Joint Attention, Social-Cognition, and Recognition Memory in Adults

Abstract

The early emerging capacity for Joint Attention (JA), or socially coordinated visual attention, is thought to be integral to the development of social-cognition in childhood. Recent studies have also begun to suggest that JA affects adult cognition as well, but methodological limitations hamper research on this topic. To address this issue we developed a novel virtual reality paradigm that integrates eye-tracking and virtual avatar technology to measure two types of JA in adults, Initiating Joint Attention (IJA) and Responding to Joint Attention (RJA). Distinguishing these types of JA in research is important because they are thought to reflect unique, as well as common constellations of processes involved in human social-cognition and social learning. We tested the validity of the differentiation of IJA and RJA in our paradigm in two studies of picture recognition memory in undergraduate students. Study 1 indicated that young adults correctly identified more pictures they had previously viewed in an IJA condition (67%) than in a RJA (58%) condition, η2 = 0.57. Study 2 controlled for IJA and RJA stimulus viewing time differences, and replicated the findings of Study 1. The implications of these results for the validity of the paradigm and research on the affects of JA on adult social-cognition are discussed.

Social orienting in gaze leading: a mechanism for shared attention

“…[10,11]). For example, gaze leading positively influences affective processing [12][13][14] and recognition memory for gaze leaders [15]. It is likely that gaze coding mechanisms, spatial attention and social cognitive systems could be involved in detecting and maintaining iterative social orienting behaviours such as when one's eyes are followed by a conspecific [7,[16][17][18].…”

Gaze contingent joint attention with an avatar in children with and without ASD

“…Colour images of 48 faces, houses and abstract patterns were presented for the memory task. Abstract and house images from Kim and Mundy's [12] study were used here alongside supplementary face, abstract and house images. Twenty-two house and 15 abstract images were from Kim and Mundy's [12] original stimuli set.…”

“…However, modern advances in eye tracking and virtual reality technology have heralded more interactive experimental paradigms, which are better able to capture the reciprocity of JA interactions (e.g. [5]- [7], [12], [13]). In a recent, novel virtual reality paradigm, Kim and Mundy [12] developed a virtual avatar that could emulate both RJA and IJA.…”

“…[5]- [7], [12], [13]). In a recent, novel virtual reality paradigm, Kim and Mundy [12] developed a virtual avatar that could emulate both RJA and IJA. Clinically normal adults either directed or followed the avatar's gaze to a series of target images of faces, houses and abstract patterns -and subsequently their memory for the target images was tested.…”

“…A better knowledge of how children with ASD engage in JA with both human and virtual agents will be informative for future development of technological interventions using social environments and socially assistive robots for children with ASD. Following the JA paradigm by Kim and Mundy [12], we investigated how children with and without ASD initiate and respond to JA with a gaze contingent avatar. The avatar made a head turn and gaze shift towards a series of referent images under RJA and IJA conditions.…”