[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
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    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]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P