Tacts & Joint Attention: An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention Skills

Per Holth Tacts & Joint Attention:An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention Skills Per Holth

1. The tact 2. Generic (natural) reinforcement of the TACT 3. Joint attention 4. Why study JA? 5. Operant analysis of JA 6. Research questions 7. Training procedures Tacts & Joint Attention Per Holth

Tact (Skinner, 1957) • "a verbal operant in which a given response form is evoked (or at least strengthened) by a particular object or event or a property of an object or event.” • SD R  SRGEN. COND • The unique relation to a discriminative stimulus, rather than to a specific establishing operation, is obtained by (i) many different reinforcers or (ii) generalized reinforcers. Per Holth

Instead of using a great variety of reinforcements, each of which is relevant to a given state of deprivation or aversive stimulation a contingency is arranged between a verbal response and a generalized conditioned reinforcer. Any event which characteristically precedes many different reinforcers can be used as a reinforcer to bring behavior under the control of all appropriate conditions of deprivation and aversive stimulation. (p. 53) Generalized reinforcementSkinner (1957) Per Holth

Establishingconditioned reinforcers • correlate with primary reinforcer (blocking) or • establish as SD for responses that produce a primary reinforcer Per Holth

A common generalized conditioned reinforcer is “approval.” It is often difficult to specify its physical dimensions. It may be little more than a nod or a smile on the part of someone who characteristically supplies a variety of reinforcements. Sometimes . . . it has a verbal form: Right! or Good!” (p. 54) Generalized reinforcer:”Approval” Per Holth

Typical generalized ‘conditioned’ reinforcers 1 • To what extent are they typically conditioned in the first place in normally developing children? • (Combine Fantz with deCasper et al.) Per Holth

Typical generalized ‘conditioned’ reinforcers 2 • Autocatalytic process? • Additional sources of reinforcement? Observe Novel event Monitor smile, nod gaze Lower frequency of SAs and Ss Higher frequency of mand reinf. Report Novel event Per Holth

Typical generalized ‘conditioned’ reinforcers 3 When generalized reinforcers are only established through contrived contingencies, can they be maintained as reinforcers at near-normal rates of back-up (primary) reinforcement? Per Holth

An extended verbal episode Novel event TACT (ROBS) SD1 RV SRGEN. Looking for novel event LISTENER’S look, smile, nod, “yes,” “m-hmm,” relevant comments ROBS. SDSOC. Looking for (potential) attention Attention Per Holth

Joint attention:A triade Per Holth

The concept of JA From ‘Gaze following’(Scaife & Bruner, 1975) to ‘Theory of mind’(e.g., Baron-Cohen, 1991) Per Holth

Joint Attention in ‘social-cognitive development’ • normative patterns of emergence (e.g., Corkum & Moore, 1995) • relation to later developing skills: • ‘symbolic abilities’ (Hobson, 1993; Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1993), • ‘language abilities’ (Baldwin, 1995; Bates et al., 1979; Bruner, 1975; Tomasello, 1988) and • ‘general social-cognitive processes’ (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Bruner, 1975; Mundy, 1995; Tomasello, 1995). • a syndrom-specific deficit in autism (e.g., Baron-Cohen, 1989, Mundy & Crowson, 1997; Sigman & Kasari, 1995; Sigman, Kasari, Kwon, & Yirmiya, 1992). Per Holth

Definitions • “the simultaneous engagement of two or more individuals in mental focus on one and the same external thing” (Baldwin, 1995, p. 132) • (a) narrow version: “looking where someone else is looking” (b) broad version includes: “responsive and initiating behaviors as well as the checking of another person’s face. . .” (Sigman & Kasari, 1995, p. 189) • “knowing that another is looking at and experiencing something in the visual world” (Bruner, 1995, p. 7) • “both participants are monitoring the other’s attention to the outside entity . . . [and] the coordination that takes place in joint attentional interactions is accomplished by means of an understanding that the other participant has a focus of attention to the same entity as the self” (Tomasello, 1995, pp. 105-107) • although JA “. . . typically refers to coordination of visual attention, . . .[it] may be achieved through other sensory modalities” (Sarria, Gomez & Tamarit, 1996, p. 49) Per Holth

Examples • Gaze following • Monitoring • Social referencing • Protoimperative • Protodeclarative Per Holth

Gaze following 1 Per Holth

Monitoring Per Holth

Monitoring 1 Per Holth

Social referencing 1 Per Holth

Protoimperative 1 Per Holth

Protodeclarative 1 Per Holth

Why behavior analysts should study joint attention • Autism-specific deficit -- yet early intervention studies lack JA measures • Cognitive psychologists have insisted that JA skills are not learned • Lacking JA skills may be directly related to specific language deficits Per Holth

A letter to the ME list • Does anyone have any ideas on how to develop a program on teaching a child to comment? My son . . . does not make comments. A purple cow could walk by and he wouldn't mention it. Per Holth

Why joint attention phenomena are important in verbal and listening skills • Consider what happens in their absence • listening skills • ”Look at that!” • ”There’s a horse with three legs!” • MANDS • TACTS Per Holth

Tacts & Joint Attention: An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention Skills