Marc Hauser

Marc Hauser
Marc Hauser sitting between Jon Meacham (far left) and Daniel Dennett (center), World Science Festival

Marc D. Hauser (born 25 October 1959) is an American evolutionary biologist and a researcher in primate behavior and animal cognition who taught in the Psychology Department at Harvard University.[1] In August 2010, a committee of Harvard faculty found Hauser solely responsible for eight counts of unspecified scientific misconduct.[2] On August 2, 2011 Hauser resigned his position at Harvard.[3]

Contents

Biography

Hauser received a BS from Bucknell University and a PhD from UCLA. Hauser was a Harvard College Professor, and Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, and Biological Anthropology. He was the co-director of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Program at Harvard, Director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab, and adjunct Professor in the Graduate School of Education and the Program in Neurosciences.

Hauser's research sits at the interface between evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience and is aimed at understanding the processes and consequences of cognitive evolution. Observations and experiments focus on nonhuman animals and humans of different ages and mental competence, incorporating methodological procedures and theoretical insights from ethology, infant cognitive development, evolutionary theory, cognitive neuroscience and neurobiology. Current foci include: studies of language evolution, the nature of moral judgments, the development and evolution of mathematical representations, comparative studies of economic-like choice, the precursors to musical competence, and the nature of event perception. One of his research projects is internet based 'The Moral Sense Test' in which the participant is presented with a series of hypothetical moral dilemmas and is asked to offer a judgment regarding each one.[4]

Hauser received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, a science medal from the Collège de France, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has published approximately 200 articles in major research journals as well as six books. His work has garnered attention from the mainstream press, including coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post. He has made frequent appearances on various NPR shows, as well as television and international radio.

Scientific misconduct

In August 2010 it was announced that Hauser had decided to take a year's leave of absence from Harvard, after a 3-year internal investigation found him solely responsible for eight counts of scientific misconduct. The details of this investigation were not publicly released, and the lack of transparency evoked substantial speculation. Writing in the New York Times, Nicholas Wade summarized:

There is a wide spectrum of scientific sins, ranging from wrist-slap offenses like bad data storage at one end, to data fabrication at the other. It is still not clear where on this spectrum Dr. Hauser’s errors may fall. He has admitted only to unspecified "mistakes," not to misconduct.[5]

In July 2011, after the Psychology Department faculty voted to bar Hauser from teaching in the upcoming academic year, Hauser resigned his faculty position at Harvard effective August 1, 2011.[6] In his resignation, Hauser stated that he had "some exciting opportunities in the private sector" involving education for high-risk teenagers, but that he might go back to academia "in the years to come."[7]

Officially released information

On August 20, 2010, the dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences released a statement confirming that an internal investigation had found Hauser guilty of eight counts of scientific misconduct.[8] Three counts involved published papers, and five involved unpublished studies. The statement said that Harvard is cooperating with further investigations by the US Office of Research Integrity, the National Science Foundation Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. They will conduct their own review and make their conclusions available to the public.[9]

A 2002 paper published in the journal Cognition was retracted.[10][11] In this paper, Hauser and his collaborators concluded that cotton-top tamarin monkeys could learn simple rule-like patterns. In two additional published papers, some field notes or video recordings were "incomplete", although Hauser and his co-author replicated the experiments.[12][13] The Proceedings of the Royal Society published the replication of the missing data in an addendum to one of the papers.[13] In April 2011 Hauser and Justin Wood (coauthor of the original paper) replicated the results of the 2007 Science study and published them in the journal.[14][15]

Additional allegations

In addition to the official findings cited above, various publications have relayed more specific accusations.

Unnamed scientists in the field have claimed that Harvard decided to investigate Hauser's lab after students who had worked there made allegations of data falsification.[16]

Michael Tomasello, another well-known animal cognition researcher, claimed that some of Hauser's previous students personally told him that there "was a pattern and they had specific evidence ”.[17] Tomasello also stated, prior to the official announcement, that he had information from "a Harvard faculty member and from former students of Dr. Hauser" that the investigation found evidence for eight counts of scientific misconduct;[17] this statement was later confirmed by Harvard's dean (see previous section).[18]

On August 19, 2010, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported the contents of allegations made by a former research assistant of Hauser's. The former research assistant stated that Hauser falsely coded videotapes of monkey behavior, resisted his research assistants and students' requests to have them recoded by another observer and then pressured his students to accept his data analysis. When they went ahead and recoded the data without Hauser's permission, they allegedly found that Hauser's coding bore little relation to what was on the tapes. According to the document, several other lab members had similar run-ins with Hauser.[19]

Other commentary

While Harvard has confirmed that misconduct was committed by Hauser, scientists have continued to criticize Harvard over a lack of transparency in the investigation. As Frans de Waal told USA Today: "But it leaves open whether we in the field of animal behavior should just worry about those three articles or about many more...... From my reading of the dean's letter, it seems that all data produced by this lab over the years are potentially in question." [18]

As several authors have written, however, Hauser has published over 240 papers with dozens of internationally respected colleagues as well as students. As the Cambridge University linguists Bert Vaux and Jeffrey Watumull noted in the Harvard Crimson, and repeated in Wade's New York Times article, " Dr. Hauser [has an] “unimpeachable scientific integrity” and [has been] charged [by] critics who were “scholars known to be virulently opposed to his research program.” It should be noted, however, that Vaux and Watumull were working with Hauser after the investigation had begun and thus were not disinterested parties.

Gerry Altmann, the editor of Cognition, subsequently posted his personal conclusion that Hauser fabricated data as part of a deception, after being given a summary of the relevant portions of Harvard's inquiry.[20][21][22][23] Altmann noted that the conclusion of fabrication was his own conjecture, and not that of the Harvard investigation, which offered no explanation for discrepancies between the video record and the published paper.[20] However, if true, Altmann said, "“This is, to my mind, the worst form of academic conduct.’’ According to the New York Times, Hauser was supposed to alternate the experimental condition with a control condition, and thus both should be on the videotape. However, the videotape only showed the experimental conditions, not the control.[23] Altmann said that it therefore seemed that the control experiments were not performed and that “given the published design of the experiment, my conclusion is that the control condition was fabricated.” Altmann told Science that there may yet be an alternative explanation for this discrepancy. But he can’t imagine what it might be, and added "I know that the investigation was rigorous to the extreme."[21]

Nicholas Wade, writing in the New York Times on October 25, 2010, claimed that Altmann changed his position: "Also last month his principal accuser outside of Harvard, Gerry Altmann, allowed that he may have spoken too hastily. But he now says an innocent explanation, based on laboratory error, not fraud, is possible. People should step back, he writes, and “allow due process to conclude.” However, Altmann subsequently wrote in his blog that Wade selectively quoted him and misrepresented his position [1]. In fact, Altmann has not changed his position and continues to believe that Hauser is guilty of data fabrication. Altmann wrote: "In fact, there has been no stepping back. As I make very clear in this blog (and repeated in emails to Mr. Wade - see below), the information I have received, when taken at face value, leads me to maintain my belief that the data that had been published in the journal Cognition was effectively a fiction - that is, there was no basis in the recorded data for those data. I concluded, and I continue to conclude, that the data were most likely fabricated (that is, after all, what a fiction is - a fabrication). It is true that I did write here that there existed an alternative explanation for what happened, based on a sequence of errors. However, for that interpretation to be correct (i.e. that the data reported in Cognition were due to an unfortunate sequence of errors), the information I had been given, by Harvard’s Dean, would have to have been incorrect."[2] This disagreement between Altmann and the reporter over what Altmann said seems curious but one should note that the reporter, Nicolas Wade, is not a disinterested party. His books, such as The Faith Instinct, heavily cite Hauser's work and thus Wade presumably has a stake in Hauser being innocent.

According to an article on the Science magazine website, the investigation of Hauser by the U.S. Attorney's Office is "somewhat unusual" and "historically they've done so in cases in which the misconduct was particularly egregious and significant amounts of money were involved."[24] The article also notes that we still don't know exactly what Hauser did "and if did anything bad enough to merit jail time".[24]

Though Hauser took a year-long leave of absence from Harvard, he was at first still being allowed to teach at the Harvard Extension School, which generated further controversy. Gerry Altmann, editor of Cognition, told the Harvard Crimson, "“One view of teaching is that you are an ambassador for the science you are teaching and for the institution at which you are teaching. I personally do not believe that someone who is found guilty of misconduct is ambassador material.”[25] On the other hand, Michael S. Landy, a psychology professor at New York University said, “Without knowing the exact specifics of the case, what I would say is if you want to chase someone out of the field forever, that doesn’t seem like the right idea,” "That’s just hurting that person and the field. Seems to me that there has to be a middle ground."[25] In the meantime, however, speculation rose that Hauser fabricated control data for the paper he retracted from Cognition. Jonathan Haidt, a moral psychologist at the University of Virginia, told The New York Times that the failure to have performed a reported control experiment would be “a very serious and perhaps unforgivable offense.”[26] The New York Times also stated that fabrication of data is usually followed by expulsion from the scientific community.[23] On September 1, 2010, it was announced that Hauser's classes at the Extension School were canceled.[27] On April 21, 2011, the Boston Globe reported that the Harvard Psychology faculty voted to bar Hauser from teaching in the 2011-2012 academic year. Michael D. Smith, dean of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, agreed and extended it to other Arts and Sciences departments.[28]

Previous controversy over an experiment

In 1995, Hauser reported that cotton-top tamarins can recognize themselves in a mirror.[29] The Boston Globe claimed that a controversy over this paper was relevant to the misconduct investigations.[10]

Gordon G. Gallup questioned Hauser's findings, and reviewed some video recordings of Hauser's experiment, saying that “when I played the videotapes [for Hauser's experiments], there was not a thread of compelling evidence — scientific or otherwise — that any of the tamarins had learned to correctly decipher mirrored information about themselves.’’[10] Upon requesting the remaining videotapes, Gallup was informed that the other tapes had been stolen.[30] Together with Anderson, Gallup published a critical response to Hauser's article.[31] Their criticism of Hauser's paper stated that the coding criteria were described in insufficient detail to code the monkeys' behavior and that, according to their assessment, the cotton-top tamarins did not show the behavior that they considered as evidence for mirror recognition in chimpanzees or other great apes.[31]

Hauser and a co-author published a reply to these criticisms, clarifying their coding criteria and responding to the other criticisms.[32] However, Hauser reported that his subsequent attempts to replicate the experiments were unsuccessful, observing no evidence for the previously claimed result.[33]

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ "PI Marc Hauser". wjh.harvard.edu. http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/HauserBio.html. Retrieved 23 August 2010. 
  2. ^ Miller, Greg (August 20, 2010). "Harvard Dean Confirms Misconduct in Hauser Investigation". Science. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/harvard-dean-confirms-misconduct.html. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  3. ^ Johnson, Carolyn (July 19, 2011). "Embattled Harvard psychology professor resigns". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/Boston/whitecoatnotes/2011/07/embattled-harvard-psychology-professor-resigns/Yb6hnLhdPuBkPf4f0rTXpO/index.html. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  4. ^ http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/LPPI.html
  5. ^ Wade, Nicholas (20 August 2010). "Harvard Finds Scientist Guilty of Misconduct". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/education/21harvard.html. 
  6. ^ Kumar, Gautam; Julia Ryan (July 19, 2011). "Embattled Professor Marc Hauser Will Resign from Harvard". Harvard Crimson. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/7/19/marc-hauser-resigns-psychology-harvard/. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  7. ^ Bartlett, Tom (July 19, 2011). "Marc Hauser Resigns From Harvard". Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Marc-Hauser-Resigns-From/128296/. Retrieved October 27, 2011. 
  8. ^ "FAS Dean Smith Confirms Scientific Misconduct by Marc Hauser". Harvard Magazine. http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/harvard-dean-details-hauser-scientific-misconduct. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  9. ^ "Harvard Confirms 'Hausergate'". Chronicle of Higher Education. 2010-08-12. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Harvard-Confirms-Hausergate/26198/. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  10. ^ a b c Johnson, Carolyn (August 10, 2010). "Author on leave after Harvard inquiry". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/08/10/author_on_leave_after_harvard_inquiry/. 
  11. ^ "Monkey business? 2002 Cognition paper retracted as prominent psychologist Marc Hauser takes leave from Harvard". RetractionWatch. http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/monkey-business-2002-cognition-paper-retracted-as-prominent-psychologist-marc-hauser-takes-leave-from-harvard/. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  12. ^ Wade, Nicholas (August 12, 2010). "Inquiry on Harvard Lab Threatens Ripple Effect". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/education/13harvard.html. 
  13. ^ a b Hauser MD, Wood JN (2011). "Replication of ‘Rhesus monkeys correctly read the goal-relevant gestures of a human agent’.". Proc. Biol. Sci. 278 (1702): 158–9. PMC 2992735. PMID 21155189. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2992735. 
  14. ^ Miller, Greg (25 April 2011). "Science Publishes Replication of 2007 Hauser Study". Science. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/04/science-publishes-replication-of.html?ref=hp. Retrieved 3 May 2011. 
  15. ^ Wood, J. N.; Glynn, D. D.; Phillips, B. C.; Hauser, M. D. (2007). "The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates". Science 317 (5843): 1402–1405. doi:10.1126/science.1144663. PMID 17823353.  edit
  16. ^ Misconduct found in Harvard animal morality prof's lab - life - 11 August 2010. New Scientist. 2010-08-04. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1441. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19293-misconduct-found-in-harvard-animal-morality-profs-lab.html. Retrieved 2010-08-12. 
  17. ^ a b Wade, Nicholas (August 13, 2010). "In Inquiry at Marc Hauser’s Harvard Lab, a Raid and Then a 3-Year Wait". New York Times: p. 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/education/14harvard.html?pagewanted=2. 
  18. ^ a b "Updated: Harvard says Marc Hauser guilty of science misconduct". USA Today. 2010-08-20. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/08/marc-hauser-harvard-science-misconduct-/1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  19. ^ "Document Sheds Light on Investigation at Harvard". The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Document-Sheds-Light-on/123988/. Retrieved 2010-08-21. 
  20. ^ a b Altmann, Gerry. "Harvard misconduct: setting the record straight". http://homepage.mac.com/gerry_altmann/me/mind/blog/blog.html. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
  21. ^ a b Miller, Greg (2010-08-27). "Journal Editor Says He Believes Retracted Hauser Paper Contains Fabricated Data". Science Insider. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/journal-editor-says-he-believes.html. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
  22. ^ Johnson, Carolyn (2010-08-27). "Journal editor questions Harvard researcher's data". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/08/journal_editor.html. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
  23. ^ a b c Wade, Nicholas (2010-08-27). "Harvard Researcher May Have Fabricated Data". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/science/28harvard.html?hp. Retrieved 2010-08-27. 
  24. ^ a b Miller, Greg (2010-08-25). "Hausergate: Scientific Misconduct and What We Know We Don't Know". Science Insider. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/hausergate-scientific-misconduct.html. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
  25. ^ a b http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/8/27/school-extension-hauser-teaching/
  26. ^ Wade, Nicholas (2010-08-27). "Marc Hauser May Have Fabricated Data at Harvard Lab". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/science/28harvard.html. 
  27. ^ Johnson, Carolyn Y. (2010-09-01). "Citing misconduct inquiry, Harvard professor cancels classes". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/09/01/citing_misconduct_inquiry_harvard_professor_cancels_classes/. 
  28. ^ "Embattled Harvard professor barred from teaching". The Boston Globe. http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-21/news/29459892_1_marc-hauser-scientific-misconduct-embattled-harvard. 
  29. ^ Hauser, M; J. Kralik, C. Borro-Mahan, M. Garret, J. Oser (11 1995). "Self-recognition in primates: Phylogeny and the salience of species-typical features". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 92 (23): 10811–10814. doi:10.1073/pnas.92.23.10811. PMC 40702. PMID 7479889. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=40702. 
  30. ^ "Scientific misconduct: Monkey business?". Economist. 2010-08-26. http://www.economist.com/node/16886218?story_id=16886218&CFID=141739115&CFTOKEN=94865933. Retrieved 2010-08-28. 
  31. ^ a b Anderson JR, Gallup jr GG (1997) Self-recognition in Saguinus? A critical essay Anim Behav 54 (6):1563-7. PMID: 9521801
  32. ^ Hauser, MD; J. Kralik (12 1997). "Life beyond the mirror: a reply to Anderson & Gallup". Animal Behaviour 54 (6): 1568–1571. doi:10.1006/anbe.1997.0549. PMID 9521802. 
  33. ^ Hauser, Marc; Cory Thomas Miller, Katie Liu, Renu Gupta (March 2001). "Cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) fail to show mirror-guided self-exploration". American Journal of Primatology 53 (3): 131–137. doi:10.1002/1098-2345(200103)53:3<131::AID-AJP4>3.0.CO;2-X. PMID 11253848. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Marc Hauser — (2 v.l.) zwischen Jon Meacham und Daniel Dennett (Mitte) beim World Science Festival Marc D. Hauser (* 25. Oktober 1959) ist ein US amerikanischer Evolutionsbiologe. Er forscht zum Verhalten von Primaten und zur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Marc Hauser — (Cambridge, Estados Unidos, 25 de octubre de 1959), es un biólogo evolucionista. Licenciado en ciencias por la Universidad Bucknell y doctorado por la Universidad de California, actualmente es profesor en la Universidad Harvard en los… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Hauser — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Adam Hauser (* 1980), US amerikanischer Eishockeytorhüter Alexander Hauser (* 1984), österreichischer Fußballspieler Alo Hauser (1930–1997), deutscher Jurist und Politiker (CDU) Alois Hauser (1841–1896),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hauser — is a surname and may refer to:* Dwight Hauser Dwight Hauser (1911 – 1969) screenwriter, actor and producer, father of actor Wings Hauser * Eduard Hauser, Swiss cross country skier and Olympics bronze medallist * Gayelord Hauser (1895 1984),… …   Wikipedia

  • Marc Dutroux — (* 6. November 1956 im Brüsseler Stadtteil Ixelles/Elsene, Belgien) ist ein Mörder und Sexualstraftäter. Er hat mehrere Kinder und Jugendliche im Alter von 8 bis 19 Jahren entführt und sexuell missbraucht, seinen Komplizen Bernard Weinstein sowie …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Marc F. Racicot — (* 24. Juli 1948) ist ein US amerikanischer Politiker der Republikanischen Partei. Er war von 1993 bis 2001 Gouverneur von Montana. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Frühe Jahre 2 Politischer Aufstieg …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Marc-Emile Ruchet — (September 14, 1853 July 13, 1912) was a Swiss politician. He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on December 14, 1899, and resigned on July 9, 1912, only four days before his death. He was affiliated with the Free Democratic Party. While in …   Wikipedia

  • Marc Chagall — im Juli 1941 Fotografie von Carl van Vechten, aus der Van Vechten Collection der Library of Congress Marc Chagall (* 24. Junijul./ 6. Juli 1887greg …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Marc Bloch — Born 6 July 1886(1886 07 06) Lyon, France Died 16 June 1944(1944 06 16) …   Wikipedia

  • Marc Bloch — Nacimiento 6 de julio de 1886 …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”