[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 29, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29134-29135]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-13319]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-01-40]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects.
To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a
copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call the CDC Reports
Clearance Officer on (404) 639-7090.
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents,
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other
forms of information technology. Send comments to Anne O'Connor, CDC
Assistant Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24,
Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received within 60 days
of this notice.
Proposed Project: Cognitive Tuning for Website Promotion--NEW--
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The mission of the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is to promote ``safety and
health at work for all people through research and prevention.'' NIOSH
is guided by the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), which
specifies 21 priority areas for occupational safety and health
research. One of the NORA priority areas is intervention effectiveness,
which includes ``information dissemination and health communication
practices.'' This project, in testing the effectiveness of a cognitive
tuning instruction in increasing visits to a NIOSH website for children
and teenagers, would address the intervention effectiveness priority
area.
Cognitive tuning refers to two possible orientations a person may
have when exposed to information. One orientation is that of a
receiver, who is primarily concerned with understanding the information
for its own sake. The other orientation is that of a transmitter, who
expects to pass on the information by communicating with others. Unlike
the receiver, the transmitter is faced with the demand of using the
information in the near future and is likely to be motivated to appear
competent and knowledgeable in front of other people when passing on
the information. Past research has shown that transmitters, compared to
receivers, show more attitude change when given information about
issues or persons. Also, the attitude change for transmitters tends to
be more persistent than for receivers.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a theory of attitude
change that has achieved much empirical support and has organized a
large body of previously fragmented results. The ELM posits that the
nature of attitude change depends on whether the person is thinking
carefully about the issue at hand. A person thinking about an issue is
likely to form an attitude that is persistent, resistant to attack, and
predictive of behavior. Conversely, a person who lacks either the
motivation or the ability to think carefully about an issue is likely
to form an attitude that is transitory, easy to change, and
unpredictive of behavior.
[[Page 29135]]
It is hypothesized that cognitive tuning influences the motivation
to think about an issue. Transmitters should be more motivated than
receivers to think about presented information because transmitters
expect to pass on the information. This hypothesis will be tested in
the context of promoting the NIOSH Safety Zone, a website that
introduces children and teenagers to occupational safety and health
issues. Four different messages about the website will be sent to high
school teachers. The messages will vary whether the teacher is told
that other teachers have been sent the letter (i.e., whether the
teacher is given a transmitter orientation). The messages will also
vary the quality of the arguments (strong arguments vs. weak arguments
for visiting the website). A subset of the teachers will later be
contacted by telephone to answer questions about their attitudes toward
the website and whether they intend to visit it. Website hits will be
recorded for all teachers in the study, such that teachers receiving
different messages will be directed to different entry pages with
independent hit counters. Teachers who get transmitter messages should
be more influenced by the quality of the arguments than teachers who
get receiver messages.
Prior to the study, pretesting sessions will be conducted with high
school teachers in or near the Morgantown, WV area. The pretesting will
insure that strong arguments and weak arguments differ in the kinds of
thoughts elicited from teachers. Strong arguments should elicit more
positive thoughts toward visiting the NIOSH website than weak
arguments.
If the results support predictions, cognitive tuning will be a
promising communication intervention that may be applied across a wide
range of occupational safety and health issues. Simply by emphasizing
the possibility that occupational safety and health information may be
useful in future social interaction with others, a message may motivate
people to think carefully about an issue and thus form a more lasting
attitude that will influence how they behave. At an median wage of
$20.00 per hour, the total cost to respondents will be $5,066.60.
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Average
Number of Number of burden per Total burden
Respondents respondents responses per response (in in hours
respondent hours)
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High School Teachers (pretest).................. 120 1 1 120.00
High School Teachers (phone contact)............ 800 1 \10/60\ 133.33
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Total....................................... .............. .............. .............. 253.33
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Dated: May 15, 2001.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-13319 Filed 5-25-01; 8:45 am]
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