Lessons Learned by a Basic Scientist: How To Succeed in Business (of the Policy World) without really trying

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Lessons Learned by a Basic Scientist How To
Succeed in Business (of the Policy World) without
really trying

• PAT LEVITT, PH.D.
• ANNETTE SCHAFFER ESKIND CHAIR, VANDERBILT KENNEDY
  CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• DIRECTOR, ZILKHA NEUROGENETIC INSTITUTE, KECK
  SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF USC, CHAIRMAN, DEPT. CELL
  NEUROBIOLOGY, PROVOST PROFESSOR OF NEUROSCIENCE,
  PSYCHIATRY PHARMACY
• MEMBER, NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL ON THE
  DEVELOPING CHILD

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The Mismatch Between Opportunity and Investment
Brain's "Malleability"
Spending on Health,
Education and Welfare
0
3
10
70
Age
3
Rates of Return to Human Development Investment
Across all Ages
8
6
Pre-school Programs
Return Per Invested
School
4
R
Job Training
2
Pre- School
School
Post School
0
6
18
Age
Carneiro, Heckman, Human Capital Policy, 2003
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The Child Development Challenge Translating
Science for Public Understanding
Susan Bales, M.A.
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Perceived Public Support is a Strong Influence on
Policymaker Behavior

• If we could find a way to deal with 70 percent
  of people that are not the 15 on the left and not
  the 15 on the right that believe no matter what
  the information is, they're ready. If we can
  find a way to get that other 70 percent informed
  and activated, that would solve a lot of problems
  right away because I don't care whether you're a
  right wing politician or a left wing politician,
  when you go to your primary election you
  listen.
• Objectively, you do the right amount of
  education, do the right amount of meeting and
  greeting and everything else. That ain't what
  it's about. It's about where the political will
  is and how much passion there is around the issue
  by a wide enough audience that these guys will
  say this train is going and I don't want to be
  off the train.
• AZ Legislators

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Why doesnt the Public take responsibility for
social problems?

• People are selfish, small-minded, uncaring
• Or, its a cognitive rather than a moral failure
  they dont understand what their responsibility
  could be
• Persuasive communications cannot depend on simply
  putting information in front of people, because
  when communications is inadequate, people default
  to the pictures in their heads
• Communications must change the lens through which
  they see the information
• When communications is effective, people can see
  an issue from a different perspective

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The Questions We Ask

• How does the public think about a particular
  social or political issue?
• What is the public discourse on the issue?
• How does this dialogue influence and constrain
  public choices?
• How can an issue be framed to evoke a different
  way of thinking, one that illuminates alternative
  policy choices?

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Frames Are

• Organizing principles that are socially shared
  and persistent over time, that work symbolically
  to meaningfully structure the social world.
• Reese, Gandy and Grant, Framing Public Life. NJ
  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001.
• See also
• Goffman, E. 1974. Frame Analysis An Essay on the
  Organization of Experience. Cambridge Harvard
  University Press.
• Tannen, D. (ed). 1993. Framing in Discourse. New
  York Oxford University Press.

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• We can define framing as the process of culling
  a few elements of perceived reality and
  assembling a narrative that highlights
  connections among them to promote a particular
  interpretation. Fully developed frames typically
  perform four functions problem definition,
  causal analysis, moral judgment, and remedy
  promotion.
• (Entman, 1993, 2004)

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Where We Get Our CuesElements of the Frame

• Values
• Visuals
• Messengers
• Context
• Numbers
• Metaphors
• Simplifying Models
• Stories
• Tone

• Finding some familiar element causes us to
  activate the story that is labeled by that
  familiar element, and we understand the new story
  as if it were an exemplar of that old element.
• Understanding means finding a story you already
  know and saying, Oh yeah, that one.
• Once we have found (the) story, we stop
  processing.
• Roger C. Schank, Tell Me A Story Narrative and
  Intelligence, Northwestern University Press,
  1995.

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FrameWorks Research Base Strategic Frame
Analysis

• Voters
• 30 focus groups in 15 states
• 175 cognitive interviews in 9 states
• 500 talk back interviews re simplifying models
  
• Experimental survey with 2,000 registered voters
• Legislators
• 6 focus groups in 3 states
• 40 cognitive interviews in 5 states
• Business leaders
• 10 cognitive interviews
• Experimental survey with 2,000 business owners
• Media
• Content analysis of 11,000 local news stories

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What the Public Sees Regarding Child Development
The Black Box
Successful child

• Fate
• Free will
• Parents
• Genes
• Environment

Black Box
Unsuccessful child
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Very Complicated
Something about the brain Only for scientists
We turned out OK
Everything matters
Momma knows best Bad parents Private not public
issue
Self-made Child
Family Bubble
Development is automatic Discipline
focus Stress is good for you Leave it alone
Schools
Hurried Child Fancy Parents Flash cards in cribs
Opportunity Children future Begins in school
Safety
Community Predator
Control and contain
Physical Focus
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ECD Focus Groups Default

• Families are Responsible
• I think one parent at least in the first five
  years until they get to school ought to be at
  home because that sets the tone for the kids.
  (Virginia man)
• I think they absorb. Through three and five --
  I know my son absorbs just everything that came
  around him. (New Jersey woman)
• Individuals are Responsible
• The parents are so protective now compared to
  what they were 20, 30, 40 years agoI did a lot
  of things on my own. When we played sports,
  there was no parental involvement. We didn't
  have to be ferried, driven to a place where we
  played. We were independent I think this holds
  back the development of children. (Boston man)
• Safety is the Main Concern
• I guess youre looking for clean and safe
  facilities, and the right number of staff per
  children, and youre looking for activities that
  help the children grow intellectually rather than
  make sure they stand in line and be quiet.
  (Virginia woman)

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How the Media Frames Child Issues

• Predominance of stories on crime and health
• In health stories, the dominant frame is child
  safety (e.g., seat belts)
• Only 13 of stories address systemic issues
• Only 3 look at development
• Dominant frame is the imperiled child or child
  as precious object
• UCLA Center for Communications and Community,
  Content analysis of local news, 11,000 stories,
  July 2000, 3 affiliates in 6 cities

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Veterans of Perceptions and Messaging

• Advocates
• Kids are very complex
• Everything counts
• Children are made for learning
• Infants become persons at a very early age
• The brain is not developed at birth
• Parenting is difficult
• Parents are teachers
• Parents are students
• Trained coaches are needed for parents
• All parents are good
• Parents are experts

• Experts
• "The ability to inhibit a response one is all
  set to perform, sometimes called effortful
  control, has been of special interest to
  researchers who seek to understand how individual
  differences in children's tendencies to respond
  to stressful or exciting events affect the growth
  of emotion regulation. Effortful control is one
  component of a larger set of inhibitory
  competencies, termed 'executive functions',
  discussed later..." N2N

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What Do We Know?

• People have minimal access to a working model of
  child development.
• When considered at all, it is a closed private
  system.
• There are strong entrenched frames that get in
  the way of development family autonomy, safety,
  individualism.
• The reframes currently in use school readiness,
  etc. -- are not yielding the desired result.
• Some reframes future, prosperity have
  potential to move public opinion in right
  direction and prime school readiness for them.

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The Central Causal Story
Emotional Development
Social Development
Interaction
Brain Architecture
Cognitive Development
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The Core Story

• Child development is a foundation for community
  development and economic development, as capable
  children become the foundation of a prosperous
  and sustainable society (Prosperity).
• The basic architecture of the brain is
  constructed through an ongoing process that
  begins before birth and continues into adulthood
  (Brain Architecture).
• Brains are built from the bottom up (Skill Begets
  Skill).
• Interaction of genes and experience shapes the
  developing brain and relationships are the active
  ingredient in this Serve and Return process
  (Serve and Return).

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• Cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are
  inextricably intertwined, and learning, behavior
  and physical and mental health are inter-related
  over the life course (Cant Do One).
• Toxic stress damages the developing brain and
  leads to problems in learning, behavior, and
  increased susceptibility to physical and mental
  illness over time (Toxic Stress).
• Brain plasticity and the ability to change
  behavior decrease over time and getting it right
  early is less costly, to society and individuals,
  than trying to fix it later (Pay Now).

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The Reframing Challenge

• To explain the science in such a way that it..
• Redirects attention away from the default
  positions.
• By identifying values and explanations that make
  the societal, not individual goals, obvious
• And by creating Simplifying Models that serve to
  explain how development works..
• And explain the consequences of inaction..
• And can be shown to attach to policy thinking

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What are Simplifying Models?

• A kind of metaphorical frame that both captures
  the essence of a scientific concept, and has a
  high capacity for spreading through a population.
  
• An explanation that reduces a complex problem to
  a simple, concrete analogy or metaphor
  contributes to understanding by helping people
  organize information into a clear picture in
  their heads, including facts and ideas previously
  learned but not organized in a coherent way.
• Once this analogical picture has been formed, it
  becomes the basis for new reasoning about the
  topic.
• See Dorothy Holland Naomi Quinn, Cultural
  Models in Language and Thought, Cambridge
  University Press, 1987.

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Analogies in the Science Classroom

• the heart is a pump
• the eye is a camera
• the cell is a factory
• the kidney is a waste filter
• photosynthesis is like baking bread
• an electric circuit is like a water conduit
• the brain is a computer
• Glynn et al. (1995), Teaching Science With
  Analogies A Strategy For Constructing Knowledge,
  Learning Science in The Schools Research
  Reforming Practice

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Simplifying Model for ECD Brain Architecture

• The early years of life matter because early
  experiences affect the architecture of the
  maturing brain. As it emerges, the quality of
  that architecture establishes either a sturdy or
  a fragile foundation for all of the development
  and behavior that follows --- and getting things
  right the first time is easier than trying to fix
  them later.

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Early Experiences Influence Brain Architecture
and Function
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Extreme Early Experiences Can Dramatically
Disrupt Brain Architecture
50 days exposed to early noise
16 days
50 days
Source Chang Merzenich (2003)
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Exposure to PCBs During Development Can Disrupt
Brain Architecture
control
PCB developmental exposure
Source Kennet et al. (2006)
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Brain Architecture Model TestingRecruitment and
Sample

• 400 subjects
• passers-by in public settings (roughly 80)
• ads placed in local web sites (roughly 120)
• graduate and undergraduate students (roughly 100)
• help from local business leaders (Texas Program
  for Society and Health, James Baker Institute,
  Rice University) (roughly 100)
• broad diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity,
  age, and educational background parents and
  nonparents

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Comparative Frame Effects

• Q How does growing up in poverty affect a
  childs school readiness?
• A I would say in a lot of cases, I wouldnt say
  in all cases, growing up in poverty would hinder
  them, but I guess in some cases it would hinder
  them, sort of being ready to get to school as
  knowing, I guess maybe kids who are not in
  poverty growing up do you have an advantage, as
  far as they probably know a little more when they
  do start school than children who are raised in
  poverty.

• Q How does growing up in poverty affect brain
  architecture?
• A I believe because youre stressed a lot
  because you have a lot of stress usually parents
  that do not make a lot of money are usually under
  a lot of stress, so that makes the child be under
  stress as well, also that would affect I guess
  the growth of the brain.

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Interaction as Serve and Return

• Experts are learning more and more about how
  interactions with other people affect the
  development of babies brains. It turns out that
  healthy development of brain architecture depends
  a lot on a kind of interaction experts call Serve
  and Return, based on an analogy from games like
  tennis and volleyball. Serve and Return happens
  when young children instinctively reach out for
  interaction, through babbling, facial
  expressions, words, gestures, cries, etc. and
  adults respond by getting in sync and doing the
  same kind of babbling, gesturing, and so forth.
  Another important aspect of Serve and Return is
  that it works best with adults who are familiar
  to the child, like familiar partners. Young
  children need many of these interactions per day,
  since they are so critical development, and have
  effects on everything from the chemicals in the
  brain to physical structures and connections
  there.

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Secure Relationships Calm Childrens Stress
Hormone Response
.3
Increase in Cortisol
.2
.1
0
Secure
Insecure
Attachment Relationship
-.1
Source Nachmias et al. (1996)
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Sensitive Care Calms Childrens Stress Hormone
Response in Parents Absence
.3
Increase in Cortisol
.2
.1
0
High
Low
Sensitivity/Responsiveness of Caregiver
-.1
Source Nachmias et al. (1996)
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Experience Affects Stress Response for a Lifetime!
Stress Response
Restraint
Time
Source Meaney et al. (200?)
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How is the influence of early experience
maintained for a lifetime?
In part, through epigenetics.. and its is
really powerful
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Early Experiences Can Transmit Across Generations
Maternal diet change during pregnancy causes
changes to offsprings fur color, obesity, and
cancer risk in genetically identical mice.
Source Jirtle Skinner (2007)
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How Experience Influences Genes
Stress Response
Restraint
Time
Source Meaney et al. (200?)
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Early Childhood Stress Influences Developmental
Outcomes

• Important to development in the context of
  stable and supportive relationships
• Potentially disruptive, but buffered by
  supportive relationships safe environments
• Disrupts brain architecture, increases the risk
  of stress-related physical and mental illness

Positive
Tolerable
Toxic
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Source Pollok Kistler (2002)
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Extreme Neglect Diminishes Brain Power
3-5 Hz
6-9 Hz
10-18 Hz
Institutionalized
NeverInstitutionalized
Source C. Nelson (2008)
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Persistent Stress Changes Brain Architecture
Typical - neuron with many connections
Normal
Chronic stress
Neuron damaged by toxic stress fewer connections
Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus
Source C. Nelson (2008)
Bock et al Cer Cort 15802 (2005)
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Research Says that Remediation and Prevention ARE
Possible
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Early Intervention Remediates Early Adversity
Time Spent Self-Comforting
Surrogate mother at 2 months
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No surrogate mother
Surrogate mother at 1 month
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20
10
Normal
9
1
3
5
7
11
13
Monkeys Age (months)
Source Knudsen et al. (2006)
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Delayed Intervention Harms Development Bucharest
Early Intervention Program
Tested at 3 1/2 Years Old
Tested at 4 1/2 Years Old
100
IQ/DQ (Mean)
normal range
90
normal range
80
70
60
0-18
18-24
24-30
30
0-18
18-24
24-30
30
Age of placement in foster care (months)
Source Nelson et al. (2007)
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Effects on Salience

• I think what really gets me from the study is
  that it could actually have a chemical or
  biological or some sort of impact on the childs
  brain. Behavior is one thing, and attitude and
  personality is one thing, but if it can really
  negatively impact the chemistry and the makeup
  of the brain you can damage that that early
  thats really serious. Thats more than just
  having a bad personality, thats really screwing
  up a kid. Talk Back Informant

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What Have We Built?

• Potential Advantages
• Unifies scientists messages
• Makes science understandable to public
• Easily remembered, and repeated
• Can teach about ECD without distorting

• Questions Remaining
• What must you include?
• But does it elevate policy thinking and
  preferences?
• Are all models equal?
• Does it overcome resistance to investment?

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The Core Story Framing Experiment

• Prosperity
• Pay Now
• Cant Do One
• Skill Begets Skill
• Evaluation Science

• Brain Architecture
• Effectiveness Factors
• 1100/4000 subjects, June 2007

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Effects of Core Story

• Frame Effects from Experimental Survey June 2007
• Exposure to any part of the core story enhances
  policy support
• Cant Do One has the greatest effect
• Prosperity/Pay Now has next greatest effect
• Men and people who placed a low priority on child
  well-being were most affected
• Models are most powerful when aligned with
  principles, not asymmetric
• Conventional wisdom about frame effects should be
  questioned business leaders responded more
  robustly to a developmental frame than a just
  the facts frame

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Putting It All Together.

• If our society is to prosper in the future, we
  will need to make sure that all children have the
  opportunity to develop intellectually, socially
  and If emotionally. VALUE
• But science tells us that many childrens futures
  are undermined when stress damages the early
  brain architecture. That stress may result from
  family tensions over a lost job or death in the
  family. That stress makes babies brains release
  a chemical that stunts cell growth. SCIENCE
• When communities make family mental health
  services available so that early interventions
  can take place, they put in place a preventive
  system that catches children before they fall.
  SOLUTION

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Closing the Gap Using What We Know To Inform
What We Do
Factors that Influence Policy Decisions
Strategies to Affect Public Policy

• Develop simplifying frames of factors that
• impact child development
• (Drugs Toxic Stress Nutrition Genes
  Relationships)

Public/Media Perception (free will legality
excesses)
PRENATAL EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS
What Science Tells Us (maternal
health fetalmaternal interactions environment
of relationshps brain architecture chemistry)

• Develop key working partnerships
• (National Conference of State Legislatures
• Childhood-Focused Private Foundations)
• Engage scientists in providing impartial
  testimony
• (What science tells us Just the facts)
• Scientists must do more work with print and video
  media
• (Tell a core story)

Policy Makers (public perception family
bubble child welfare)
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Legislative successes.its personal!
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• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
• Legislative Working Group (AZ, IL, KS, MA, NE,
  OK, SC, WA, WI)
• Technical assistance for early childhood policy
  issues in states
• Summits for Legislature/Leadership training
• National Forum on Early Childhood Program evals
• Partners JJ Pediatric Institute Frameworks
  Institute Buffet Foundation Gates Foundation

http//www.developingchild.nethttp//www.developi
ngchild.harvard.edu
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