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Marc Hauser

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

Marc D. Hauser (25 October 1959) is an American evolutionary biologist and a researcher in primate behavior and animal cognition who teaches at the Psychology Department at Harvard University.[1] In August 2010, Harvard found him solely responsible for eight counts of unspecified scientific misconduct.[2]

Biography

He received a BS from Bucknell University and a PhD from UCLA. Currently, Hauser is a Harvard College Professor, and Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, and Biological Anthropology. He is 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.

Awards

Hauser is the recipient of 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 frequently been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post, and he makes 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 internal investigation lasting three years found him solely responsible for eight counts of scientific misconduct. The results of this investigation, including the sanctions applied to Hauser, have not been publicly released and the lack of transparency in this investigation has evoked substantial speculation about what the investigation actually uncovered. Writing in The New York Times, Nicholas Wade summarized the situation as follows:

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.[3]

Further investigations by the United States attorney for Massachusetts, the Office of Research Integrity, and the National Science Foundation are ongoing.[3]

Officially released information

On Aug 20, the dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences released a statement confirming that an investigation has found Hauser guilty of eight counts of scientific misconduct.[4] Three counts involve published papers (detailed below); five involved unpublished studies. The statement said that Harvard is cooperating with further investigations by the PHS Office of Research Integrity, the NSF Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. They will conduct their own review and make their conclusions available to the public.[5]

A paper published in the journal Cognition in 2002 has been retracted.[6][7] In this paper, Hauser and his collaborators concluded that cotton-top tamarin monkeys can learn simple rule-like patterns. The journal Cognition retracted the paper.[8]

In two additional published papers, some field notes or video recordings were "incomplete", although Hauser and his co-author claim to have replicated the experiments.[9][10] The Proceedings of the Royal Society published the replication of the missing data in an addendum to one of the papers.[10] However, while the authors have submitted results that claimed to replicate data missing from a 2007 Science paper, the status of that paper is unclear. The new data are under review, but a spokesperson for Science stated that the editorial team is uncomfortable about making a decision without knowing the results of the Harvard investigation.[11]

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.[12]

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 ”.[13] 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;[13] this statement was later confirmed by Harvard's dean (see previous section).[14]

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.[15]

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." [14]

Gerry Altmann, the editor of Cognition, subsequently posted his personal conclusion that Hauser fabricated data as part of a deception.[16][17][18] However, Altmann also states that "this is just conjecture; I note that the investigation found no explanation for the discrepancy between what was found on the videotapes and what was reported in the paper."[16]

According to an article on the Science magazine website, the investigation of Hauser by the U.S. Attorneys 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." The article also notes that it is not clear "if [Hauser] in fact engaged in any misconduct at all, [and if he] did anything bad enough to merit jail time." [19]

Previous controversy over an experiment

In 1995, Hauser reported that cotton-top tamarins can recognize themselves in a mirror.[20] The Boston Globe claimed that a controversy over this paper was relevant to the misconduct investigations[7].

Gordon G. Gallup questioned Hauser's findings, and reviewed the 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.’’ [7] Together with Anderson, Gallup published a critical peer-reviewed response to Hauser's article.[21] 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. [21]

Hauser and a co-author published a peer-reviewed reply to these criticisms, clarifying their coding criteria and responding to the other criticisms.[22] However, Hauser reported that his subsequent attempts to replicate the experiments were unsuccessful, observing no evidence for the previously claimed result.[23]

Bibliography

  • Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think (illustrated by Ted Dewan) (Henry Holt, NY 2000)
  • Moral Minds: How Nature Designed a Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (Harper Collins/Ecco, NY 2006).
  • Evilicious: explaining our evolved taste for killing, torture, revenge, greed, mockery and masochism (in prep) (Viking/Penguin-USA; Random House UK.

References

  1. ^ "PI Marc Hauser". wjh.harvard.edu. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  2. ^ Harvard Dean Confirms Misconduct in Hauser Investigation, Science, August 20, 2010
  3. ^ a b Nicholas Wade (20 August 2010) Harvard Finds Scientist Guilty of Misconduct The New York Times
  4. ^ "FAS Dean Smith Confirms Scientific Misconduct by Marc Hauser". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  5. ^ "Harvard Confirms 'Hausergate'". Chronicle of Higher Education. 2010-08-12. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  6. ^ Peter Aldhous (11 August 2010) Misconduct found in Harvard animal morality prof's lab New Scientist
  7. ^ a b c Carolyn Y. Johnson (10 Aug 2010). Author on leave after Harvard inquiry Boston Globe.
  8. ^ "Monkey business? 2002 Cognition paper retracted as prominent psychologist Marc Hauser takes leave from Harvard". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  9. ^ Nicholas Wade (12 August 2010) Inquiry on Harvard Lab Threatens Ripple Effect New York Times
  10. ^ a b Hauser, Marc (2010). "Replication of 'Rhesus monkeys correctly read the goal-relevant gestures of a human agent'". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1441. Retrieved 2010-08-26. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Ledford, Heidi (2010-08-17). "Harvard probe kept under wraps". Nature. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  12. ^ "Misconduct found in Harvard animal morality prof's lab - life - 11 August 2010". New Scientist. 2010-08-04. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1441. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
  13. ^ a b "In Inquiry at Marc Hauser's Harvard Lab, a Raid and Then a 3-Year Wait". New York Times. August 13, 2010. p. 2.
  14. ^ a b "Updated: Harvard says Marc Hauser guilty of science misconduct". USA Today. 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  15. ^ "Document Sheds Light on Investigation at Harvard". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
  16. ^ a b Altmann, Gerry. "Harvard misconduct: setting the record straight". Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  17. ^ Miller, Greg (2010-08-27). "Journal Editor Says He Believes Retracted Hauser Paper Contains Fabricated Data". Science Insider. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  18. ^ Johnson, Carolyn (2010-08-27). "Journal editor questions Harvard researcher's data". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  19. ^ Miller, Greg (2010-08-25). "Hausergate: Scientific Misconduct and What We Know We Don't Know". Science Insider. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  20. ^ Hauser, M (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: 10811–10814. Retrieved 2010-08-26. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  21. ^ a b Anderson JR, Gallup jr GG (1997) Self-recognition in Saguinus? A critical essay Anim Behav 54 (6):1563-7. PMID: 9521801
  22. ^ Hauser, MD (1997). "Life beyond the mirror: a reply to Anderson & Gallup". Animal Behaviour. 54 (6): 1568–1571. PMID 9521802. Retrieved 2010-08-26. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Hauser, Marc (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. Retrieved 2010-08-26. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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