Abstract
Visual social attention is an important part of the social life of many species, including humans, but its patterning may vary between species. Studies on human–pet relationships have revealed that visual attention is also part of such interspecific interactions and that pets are sensitive to the human visual attentional state. It has been argued that domestication and/or repeated experiences with humans have shaped and refined these decoding abilities. Little is known on how the species’ evolutionary history may play a role in determining visual attention patterns during interactions, nor how the human’s own social skills may influence the animal’s attention patterns in human–animal interactions. In the present study, we investigated the visual attention patterns directed to the partner in dog–child and cat–child interactions in their home environment. We also compared these patterns between a group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with typical development. We found that the attention patterns differed according to species, with dogs displaying more gazes and cats more glances toward their human interlocutor, while children showed gazes toward both species. Only slight differences were observed according to the developmental status of children: ASD children displayed much more visual attention with their pet cat than with their pet dog and the same amount of visual attention toward their pet, whatever the species, as typically developing (TD) children. Because humans rely a lot upon visual communication in their own social encounters, where direct gazes play a major role from early on, they may be especially sensitive to the gazing behavior of their dogs. People with ASD, with a less typical pattern of interaction, may be more comfortable with the less “invasive” short glances of cats. These results suggest not only that interspecific communication has to be associated with processing and storing the other species’ ways of communicating in order to be successful but also that visual attention patterns during interactions, even when interspecific, are, for a large part, the result of the species’ own evolutionary history.
Highlights
Social attention is one of the most important aspects of social life (Scheid et al, 2007), and according to Goffman (1961), attention is what makes the difference between a proper social interaction and a mere co-presence
Pet Dogs During the observation sessions, the child–dog dyads were visible around 50% of the video recording, whatever the child’s status (ASD: 1,562.46 ± 937.23 s, typically developing (TD): 2,084.67 ± 821.98 s, respectively, U = 58, p = 0.189)
This study, where dog–child and cat–child spontaneous interactions were observed, shows clear differences in the visual attentional patterns according to the animal species involved: dogs showed more gazes toward children, whereas cats produced both gazes and glances
Summary
Social attention is one of the most important aspects of social life (Scheid et al, 2007), and according to Goffman (1961), attention is what makes the difference between a proper social interaction and a mere co-presence. Visual attention is in this regard an important component of social interaction in a variety of species (Snowdon and Hausberger, 1997; Lemasson and Hausberger, 2004). The pattern of visual attention may vary according to the species’ social characteristics, from a “dominant-centered” visual focus to a “monitor-adjust” system of divided attention toward all group members in tolerant species (e.g., York and Rowell, 1988; Blois-Heulin and Girona, 1999; Lemasson et al, 2006). Longer gazes (more than 1 s) correspond to the shift from a common focus on a topic of interest to a focused attention to the interlocutor, especially in the case of affiliative attraction (Kendon, 1967)
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