake-up in the Senate and the
vagaries of the lame-duck session in both congressional chambers, it’s
anyone’s guess when this and other funding bills will pass, make it to
conference for negotiation, and finally head to the President for
signature.
One piece of exciting news is that APA’s recommended
language in support of NSF’s new Science of Learning Centers made it
into the report accompanying the House bill, almost verbatim. The House
Appropriations Committee “…recognizes that investment in basic,
multidisciplinary research on learning is crucial to both successful
educational reform and effective workforce development. In this regard,
the Committee's recommendation includes support for the NSF Science of
Learning Centers. This program is intended to build collaborative research
communities of scientists, educators, community groups, and industry
capable of addressing fundamental questions in learning and then
integrating these results into ongoing federal education reform
initiatives...”
Planning Underway for NSF Learning/Cognition Workshop
Learning and cognition are integral to much of the science
currently supported by the NSF. This is evident from Foundation-wide
initiatives such as “Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence" that
included “Learning and Intelligent Systems,” and “Learning for the
21st Century Workforce”. Support for learning is also evident from the
nature of the individual research projects supported within each of the
NSF Directorates. However, NSF support for the basic science of animal
learning and cognition, traditionally based in the Directorate for
Biological Sciences (Division of Integrative Biology & Neuroscience,
Animal Behavior Program), has virtually ceased.
APA Senior Scientist, Susan Brandon, PhD, is working with
members of the animal learning/cognition community in preparing a proposal
for a workshop at the NSF to address this issue. The goal of the workshop
would be to highlight research in fundamental processes of learning and
cognition to NSF personnel, and to illustrate how the fundamental research
is important and vital to the kinds of research involving learning that is
already supported by NSF. The proposed one-day workshop would accomplish
this by inviting representative researchers to NSF to offer brief
descriptions of their investigations. The morning session would focus
primarily on fundamental process research, and the afternoon session would
focus primarily on instances of how this research feeds forward into the
broader domain of research on learning and cognition. Whereas NSF
personnel are the primary target group, it is expected that the
researchers would also benefit from the opportunity to learn how to best
present their science to the various NSF Program and Divisional Directors
that it is hoped will participate. Dr. Brandon is soliciting input from
Program and Division staff within the four NSF Directorates that have
demonstrated a current/historical interest in learning and cognition
research.
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APA Urges Continued, Strong Support for Behavioral
Research at DOD
On October 23rd, President Bush signed into law the annual
appropriations bill funding the Department of Defense (DoD) for FY03. For
the first time, DoD will meet a science community goal by designating 3%
of its overall agency budget for the Science & Technology line, which
includes all basic research. Even more importantly for behavioral
research, the report accompanying the funding bill includes APA-drafted
language urging DoD to fully fund all behavioral research sponsored by the
military laboratories. Because the appropriations process has dragged into
the current fiscal year, APA policy staff are already working at ensuring
appropriate support for behavioral research in the FY04 DoD budget. To
read the Coalition for National Security Research (CNSR) letter (signed by
APA and others) to DoD urging continued, strong commitment to basic and
applied research within the agency go to: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/cnsrletterfy04.html.
Barriers to Tobacco Cessation
On October 24th, APA partnered with the Center for the
Advancement of Health (CFAH) in providing testimony before the Cessation
Subcommittee of the Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health. APA
member Jessie Gruman, PhD, the President and Executive Director of CFAH,
delivered the testimony on behalf of both organizations focusing on
patients who need more intensive interventions to quit. Dr. Gruman's
testimony was preceded by that of fellow APA member Jack Henningfield,
PhD, who discussed a number of research issues relevant to successful
tobacco cessation. We are grateful to APA's Assistant Executive Director
for Professional Development, Geoff Reed, Ph.D., for his editorial
assistance in drafting the testimony. It is our hope that this will seed a
broader science-practice initiative to involve more practitioners in
tobacco cessation efforts.
Notice of the Regional Hearing can be found at: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/smokecess.html
To read Dr. Gruman’s testimony go to: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/grumantest.html
To read Dr. Henningfield’s testimony go to: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/henningfieldtest.html
NIMH Holds Workshop on Training Geriatric Mental
Health Researchers
On October 28-29th, NIMH’s Aging Research Consortium
held a workshop to discuss the growing need for training more geriatric
mental health researchers. With an exploding older population, the supply
of service providers as well as researchers to advance the science is
being outpaced by demand for those with training in geriatric mental
health. Increased support for training geriatric mental health researchers
is one avenue being explored to increase the flow of researchers into the
workforce pipeline. Participants included both psychiatrists and
psychologists, discussing how NIMH could best encourage clinicians to
begin and maintain a research track in geriatric mental health.
APA members attending the workshop included: former APA
President Norman Abeles, PhD, Michigan State University; Steven Zarit,
PhD, Penn State University; Margaret Gatz, PhD, University of Southern
California; Forrest Scogin, Jr., PhD, of University of Alabama and
Chair-elect of the APA Committee on Aging. They highlighted the need for
increased NIMH support for predoctoral training in basic and clinical
geriatric psychology, an increase in sites for training of geriatric
mental health, and growing programs that facilitate collaboration between
the arts and science psychology departments and psychologists based in
medical centers.
APA’s Minority Aging Network in Psychology (MANIP) was
highlighted as one way to increase the pool of ethnic minority researchers
in the field of gerontology. The weeklong MANIP Summer Institute on Aging
is available to undergraduate junior and seniors, as well as first- and
second-year graduate students in the field of psychology. More information
on MANIP, which is supported by a grant from the National Institute on
Aging, can be found at: http://www.apa.org/mfp/aprogram.html.
Election Reform Law Calls for Human Factors Research
Whether or not you were pleased with the outcome of the
mid-term elections, some good news emerged for election reform last month.
On October 16, the Senate passed the "Help America Vote Act"
(H.R. 3295) and the President signed it into law on October 29. The
explanatory text that accompanies the bill (H.
Rept. 107-730, Sec. 243)calls for a report on human factors research
"...including usability engineering and human-computer and
human-machine interaction which feasibly could be applied to voting
products and systems design to ensure the usability and accuracy of voting
products and systems...". The report clearly reflects testimony
delivered by APA Fellow, David
Woods, PhD, before the Committee on House Administration on May 24,
2001. Dr. Woods was asked to testify after a Congressional Research
Service staff member had heard his presentation at a Decade
of Behavior briefing on election reform elsewhere on Capitol Hill in
March and recommended him as a witness to the Committee staff. Dr. Woods
was the only psychological scientist to testify on election reform and it
is heartening when an advocacy effort like this comes to fruition. We hope
it encourages science advocacy within the broader APA membership.
APA Co-sponsors Conference on Abuse Liability
Assessment of CNS Drugs
On October 28-29, APA’s Science Policy staff partnered
with the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and nine other scientific
and professional organizations to co-sponsor a conference on the “Abuse
Liability Assessment of CNS Drugs”. The Conference brought together
representatives from the academic scientific community, government
agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry to discuss the state of the
science used in Scheduling drugs according to the Controlled Substances
Act. Much of that research has been conducted in the domain of
psychopharmacology and so it was not surprising that many of the
presentations, editorial, and expert commentary during the conference came
from within the APA membership. Seven background papers presented during
the conference led to lively discussion by the participants and will be
published in an upcoming supplement to the journal Drug and Alcohol
Dependence.
That behavioral scientists hold a pivotal role in this
research was evident by the number of APA members involved. Former NIDA
Director Charles R. “Bob” Schuster and Chris-Ellyn Johanson
coordinated the organization of the meeting and edited the background
papers along with APA member Dorothy Hatsukami. Jack Henningfield, James
Woods, and James Zacny were among the APA members serving as a panel of
experts providing commentary during the discussions. Nancy Ator, Roland
Griffiths, George Bigelow and Robert Balster authored three of the seven
background papers. Maxine Stitzer and Mary E. “Betsy” McCaul
represented the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and the
Research Society on Alcoholism respectively and Bill Woolverton and
Harriet de Wit represented APA’s Divison 28. Dr. Stitzer, who also
represents Division 28 on APA’s Council of Representatives, wrote a
summary of the proceedings, which can be viewed here: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/drugliability.html.
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APA's Division 50 Provides Recommendations for SAMHSA
Treatment Improvement Protocol Panel
During the latter half of October, Science Policy staff
worked with the leadership of Division 50 to forward a slate of Consensus
Panel nominees for a Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) under
development by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) at the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This
TIP will focus on Substance Abuse Treatment and Trauma and will be
developed across two in-person meetings in DC and a series of virtual
meetings across 2003. Selection of Consensus Panel members was to be
completed by mid-November. For additional background, view the PDF version
of the program: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/TIP%20Prospectus.pdf.
NIH Director Meets with Behavioral and Social Science
Organizations
Representatives of fourteen behavioral and social science
groups met on October 31st with Dr. Elias Zerhouni, who has been on the
job for about seven months. It was the first time a permanent NIH Director
has sat down with behavioral and social science organizational
representatives since the directorship of Bernadine Healy, MD, in 1992.
APA’s Executive Director for Science Kurt Salzinger and Division 7’s
Deborah Phillips (representing the Society for Research in Child
Development) were among the science leaders who spoke with Zerhouni about
such important topics as research training, basic research, and
restructuring NIH. A full summary of the meeting is available at: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/zerhouni.html .
Any questions?
If you have any questions regarding SPIN or specific
science policy issues, please feel free to contact any of APA’s Science
PPO staff.
Geoff
Mumford, Ph.D., Director of Science Policy
Pat
Kobor, Senior Science Policy Analyst
Heather
O'Beirne Kelly, Ph.D., Senior Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
Karen
Studwell, J.D., Legislative and Federal Affairs Officer
LaTonya Wesley, Legislative Assistant
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Science Policy Insider News