Using ontologies to advance behavioural research Abstract The past decade has seen a revolution in the volume and complexity of data created in the behavioural sciences. Ontologies facilitate the accumulation of knowledge by providing a standardised method for specifying concepts within a topic, using a shared language. They precisely specify the properties of these concepts and the relationships between them. By doing this, ontologies can enhance the organisation and retrieval of research evidence and provide a framework for aggregating data both within and across disciplines and topic domains. Because every defined concept and relationship has a unique ID, computer-based technologies and tools in artificial intelligence can be more easily harnessed for behavioural and social research. Thus, ontologies enable efficient and effective data integration and analysis, evidence synthesis and outcome prediction to provide robust answers to complex societal challenges. In this webinar we will describe what ontologies are and provide examples of how ontologies are being developed and used to accelerate research in the behavioural sciences. We will also demonstrate tools and ways in which we can all leverage the benefits of ontologies in our own work. Speakers Professor Susan Michie: Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, UK Susan Michie, FMedSci, FAcSS, FBA is Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, UK. (www.ucl.ac.uk/behaviour-change) and co-Director of Behavioural Research-UK. Her research focuses on human behaviour change in relation to health and the environment: how to understand it theoretically and apply theory and evidence to intervention and policy development, evaluation and implementation. Collaborations include disciplines such as information science, environmental science, computer science and medicine, covering population, organisational and individual level interventions. She leads the Human Behaviour-Change Project (www.humanbehaviourchange.org). She has published >600 journal articles and several books, including the Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions (www.behaviourchangewheel.com). She chairs WHO’s Behavioural Insights and Sciences Technical Advisory Group, is part of the Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit advising the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care and served on the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Robert West: Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at University College London He specialises in behaviour change. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal, Addiction, and has acted as an advisor to the English Department of Health on tobacco control and currently advises the Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit. He helped write the blueprint for the UK’s national network of stop-smoking clinics and is co-founder of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour, the Behaviour Change Wheel framework for intervention development, and the PRIME Theory of motivation. He has published more than 900 scientific papers and is one of the world’s top cited smoking cessation experts. Professor Thomas Webb: Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield Thomas Webb has published over 100 papers on fundamental issues in behavioural research, including the role of motivation, self-monitoring, planning, and emotion-regulation. His recent research applies these insights to issues around sustainability and he currently leads the behavioural science components of large multidisciplinary projects tackling plastic waste, including Many Happy Returns (funded by the SSPP challenge) and BUDDIE-PACK, funded by the European Commission. From a methodological perspective, Thomas has expertise in systematic reviews and meta-analyses and is currently Associate Editor at Psychological Bulletin, which focuses on evidence syntheses and is APA’s top-cited journal (IF = 23). Thomas also has an interest in using ontologies to improve behavioural research and has led an ESRC-funded project (TURBBO) that used ontologies to answer questions about how behaviours are related. Dr Harriet Baird: Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sheffield. Dr Harriet Baird has interests and expertise in self-regulation and in the design, application, and evaluation of interventions designed to promote positive changes in people’s behaviour. Harriet collaborates with a range of stakeholders to understand behaviour in different contexts, and she works on a number of large, interdisciplinary projects. Most recently Harriet’s research has considered the role of human behaviour in tackling environmental challenges (e.g., reducing plastic waste), and on projects that use ontologies to advance research in the behavioural sciences. From a methodological perspective, Harriet has expertise in conducting systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and quantitative data analysis. Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar: Senior Lecturer in Data Analytics at the Information School, University of Sheffield. Dr Mazumdar's PhD focused on applying interactive visualisations and User-Centered Design techniques to support exploration of large semantic datasets. Suvodeep’s research interests explore developing techniques and mechanisms for reducing the barrier for user communities in understanding very large complex multidimensional datasets. His research has been applied to a wide range of disciplines such as Aerospace engineering, Sports Informatics, Crisi/Emergency Management, Smart Cities and Mobility Planning. Professor Janna Hastings: Assistant Professor of Medical Knowledge and Decision Support at the Universities of St. Gallen and Zurich Janna Hastings is a computer scientist and Psychologist who studies the interface between technology and humans in medicine. Her research interests include the impact of digitalisation on clinical work, artificial intelligence for medical applications, evidence synthesis, and explainable AI. Janna supported the Human Behaviour Change Project during her time at UCL to develop an ontology for the domain of human behaviour change to gather together and aggregate all the evidence to answer the big question: 'What intervention(s) work, compared with what, how well, with what exposure, with what behaviours, for how long, for whom, in what settings and why?'. Professor Hastings remains an affiliated associate of the Centre for Behaviour Change (CBC) at UCL, though which association she continues to support ongoing projects within Behaviour Research UK (BR-UK). Jun 21 2024 12.00 - 13.30 Using ontologies to advance behavioural research With speakers Dr Harriet Baird, Professor Thomas Webb , Professor Susan Michie, Professor Robert West, Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar and Professor Janna Hastings. Online via Zoom Webinar Register here
Using ontologies to advance behavioural research Abstract The past decade has seen a revolution in the volume and complexity of data created in the behavioural sciences. Ontologies facilitate the accumulation of knowledge by providing a standardised method for specifying concepts within a topic, using a shared language. They precisely specify the properties of these concepts and the relationships between them. By doing this, ontologies can enhance the organisation and retrieval of research evidence and provide a framework for aggregating data both within and across disciplines and topic domains. Because every defined concept and relationship has a unique ID, computer-based technologies and tools in artificial intelligence can be more easily harnessed for behavioural and social research. Thus, ontologies enable efficient and effective data integration and analysis, evidence synthesis and outcome prediction to provide robust answers to complex societal challenges. In this webinar we will describe what ontologies are and provide examples of how ontologies are being developed and used to accelerate research in the behavioural sciences. We will also demonstrate tools and ways in which we can all leverage the benefits of ontologies in our own work. Speakers Professor Susan Michie: Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, UK Susan Michie, FMedSci, FAcSS, FBA is Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, UK. (www.ucl.ac.uk/behaviour-change) and co-Director of Behavioural Research-UK. Her research focuses on human behaviour change in relation to health and the environment: how to understand it theoretically and apply theory and evidence to intervention and policy development, evaluation and implementation. Collaborations include disciplines such as information science, environmental science, computer science and medicine, covering population, organisational and individual level interventions. She leads the Human Behaviour-Change Project (www.humanbehaviourchange.org). She has published >600 journal articles and several books, including the Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions (www.behaviourchangewheel.com). She chairs WHO’s Behavioural Insights and Sciences Technical Advisory Group, is part of the Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit advising the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care and served on the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Robert West: Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at University College London He specialises in behaviour change. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal, Addiction, and has acted as an advisor to the English Department of Health on tobacco control and currently advises the Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit. He helped write the blueprint for the UK’s national network of stop-smoking clinics and is co-founder of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour, the Behaviour Change Wheel framework for intervention development, and the PRIME Theory of motivation. He has published more than 900 scientific papers and is one of the world’s top cited smoking cessation experts. Professor Thomas Webb: Professor of Psychology at the University of Sheffield Thomas Webb has published over 100 papers on fundamental issues in behavioural research, including the role of motivation, self-monitoring, planning, and emotion-regulation. His recent research applies these insights to issues around sustainability and he currently leads the behavioural science components of large multidisciplinary projects tackling plastic waste, including Many Happy Returns (funded by the SSPP challenge) and BUDDIE-PACK, funded by the European Commission. From a methodological perspective, Thomas has expertise in systematic reviews and meta-analyses and is currently Associate Editor at Psychological Bulletin, which focuses on evidence syntheses and is APA’s top-cited journal (IF = 23). Thomas also has an interest in using ontologies to improve behavioural research and has led an ESRC-funded project (TURBBO) that used ontologies to answer questions about how behaviours are related. Dr Harriet Baird: Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sheffield. Dr Harriet Baird has interests and expertise in self-regulation and in the design, application, and evaluation of interventions designed to promote positive changes in people’s behaviour. Harriet collaborates with a range of stakeholders to understand behaviour in different contexts, and she works on a number of large, interdisciplinary projects. Most recently Harriet’s research has considered the role of human behaviour in tackling environmental challenges (e.g., reducing plastic waste), and on projects that use ontologies to advance research in the behavioural sciences. From a methodological perspective, Harriet has expertise in conducting systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and quantitative data analysis. Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar: Senior Lecturer in Data Analytics at the Information School, University of Sheffield. Dr Mazumdar's PhD focused on applying interactive visualisations and User-Centered Design techniques to support exploration of large semantic datasets. Suvodeep’s research interests explore developing techniques and mechanisms for reducing the barrier for user communities in understanding very large complex multidimensional datasets. His research has been applied to a wide range of disciplines such as Aerospace engineering, Sports Informatics, Crisi/Emergency Management, Smart Cities and Mobility Planning. Professor Janna Hastings: Assistant Professor of Medical Knowledge and Decision Support at the Universities of St. Gallen and Zurich Janna Hastings is a computer scientist and Psychologist who studies the interface between technology and humans in medicine. Her research interests include the impact of digitalisation on clinical work, artificial intelligence for medical applications, evidence synthesis, and explainable AI. Janna supported the Human Behaviour Change Project during her time at UCL to develop an ontology for the domain of human behaviour change to gather together and aggregate all the evidence to answer the big question: 'What intervention(s) work, compared with what, how well, with what exposure, with what behaviours, for how long, for whom, in what settings and why?'. Professor Hastings remains an affiliated associate of the Centre for Behaviour Change (CBC) at UCL, though which association she continues to support ongoing projects within Behaviour Research UK (BR-UK). Jun 21 2024 12.00 - 13.30 Using ontologies to advance behavioural research With speakers Dr Harriet Baird, Professor Thomas Webb , Professor Susan Michie, Professor Robert West, Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar and Professor Janna Hastings. Online via Zoom Webinar Register here
Jun 21 2024 12.00 - 13.30 Using ontologies to advance behavioural research With speakers Dr Harriet Baird, Professor Thomas Webb , Professor Susan Michie, Professor Robert West, Dr Suvodeep Mazumdar and Professor Janna Hastings.
