Advocacy Archive

Testimony of ALAN G. KRAUT APS Executive Director
FY 2001 Appropriations for the National Science Foundation

Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 12, 2000

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee: Thank you for this opportunity to present the views of the American Psychological Society (APS) on the FY 2001 appropriations of the National Science Foundation (NSF). I am Alan Kraut, Executive Director of APS. We are a 15,000-member organization of scientists and academics located primarily in universities and colleges across the country. Many members of the American Psychological Society have been supported by NSF, and much basic research in our field simply could not exist without NSF funding.

I want to begin by briefly describing the focus of basic research in psychological science. We know that human potential is a resource; understanding the human mind and behavior is crucial to maximizing human potential. In order to do that, we need to know in scientific terms how people interact with each other and with their environment - how we learn, remember, and express ourselves as individuals and in groups. We need to know the factors that influence and modify these behaviors. APS members include scientists who conduct basic research in brain-based processes such as learning and memory, and the mechanisms of visual and audio perception. Others study decision making and judgement; mathematical reasoning; language development; the developmental origins of behavior; and the impact of individual, environmental and social factors on behavior. This basic psychological research conducted by APS members has implications for a wide range of applications, from the design of airplane cockpit control panels, to how to teach math to children; to how humans can learn using technology; to the development of more effective hearing aids; to increasing workforce productivity; and to the amelioration of social problems such as prejudice or violence.

In its budget request to you this year, NSF cited the achievements of two of APS's most distinguished members, psychologists William K. Estes and Roger N. Shepard, both of whom recently have won the National Medal of Honor, and both of whom have been longtime NSF grantees. In fact, a psychologist has been awarded our nation's highest scientific honor almost every year that it has been given. In highlighting the work of these two individuals - Estes for his fundamental theories of learning and mathematical modeling, and Shepard for his research into the nature of human mental processes NSF is paying tribute to the entire field that these two individuals exemplify.

Let me summarize our recommendations and requests for the FY 2001 appropriations for the National Science Foundation.

The American Psychological Society strongly urges the Committee to:

  • Appropriate the $4.572 billion requested for the National Science Foundation in FY 2001 and endorsed by the Coalition for National Science Funding.
  • Continue the Committee's history of support for behavioral and social science research at NSF by fully funding the requested $29 million increase for NSF's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate in FY 2001.
  • Preserve the $13.9 million increase requested for Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division.
  • Encourage the development of a small grants mechanism at NSF to support young investigators in the behavioral and social sciences.
  • Support NSF's efforts to increase the length and duration of NSF grants, and ensure that this policy is extended to all areas of science equally.
  • Encourage NSF's efforts to increase public awareness of science, and urge NSF to incorporate behavioral and social science in those efforts.

In the remainder of my testimony, I will discuss these recommendations in greater detail.

As a member of the Coalition for National Science Funding, we join our scientific colleagues in recommending full funding of the FY 2001 budget request of $4.572 billion for NSF. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Science Foundation. During that time, as the nation's premiere basic science agency, NSF produced the fundamental knowledge and discoveries that have fueled much of the scientific and technological advances of recent years and that has been partially responsible for the economic boon we are now in. In addition, NSF plays a crucial role in maintaining the human capital and scientific infrastructure necessary to ensure the continued productivity of our scientific enterprise. In the past several years, NSF's budget has been relatively flat, particularly compared to increases seen in other federal science programs. The increase proposed for FY 2001 is a sizable first step in offsetting that relative neglect.

The importance of basic science has been underscored by your colleagues here in the House. It started with the House Budget Committee, which approved a significant increase in the general science budget category along with a very strongly worded statement in support of NSF. Citing NSF's central role in the nation's scientific and technological advances, and noting that basic research is a particular responsibility of the federal government, the committee (and later the full House) expressed a strong "Sense of the Congress" commitment to NSF:

It is the sense of the Congress that the function 250 (Basic Science) levels assume an amount of funding which ensures that the National Science Foundation is a priority in the resolution; recognizing the National Science Foundation's critical role in funding basic research, which leads to the innovations that assure the Nation's economic future, and in cultivating America's intellectual infrastructure. [H.Con.Res. 290, Sec. 23]

This statement was retained in the bill passed by the full House in late March, plus the final bill increased the committee mark for the Function 250 category by $500 million expressly for basic research (bringing the total for that category to $20.3 billion, $1 billion over the previous year). Even within the constraints of the budget process, the House has demonstrated a clear appreciation of the importance of increasing basic science. We urge the Committee to implement this commitment in the FY 2001 appropriations for NSF.

Turning now to NSF's behavioral and social science research programs, we are extremely encouraged by the budget request for these areas. NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate is slated for a $29 million increase, which would bring the directorate to a total of $175 million.

This Committee has a history of strong support for behavioral and social science research at NSF dating back several years. You were instrumental in the establishment of a separate directorate for these sciences at NSF, and later, in the establishment and funding of NSF's Human Capital Initiative, a cross-disciplinary research agenda linking research in the behavioral and social sciences to issues of broad national concern, such as literacy, productivity, aging, violence, and health. We ask that you continue this record of support in FY 2001. The SBE directorate is a primary source of federal support for fundamental research on social, cognitive, psychological and economic behavior as well as for research on the intellectual and social contexts that govern the development and use of science and technology. The FY 2001 request would give a much-needed boost to basic behavioral and social science research in a number of exciting areas. The field is more than ready to absorb these increases.

Within SBE, the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) Division would receive an increase of $13.9 million, which would bring BCS to $59.3 million. While not a large amount of money, the requested increase would allow NSF to support an important initiative in cognitive neuroscience. This initiative, which spans programs in human cognition, child development, social psychology, and linguistics, involves basic science aimed at understanding the human capacity for thought, language, and learning. Research in these areas will increase our understanding of learning and memory, and provide the underpinnings for applications as diverse as teaching children to read or developing a computer that can "talk." Understanding how children and adults learn, how the social and physical environment interacts with learning, how motivation and personal experience guide the capacity to learn, and how best to prepare our nation's citizens for the future workplace requires a solid foundation of basic research in the behavioral and cognitive sciences.

The FY 2001 budget request also supports the role of behavioral and social science research in NSF's crosscutting initiatives, including initiatives in information technologies research and in research on the 21st century workforce. In the area of information technologies, $6 million of the SBE budget request will be used to harness the power of the Internet for research, by testing potential new Internet-based research techniques and using the Internet to expand science's capacities for data-sharing, simulation, and computation. In the workforce initiative, SBE will provide $3 million for fundamental research on science and math learning, human-computer interaction, and encouraging diversity in the workforce.

Turning now to issues of training, we believe strongly that NSF's expansion of its behavioral and social science research programs must also include an increase in its support for young investigators in these areas. Ensuring an adequate future supply of investigators is essential to maintaining our momentum in the development of new knowledge. We ask that you encourage NSF to develop a program of small grants similar to the B/START mechanism in use at the National Institutes of Health which is successfully increasing the number of young behavioral scientists in many areas. These grants support young investigators at a critical juncture in their careers, and allows them to develop the pilot data they need to compete for grant awards.

On a related matter, NSF has indicated that it is planning to increase the size and duration of its grant awards. This is especially important in the behavioral and social sciences, given their greater need for catching up in both size and duration compared with grants in other areas of science. We raised this issue with you and your Senate colleagues last year, and we again ask you to ensure that NSF extends this much-needed policy to all areas of science.

Finally, NSF has made public understanding of science one of its science education priorities. We applaud NSF's leadership in this area, and we believe that the success of these efforts would be enhanced by focusing on examples from behavioral and social science research. These sciences have unique potential to increase science literacy because of their intrinsic relevance to daily life. That is, in addition to promoting understanding of questions in physics and math, NSF could also be promoting the scientific understanding of how memory takes place, or the value of certain organizational structures in industry. In a similar vein, I'm pleased to note that public understanding of psychological science is also a priority at the American Psychological Society. Next month we will publish the first issue of a new journal, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, which will present reports modeled after those generated by the National Research Council. Developed by panels of distinguished scientists, these reports focus on issues where psychological science can contribute to our understanding of topics of national importance. The first issue describes ways to improve diagnostic decision-making over a wide range of situations using techniques from psychological science. Scientists have developed rigorous statistical procedures that have enormous potential to increase the accuracy and usefulness of such diverse applications as detection of breast cancer; improving weather forecasts; analyzing structural flaws in airplanes; and possibly even the prediction of violence. Future issues of PSPI will address questions such as: Does classroom size matter? Do herbal remedies improve memory or intelligence? Does SAT coaching work? Do popular psychological tests such as the well-known Rorschach test or the MMPI really tell us anything? And to ensure that PSPI reports will reach the widest possible audience, we will be working with Scientific American to develop articles for the magazine that will be based on the studies first published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Mr. Chairman, as I noted earlier, this Committee has made an enormous difference in the vitality of the nation's basic behavioral and social science research activities through its support for NSF's programs in these areas. You and your colleagues in the Senate deserve much of the credit for enabling the explosion of new knowledge and discoveries in these areas. We are grateful for your continued support, and we ask that you fully fund NSF's budget request for FY 2001 in order to sustain this momentum.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would be pleased to answer any questions.