Paying Attention Together

Have you ever found yourself searching for a lost item with a friend, only for your friend to spot it first and point you in the right direction? Imagine you and your friend are looking for a lost mitten. That moment of looking at the mitten together, where one person follows the gaze of another to focus on the same object, is called joint attention, and it is a key part of how people learn and connect with others. Whether hunting for a lost item or working together on a project or even on a sports team, these shared moments play a big role in shaping how people pay attention, accomplish tasks, and remember things. For example, some researchers have found that people perform better when working together on a task than they do when working alone [1]. Other research even suggests people might remember things better when they believe another person is also looking at the same things as they are [2].

What is Joint Attention?

Joint attention involves three basic steps. First, one person initiates the interaction by directing their attention toward something, such as Tim spotting a rainbow and excitedly looking up at it (Figure 1A). Second, another person becomes aware of the first person’s focus; for example, Iman sees Tim looking up at something in the sky (Figure 1B). Finally, the second person responds by following the first person’s gaze to the object of interest—in this case, Iman shifts her attention to where Tim is looking and sees the rainbow as well (Figure 1C). Joint attention can also rely on other social cues besides gaze, such as gestures or words that help two people to focus on the same thing.

Because joint attention involves one person following the gaze of another, gaze following is considered to be an important part of human development. Research with babies has shown that the ability to follow another’s gaze starts between 6 and 18 months old, and that gaze following is important in early language development because it helps to match words with physical objects [3]. By directing attention together toward an object, joint attention ensures that both the child and the adult are paying attention to the same thing, which enhances the child’s learning experience. For example, when an adult points to a toy and verbally labels it by saying “toy”, the child learns the word “toy” and associates the word with the object they are jointly attending to. Without the act of following someone’s gaze, learning through observation (and language learning in general) would be much more challenging [3].

Studying Joint Attention

In the lab, researchers can study how people engage in joint attention while completing tasks together on a computer, like performing a visual search task [4]. In joint visual search tasks, researchers set up experiments where two people work side-by-side (but some studies have been online) to search for an item together on a computer screen, which is sometimes on the screen and sometimes missing [5]. Using tools like eye-tracking technology, which measures and records eye movements and gaze patterns, researchers can track where participants are looking and how they are sharing their attention. For more details on how eye-tracking technology works, check out this Frontiers for Young Minds article.

For example, Alice and Bob are two participants seated next to each other in front of a computer monitor (Figure 2A). Their task is to locate the target, a square, on a screen full of distractors, which are all of the other items on the screen (e.g., the circles and triangles in Figure 2B). Participants are instructed to look for the square; if the target is there, they press one button on the keyboard, and if the target is not there, they press another button. The participants do this task a number of times (called “trials”), but the locations of the target and distractors change, and sometimes the target is not there (Figure 2C).

With more online interactions happening today, it is important to understand whether online interactions with others affect people’s attention. One group of researchers asked participants to complete a visual search task (similar to the one shown in Figure 2) on their home computers, with a pretend partner [5]. The researchers looked at two main things. First, they studied whether just being told they were cooperating or competing with another person was enough to change a participant’s performance. Second, they examined whether people need to see a picture or interact with their pretend partner first, for changes in performance to be seen. The results showed that people were more accurate when they thought they were working together with a partner, but faster when they thought they were competing with that partner. Interestingly, it did not matter how realistic the pretend partner’s image was. This study shows how even subtle social cues, even in virtual settings, can influence how people pay attention and work together, which is important in today’s increasingly digital world.

Does Joint Attention Help People Perform Better?

When completing tasks or solving problems, it is often said that two heads are better than one, which means that collaboration (or working together) is better than working alone. But what does “better” mean? In one study, researchers asked pairs of participants to complete a visual search task alone and then together [1]. They found that when the participants worked together, they were faster and more accurate at finding the target, which researchers suggest is “better” performance (Figure 3).

You might be wondering why two heads are better than one. Is it simply because you have another pair of eyes or because you split up the task? Well, the answer is both! Just having another pair of eyes can make a task easier and faster, so a group benefit can be found even if two people act independently during a task and do not talk about a strategy, like splitting up the search area [4]. For example, if you and your friend searched for your mitten independently, without dividing up where you looked, you would still find the mitten faster than you would if you were working alone. But most likely, you and your friend would not choose to search independently, but you would divide the space so you and your friend do not look in the same places. It could be something like this: “You look under the desk, and I will look in my backpack”. By dividing the labor, you are more likely to accomplish the task faster [4]. You will find the mitten faster if you and your friend plan where to search instead of both of you looking randomly. And you will definitely find the mitten faster than searching by yourself (Figure 3).

Does Joint Attention Help People Remember?

Researchers have found that people naturally pay attention to items that other people look at, and one potential reason could be that humans have learned over time that paying attention to what other people are attending to can help us stay safe, communicate better with others, and navigate environments, all of which are important for survival [2]. These findings suggest that we might better remember the objects or locations we are jointly paying attention to.

To study whether people’s memories change depending on whether they thought another person was looking at the same picture as they were, researchers asked participants to either remember pictures or look for a hidden X on the images [2]. Participants were told that their task, as well as their partner’s task, might change, but they would always be looking at the same pictures. The experiment tested whether people would remember the pictures better if they thought their partner was doing the same task. The researchers found that when people believed another person was looking at the same image and doing the same task, they remembered the images better compared to when they thought the other person was doing a different task [2]. So, this study suggests that even when people imagine social cues, like just thinking someone else is looking at the same thing and doing the same task, joint attention can help people better remember those looked-at items.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, joint attention is an important aspect of human interaction that shapes how people work together and how they remember. Whether people are looking for something they have lost or working on a task with others, paying attention together makes them faster and more accurate, and helps them remember information better. Researchers have developed experimental techniques to study joint attention in the lab and they continue to improve those methods. By understanding the importance of joint attention and collaboration, all of us can better appreciate the value of our interactions.

Glossary

Joint Attention: ↑ When two or more people look at the same thing as a result of one person following the social cues, such as gaze, gestures, or verbal prompts, of another person.

Attention: ↑ The process of focusing on specific information while ignoring other information.

Social Cues: ↑ The verbal (what we say and how we say it) or nonverbal (actions and expressions) messages used to communicate or guide interactions.

Gaze Following: ↑ The tendency of individuals to shift their gaze in the direction of another person’s gaze.

Visual Search Task: ↑ A task used to study attention that requires individuals to search for a target item among distracting items in a visual display.

Target: ↑ An object, person, or region of space that is focused on (using attention).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.