[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 16, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27145-27146]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-12372]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-01-39]


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

    Patterns of Eye Movement and Message Processing--NEW--The 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 often develops work-related health and safety messages 
designed to persuade workers to follow specific work-related habits 
that reduce the risk of on-the-job injury or disease. Research has 
shown that the more a reader thinks about a message being read, the 
more persuasive the message will be in changing the attitude and 
behavior of the reader. However, assessing how much a reader is 
actually thinking about a message has been difficult to do in any way 
beyond simply asking the reader questions about the material. Such 
self-report methods are limited in that they are imprecise and are 
vulnerable to measurement error.
    The primary purpose of this study by the Institute's Health Effects 
Laboratory Division, Health Communication Research Branch (HCRB) is to 
determine if specific patterns of eye movement are related to the 
amount of thinking a person does while reading persuasive materials. 
From the eye-tracking literature, certain patterns of eye movement have 
already been associated with reading conceptually difficult text. It is 
believed that these identified patterns of eye movement represent more 
thinking about what is being read. It is predicted that the same 
patterns of eye-movement found for conceptually difficult text also 
will be found when participants are reading persuasive materials 
designed to be more thought provoking, or persuasive. If consistent 
patterns of eye movement are found to be related to more or less 
thinking about persuasive materials, then eye-tracking can be further 
developed as a measure of persuasive message effectiveness. Such a 
finding would be an improvement over the more commonly employed self-
report methods of assessing message effectiveness.
    As a secondary consideration, a measure of impulsivity will be 
included in this study to determine if higher or lower ratings of 
impulsivity predict if a person will think about a persuasive message. 
It is predicted that participants higher in impulsivity will be less 
likely to think as much about a message as participants lower in 
impulsivity. If this prediction about impulsivity is confirmed in this 
study, messages could possibly be tailored in ways to improve 
persuasive effectiveness for readers potentially high in impulsivity. 
Additionally, a general measure of personality traits also will be 
administered for the purpose of considering other personality 
characteristics that may be related to more or less thinking about 
persuasive materials.
    The persuasion theory guiding the first two studies is the 
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). Each study will involve a 
manipulation of constructs used in the model, persuasive message 
relevance (high or low) and argument strength (strong or weak). The 
high relevance condition is intended to lead to more thinking about the 
material than the low relevance condition. The strong and weak 
arguments are a manipulation check to make sure that the high and low 
relevance manipulation was convincing. Both self-report measures of 
thinking and measures of eye movement will be obtained from all 
participants. Analyses will be performed to test the predictions stated 
above. Analyses also will be performed to determine the relation 
between impulsivity and personality traits to more or less thinking 
about the persuasive materials.
    The third year will be an application of the results obtained from 
the first two studies. From the first two studies a template will have 
been developed that will show how to best design effective occupational 
safety and health communication materials. This template will be 
incorporated into other current and future HCRB projects.
    The specific goals for this project are as follows: (1) partially 
replicate an ELM study with the addition of eye movement measures, (2) 
examine the relation between amount of thinking while reading 
persuasive materials and eye movement, (3) extend the replicated study 
and eye movement measure to an occupational safety and health issue, 
i.e., forklift operation, (4) incorporate the eye movement template 
into ongoing HCRB projects, and (5) disseminate findings at relevant 
conferences and in the appropriate professional journals. There are no 
costs to respondents.

[[Page 27146]]



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                                                                                      Average
                                                    Number. of      Number. of      burden per     Total burden
               Type of respondents                  respondents    responses per   response  (in     in hours
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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Morgantown community members....................             200               1           90/60             300
Forklift operators..............................             200               1           90/60             300
Various occupational groups.....................             400               1           90/60             600
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
      Total.....................................             800  ..............  ..............           1,200
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    Dated: May 9, 2001.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-12372 Filed 5-15-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P