Welcome Remarks
Speaker: Richard Hodes, NIA

Panel 1: Identifying and Understanding Causal Mechanisms of Behavior Change
Bridging the gap between basic science, which provides mechanistic insights about malleable behavioral and biobehavioral mechanisms, and applied/interventional science, which seeks to modify these processes to change behavior – and ultimately clinically-relevant endpoints – has been a major goal of the SOBC Program. Panel 1 will highlight foundational research that advances a collective understanding of the processes or mechanisms that drive behavior change. 

Session Chairs: Joe Kable, University of Pennsylvania, and Rebecca Ferrer, NCI 

Research Presenters: 

• A value-based choice framework for understanding mechanisms of behavior change, Elliot Berkman, University of Oregon
• Changing loss aversion, Elizabeth Phelps, Harvard University
• Reinforcer pathology: Application of an experimental medicine approach to addiction and obesity, Warren Bickel, Virginia Tech 

Moderated Discussion/Q&A 

2:25             

Panel 2: Measurement Advances for Mechanisms of Behavior Change
Tools that allow us to precisely measure change in the mechanisms hypothesized to drive behavior change are critical for understanding how and why our interventions work. Panel 2 will showcase advances in measurement tools, methods, and approaches that allow for the valid assessment of the engagement of social, behavioral, psychological, or neurobiological mechanisms of behavior change.

Session Chairs: Inbal Nahum-Shani, University of Michigan, and Will Aklin, NIDA

Research Presenters:

• Data-driven approaches for understanding self-regulation, Russell Poldrack, Stanford University
• Measuring stress, emotions, and blood pressure in daily life with MyBPLab: An app-based research study, Wendy Berry Mendes, University of California, San Francisco
• Measuring and intervening on ongoing, person-specific, subjective stress responses in free-range humans, Joshua Smyth, Pennsylvania State University

Moderated Discussion/Q&A 

Panel 3: Early Clinical Investigation of Mechanisms of Behavior Change
Knowing that we can modify hypothesized mechanisms of change is only the first step. Panel 3 will highlight research advances that engage mechanisms of behavior change and demonstrate that the engagement of a mechanism produces short-term desired changes in health behaviors. 

Session Chairs: Shirley Moore, Case Western Reserve University, and Janine Simmons, NIA

Research Presenters:

• Mechanisms linking mindfulness interventions and health, J. David Creswell, Carnegie Mellon University
• Time for a paradigm shift: The adolescent brain in addiction treatment, Sarah Feldstein Ewing, University of Rhode Island
• Behavioral intervention modifies neural circuit function to mediate depression and problem-solving outcomes, Leanne Williams, Stanford University

Moderated Discussion/Q&A 

Welcome Remarks
Speakers: Paige Green (NCI), Christine Hunter (OBSSR), and Lis Nielsen (NIA)

Panel 4: Bridging Discovery to Clinical or Public Health Application
The SOBC approach calls for tests of hypotheses about mechanisms of action when interventions are implemented in the real world.  Panel 4 will highlight interventional research that tests an intervention in the intended population, mode of delivery, and setting to determine the validity of the mechanism of behavior change for achieving clinically meaningful endpoints.

Session Chairs: Elissa Epel, University of California, San Francisco, and Lis Nielsen, NIA

Research Presenters: 

• Improving health and motivating healthy behavior: Mindsets matter, Alia Crum, Stanford University
• Leveraging sleep and circadian science: On the pathway to improving engagement in sleep health behavior, Allison Harvey, University of California, Berkeley
• Acceptance-based interoceptive exposure for young children with functional abdominal pain: Feeling and body investigators pain division, Nancy Zucker, Duke University

Moderated Discussion/Q&A

Panel 5: Open Science: Increasing Rigor, Reproducibility, Transparency, and Dissemination
A core tenet of the SOBC Program is to increase rigor, reproducibility, transparency, and dissemination of methods and measures to strengthen scientific, clinical, and policy-maker confidence in the field’s research advances. Panel 5 will focus on existing approaches and include a discussion of how best to continue to achieve these goals in behavior change research.

Session Chairs: Edward (Ted) Miguel, University of California, Berkeley and Luke Stoeckel, NIA

Research Presenters: 

• Reimagining science as truly open and inclusive, Alison Ledgerwood, University of California, Davis
• An open science behavior change model from theory to practice, Brian Nosek, Center for Open Science
• The art of open science: Imitation, inspiration, and innovation, Chaning Jang, The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

Moderated Discussion/Q&A

Roundtable: What’s Next? Beyond the NIH Science of Behavior Change
National and international behavior change research experts will discuss how research groups, scientific societies, and other stakeholders can promote a unified science of behavior change, continuing to capitalize on emerging basic science to accelerate investigation of common mechanisms of change, and promoting applications across a broad range of health-related behaviors. What are the core principles that should guide our collective work in SOBC and related initiatives? Can we collaborate to unify the conceptual and methodological approaches in the field to promote rigorous and systematic behavior change research? Roundtable panelists will discuss opportunities to fortify the SOBC evidence base, identify near- and long-term needs, and envision the future. 

Moderators: Christine Hunter, OBSSR, and Paige Green, NCI

Panelists: 

• Susan Michie, Human Behaviour Change Project
• John Ruiz, Behavioral Medicine Research Council
• Donald Edmondson, SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center
• Kevin Volpp, CHIBE
• Kim Lavoie, International Behavioural Trials Network

 Moderated Discussion/Q&A 

4:00             

Closing Remarks
Speakers: Paige Green (NCI), Christine Hunter (OBSSR), and Lis Nielsen (NIA)