Gaze Cueing as a Key to Joint Attention Mechanisms: Essential Research Findings

Abstract

The paper provides a theoretical overview of research on joint attention using the gaze cueing paradigm. Joint attention is considered as a set of abilities to detect the object of another person’s attention and to facilitate identification of the object of one’s own attention for the others. The evolution of joint attention in the context of human communication development and the stages of its ontogenу are outlined. The hypothetic mechanisms of joint attention are examined in detail and the results of experiments aimed at identifying these mechanisms are discussed. The relative contribution of the geometry of human eyes, on the one hand, and the context of the gaze cueing (gaze owner identity, cueing situation, etc.), on the other, to the cueing effect on detecting a target in the visual field is demonstrated. The main inconsistencies in the results of experiments and their possible sources are highlighted, and promising areas for further research are indicated. The possibilities of research in joint attention through the prism of the cultural-historical approach are analyzed.