APA's Science Policy Insider News May 2002

[ Subscribe to SPIN]  APA Co-Sponsors Congressional Briefing: The Human Response to Disaster On April 24, APA co-sponsored an educational briefing on Capitol Hill in support of the Decade of Behavior initiative entitled, "The Human Response to Disaster." Nearly 100 people attended the standing-room-only event, including 33 congressional staff members. The briefing addressed a variety of issues relevant to the post-9/11 era and speakers discussed the impact of psychology, geography, human factors, and sociology on how people, governments, and institutions prepare for, and respond to, disaster. Social and behavioral science research has shown that our response to disaster depends in large part on the perception of risk and stress, on how emergency responders communicate with the public and make use of geographic information, and on the processes of team decision- making. Disaster response involves the mass movement of people, goods, and resources and requires high levels of cooperation. Harnessing our knowledge about how people behave in emergencies is important to the strategies, infrastructure, and technologies we are creating now to prepare for future disasters. The presenters, their affiliations, and titles of their talks appear below: Baruch Fischhoff, Ph.D., University Professor, Department of Social and Decision Sciences and Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University What's Worth Knowing - and Saying - About Terrorism? Douglas Richardson, Ph.D., Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives, Association of American Geographers Geographical Dimensions of Terrorism: Implications for Public Policy Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., Program Director for Human Systems Integration Research, Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida Responding to Crises: The Science of Team Performance Under Pressure Kathleen Tierney, Ph.D., Director of the Disaster Research Center and Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware Social Science and Disaster Research Perspectives on the September 11 Attacks: Building on Our Knowledge to Make Our Communities Safer Presentation materials are available at: http://www.decadeofbehavior.org/policyseminars/Disaster/disaster_main.html Other attendees represented the Congressional Research Service, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, Office of Federal Disaster Assistance (within USAID), Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Institute of Justice, Department of Defense, General Accounting Office, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. State Department, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Later in the afternoon, at the invitation of the Office of Homeland Security (OHS), Susan Brandon, APA's Senior Scientist, Baruch Fischhoff (APA's representative at the Decade briefing) and Geoff Mumford, APA's Director of Science Policy, met for about an hour with Frank Ciluffo, Special Assistant to the President for External Affairs on Homeland Security, and some of his staff to talk about how behavioral and social science research might inform their mission. We've been encouraged to follow-up at various levels to help better orient OHS to psychological science issues and to nominate scientists for a proposed Office of Homeland Security Advisory Council. [back to top] APA Comments on Homeland Security Advisory System On April 26, APA submitted comments on the proposed Homeland Security Advisory System. The draft system, announced on March 12, was open for a 45-day comment period. Those comments will be evaluated, and the proposed system will be finalized over the course of the next three months toward full implementation in late July. The original announcement and description of the color-coded system can be viewed at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-1.html We are grateful to Dr. Deborah Frisch, Program Director, Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program, National Science Foundation, and Dr. Baruch Fischhoff, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, for their assistance in compiling our comments. APA's comments can be viewed at: http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/shomesecure.html Division 7 President Gives APA Testimony on Capitol Hill Dr. Nora Newcombe was APA's witness at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on April 16. The Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for funding the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) held its annual public witness testimony last month and invited input from the science community. Dr. Newcombe made a strong case for increasing the behavioral research budgets at each of these federal agencies, and later met with staff from her Congressman's office and the Appropriations Subcommittee. A highlight of her testimony and discussions with professional staff was support for NSF's new Science of Learning Centers. This research program will hopefully receive $20 million in Fiscal Year 2003 to build large, multidisciplinary research collaborations designed to address fundamental questions about processes, contexts and technologies related to learning. See Dr. Newcombe's statement at http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/s.vaoralfy03.html and APA's briefing sheet on NSF funding and the Science of Learning Centers at http://www.apa.org/snsf-slcbrief03.html. Public Policy Office Meets with Society for Research on Adolescence PPO's Karen Studwell and Heather Kelly headed to New Orleans in April to meet with the executive council and membership of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) during its biennial conference. APA's Board of Scientific Affairs member Dr. Jacqueline Eccles began her two-year term as President of SRA at the conference, and she asked Karen and Heather to give an update on federal legislation and science initiatives relevant to adolescence researchers for the business meeting of the general membership. (Karen covers NIMH and Heather covers NSF for Science PPO). See the SRA Web site for more information on the society:http://www.s-r-a.org/. NIH Holds Planning Meeting for National Children's Study In April, the 22 Working Groups, Advisory Committee and the Study Assembly of the National Children's Study met to develop hypotheses and questions that the study will seek to address in this longitudinal study of environmental influences on pre- and post-natal growth and child development. Congress authorized this study, which will follow 100,000 children from pre-natal to early adulthood, as part of the Children's Health Act of 2000. Since then, NICHD has led the coordinating efforts of several NIH institutes and other federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency. Background information on the study and working group member information is available at the study's new Web site at http://nationalchildrensstudy.gov/. For this study, environment is broadly defined to include chemical, physical, social and behavioral influences on children. Karen Studwell of APA attended the Development and Behavior working group meeting, which is being co-chaired by Jay Giedd, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health and Robert Bradley, Ph.D., from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The Development and Behavior Working Group recently began sorting through hypotheses and various options for this part of the overall study design. Peter Scheidt, M.D., M.P.H., of NICHD, serves as the group's liaison to the study's Advisory Committee. By the end of this year, NICHD plans to complete the hypotheses and design for the study. Initial site selection and development of the core study design is scheduled for 2003 and pilot studies are currently slated for 2004. APA will continue to monitor the progress of this important study. [back to top] House Passes Legislation to Replace OERI On April 30th, the House passed the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (H.R. 3801) introduced by Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE). The legislation would replace OERI with a more independent Academy of Education Sciences, which would consist of three centers dedicated to education research, statistics, and evaluation. The bill also seeks to bring more scientific rigor and competition to the education research enterprise, including changes to the current regional educational technical assistance programs. The bill authorizes $400 million for the Academy of Education Sciences, $112 million for the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and $189 million for regional assistance. At least half of the Academy's funding would have to be used to support long-term research that lasts at least five years. After passing the House, the bill was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. No hearing has yet been scheduled for the House-passed bill, as the Senate is drafting its own reauthorization bill, which may differ significantly in some key areas. The Senate HELP Committee is planning to hold hearings in May on the reauthorization of OERI, and it is hoped a Senate bill will be drafted at that time. APA submitted comments to the House Education and Workforce Committee in March to help inform the Committee as it reviewed the bill and APA's Public Policy Office will continue to monitor the Senate progress on the bill. APA's comments can be viewed at http://www.apa.org/ppo/issues/scomment_oeri.html. There are current opportunities for Ph.D.'s interested in Senior Research Associate positions at OERI. More information can be found at the following link. 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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