1. Tacts & Joint Attention: An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention Skills
Per Holth
Hey, you out there in the dark, getting lonely getting -- can you hear me?
Per Holth

2. Tacts & Joint Attention
5. Operant analysis of JA
6. Research questions
7. Training procedures
1. The tact
2. Generic (natural) reinforcement of the TACT
3. Joint attention
4. Why study JA?
Hey, you out there in the dark, getting lonely getting -- can you hear me?
Per Holth

3. Tact (Skinner, 1957) SD  R  SRGEN. COND
"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

4. Generalized reinforcement Skinner (1957)
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)
Per Holth

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

6. Generalized reinforcer: ”Approval”
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)
Per Holth

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Joint attention: A triade
Per Holth

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

13. 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

14. 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 )
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

15. Examples Gaze following Monitoring Social referencing Protoimperative
Protodeclarative
Per Holth

16. Gaze following 1
Per Holth

17. Gaze following 2
Per Holth

18. Gaze following 3
Per Holth

19. Gaze following 4
Per Holth

20. Monitoring
Per Holth

21. Monitoring 1
Per Holth

22. Monitoring 2
Per Holth

23. Monitoring 3
Per Holth

24. Social referencing 1
Per Holth

25. Social referencing 2
Per Holth

26. Social referencing 3
Per Holth

27. Protoimperative 1
Per Holth

28. Protoimperative 2
Per Holth

29. Protoimperative 3
Per Holth

30. Protoimperative 4
Per Holth

31. Protoimperative 5
Per Holth

32. Protoimperative 6
Per Holth

33. Protoimperative 7
Per Holth

34. Protoimperative 8
Per Holth

35. Protoimperative 9
Per Holth

36. Protoimperative 10
Per Holth

37. Protodeclarative 1
Per Holth

38. Protodeclarative 2
Per Holth

39. Protodeclarative 3
Per Holth

40. Protodeclarative 4
Per Holth

41. Protodeclarative 5
Per Holth

42. Protodeclarative 6
Per Holth

43. Protodeclarative 7
Per Holth

44. Protodeclarative 8
Per Holth

45. Protodeclarative 9
Per Holth

46. Protodeclarative 10
Per Holth

47. Protodeclarative 11
Per Holth

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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

51. Mand with no joint attention
Per Holth

52. Mand with no joint attention
Per Holth

53. Tact with no joint attention?
Per Holth

54. Operant analysis of JA skills
Discrimination
Conditioned reinforcement
Conditional discrimination
Conjugate reinforcement
Continuous repertoires
Observing responses
Per Holth

55. Establish other’s looking, smiling and nodding as SD -- 1
Per Holth

56. Establish other’s looking, smiling and nodding as SD -- 2
Per Holth

57. Observing responses Dinsmoor (1983)
MULT R R VR
MIX
Ext.
Per Holth

58. Observing responses Dinsmoor (1983)
Reinf.
Per Holth

59. Observing responses Dinsmoor (1983)
Ext.
Per Holth

60. Observing responses: Mother’s look as SD
Reinf.
MIX
Ext.
Per Holth

61. Observing responses: Mother’s look as SSD S R R
Reinf.
MIX
Ext.
Per Holth

62. More on operant principles and JA skills
Behavior is very fluid; it isn’t made up of lots of little responses packed together. I hope I will live to see a formulation which will take this fluidity into account.
(Skinner, 1968, pp )
Conjugate reinforcement
Continuous repertoires
Per Holth

63. Conjugate reinforcement
In conjugate reinforcement, the intensity of a continuously available reinforcing consequence is directly controlled by the subject’s rate of responding. (Morgan & Lindsley, 1966)
Attention-maintaining responses
Per Holth

64. Continuous repertoires
Control of a continuous response dimension by a continuous stimulus dimension. (Wildemann & Holland, 1972)
Gaze following
Imitation
Per Holth

65. Research questions Typical generalized ‘conditioned’ reinforcers
(a) Can they be maintained as such at near-normal rates of back-up (primary) reinforcement?
(b) To what extent are they typically conditioned in the first place? (Combine Fantz with deCasper & Fifer)
Continuous repertoires
Is multiple exemplar training sufficient, or are there additional prerequisites (pivotal skills)?
Observing responses
Can they be prevented/removed by a preponderance of attention as S?
Per Holth

66. Establishing TACTS in tactless manders
establishing normal tact-consequences as reinforcers
establishing simple joint attention skills
producing high-rate tact responses in the natural environment
discrimination training with respect to objects and events worth talking about vs. those not worth talking about
Per Holth

67. 1. Establishing normal tact-consequences as reinforcers
Nods, smiles, ’attention,’ etc. as SDs for responses that produce reinforcers
Different reinforcers, using tokens
Stretching the ratio
Fading the tokens
Per Holth

68. Free-operant reinforcer pretest
Response: Hit bell
Intrinsic
Mix social
Sweets 57 2
Response: Put mark across line 67
Relevant
comments
Intrinsic
Sweets 3
Per Holth

69. Free-operant reinforcer pretest
Response: Ball into wall 57
Intrinsic
Praise
Sweets 57 22 2
Response: Pearls on board 45
Nods & smiles
Intrinsic
Sweets
Per Holth

70. Establish other’s looking, smiling and nodding as SD -- 1
Per Holth

71. Establish other’s looking, smiling and nodding as SD -- 2
Per Holth

72. Remaining problems Potential reinforcers are visible
Reinforcement is not generalized
Reinforcement is continuous
Per Holth

73. Different reinforcers – using tokens, stretching the ratio and fading the tokens
Reverse chaining
Prompts faded as soon as possible
Diversity of back-up reinforcers
Less eye-chatching versions
Marks on paper sheets
Done by trainers (and others) gradually more often
Per Holth

74. Free-operant reinforcer pretest
Response: Hit bell
Intrinsic
Mix social
Sweets 57 2
Response: Put mark across line 67
Relevant
comments
Intrinsic
Sweets 3
Per Holth

75. Free-operant reinforcer pretest
Response: Ball into wall 57
Intrinsic
Praise
Sweets 57 22 2
Response: Pearls on board 45
Nods & smiles
Intrinsic
Sweets
Per Holth

76. Free-operant reinforcer posttest
Response: Pearls on board
Mix social 39
Sweets
Intrinsic 27
Response: Mark across line
Relevant
comments
Intrinsic 46
Sweets 22 23
Per Holth

77. Free-operant reinforcer posttest
Response: Ball into basket
Intrinsic
Praise
Sweets 20 14 14
Response: Ball into wall 81 48
Sweets 47
Intrinsic
Nod & smile
Per Holth

78. Mean - pretest
Per Holth

79. Mean - posttest
Per Holth

80. 2. Joint attention skills: A step-by-step procedure
Gaze following
Monitoring
Attention bids
Per Holth

81. (a) Train Gaze following 1
Per Holth

82. (a) Train Gaze following 2
Per Holth

83. (a) Train Gaze following 3
Prompt 1
Per Holth

84. (a) Train Gaze following 4
Prompt 2
Per Holth

85. (a) Train Gaze following 5
Per Holth

86. (b) Train monitoring 1
Per Holth

87. (b) Train monitoring 2
Per Holth

88. (b) Train monitoring 3
Per Holth

89. (b) Train monitoring 4
Per Holth

90. (b) Train monitoring 5
Per Holth

91. (b) Train monitoring 6
Stop!
Per Holth

92. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

93. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

94. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

95. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

96. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

97. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

98. (c) Train attention bids
Per Holth

99. 3. Producing high-rate tact responses in the natural environment
TRAIN ”WHAT’S THAT” AS A MAND
Pictures
Objects in the room
Behavior
Objects and events outside
Per Holth

100. Differential generalized reinforcement:
Familiar objects loose their control because the community eventually withholds reinforcement except under special conditions. Only objects which are unusual in some respect or which occur in unusual surroundings, are important to the listener and hence provide the occasion for reinforcing the speaker[‘s behavior]. (pp )
Per Holth

101. What’s missing /what’s new? What’s changed?
4. Discrimination training with respect to objects and events worth talking about:
What’s missing /what’s new?
What’s changed?
What’s weired/strange in the room/on a person?
Arranged continuously  intermittently
Reported immediately  delayed  to someone else
Per Holth

102. 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

103. Establishing TACTS in tactless manders
Video:
3.05 Reinforcer test
5.20 One prompt (marks) nods
7.00 Nods & smiles
7.36 Toy figurescardsfruitsbehavior
9.50 Destroyed objects
10.24 ???
11.40
Per Holth