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Toward a behavioral analysis of joint attention

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Abstract

Joint attention (JA) initiation is defined in cognitive-developmental psychology as a child’s actions that verify or produce simultaneous attending by that child and an adult to some object or event in the environment so that both may experience the object or event together. This paper presents a contingency analysis of gaze shift in JA initiation. The analysis describes reinforcer-establishing and evocative effects of antecedent objects or events, discriminative and conditioned reinforcing functions of stimuli generated by adult behavior, and socially mediated reinforcers that may maintain JA behavior. A functional analysis of JA may describe multiple operant classes. The paper concludes with a discussion of JA deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders and suggestions for research and treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychological Sciences Division, University of Massachusetts Medical School Shriver Center, 200 Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02452, USA

    William V. Dube

  2. New England Center for Children, USA

    Rebecca P. F. MacDonald, Reneé C. Mansfield, William L. Holcomb & William H. Ahearn

Authors
  1. William V. Dube
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  2. Rebecca P. F. MacDonald
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  3. Reneé C. Mansfield
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  4. William L. Holcomb
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  5. William H. Ahearn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William V. Dube.

Additional information

Partial support for manuscript preparation was provided by Grant HD046666 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NICHD.

We thank Shelly Cota for help with data collection and Bill McIlvane, Jennifer Andersen, June Sanchez, Kristine Wiltz, and Ellyn South for their comments.

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Dube, W.V., MacDonald, R.P.F., Mansfield, R.C. et al. Toward a behavioral analysis of joint attention. BEHAV ANALYST 27, 197–207 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393180

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