Introduction
Attention-getting behaviors (AGB) are described as communicative cues that aim to gain attentional state of the audience. They will mostly cluster into visual, auditory, or tactile signals, depending on the perceptual system used. Intentional nature of communicative cues has been highlighted as a crucial feature in animal communication systems (e.g., for a review: Townsend et al. 2017). For instance, several species (e.g., in great apes: Halina et al. 2013; Prieur et al. 2016a) have been shown to communicate with each other by gesturing. To be considered as intentional, gestures must fulfill several criteria (Bates et al. 1975; Leavens et al. 2005): (1) the gesture is goal-oriented and the signal persists or is completed with other signals until the desired outcome is reached; (2) the gesture is adjusted in accordance to the attentional state of the audience, whose attention can be regained by the use of additional attention-getting behaviors; and (3) the gesture is...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1975). The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly Behavioral Development, 21, 205–226.
Bourjade, M., Meguerditchian, A., Maille, A., Gaunet, F., & Vauclair, J. (2014). Olive baboons, Papio anubis, adjust their visual and auditory intentional gestures to the visual attention of others. Animal Behaviour, 87, 121–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.10.019.
Camp, B. W., Burgess, D., Morgan, L. J., & Zerbe, G. (1987). A longitudinal study of infant vocalization in the first year. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 12, 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/12.3.321.
Dudek, J., Faress, A., Bornstein, M. H., & Haley, D. W. (2016). Infant cries rattle adult cognition. PLoS One, 11, e0154283. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154283.
Emery, N. J. (2000). The eyes have it: The neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 24, 581–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(00)00025-7.
Ferrari, P. F., Vanderwert, R. E., Paukner, A., Bower, S., Suomi, S. J., & Fox, N. A. (2012). Distinct EEG amplitude suppression to facial gestures as evidence for a mirror mechanism in newborn monkeys. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 1165–1172. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00198.
Franco, F., & Gagliano, A. (2001). Toddlers’ pointing when joint attention is obstructed. First Language, 21, 289–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/014272370102106305.
Gaunet, F. (2010). How do guide dogs and pet dogs (Canis familiaris) ask their owners for their toy and for playing? Animal Cognition, 13, 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-009-0279-z.
Gaunet, F., & Deputte, B. L. (2011). Functionally referential and intentional communication in the domestic dog: Effects of spatial and social contexts. Animal Cognition, 14, 849–860. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0418-1.
Halina, M., Rossano, F., & Tomaisello, M. (2013). The ontogenetic ritualization of bonobo gestures. Animal Cognition, 16, 653–666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-013-0601-7.
Hopkins, W. D., Taglialatela, J. P., & Leavens, D. A. (2007). Chimpanzees differentially produce novel vocalizations to capture the attention of a human. Animal Behaviour, 73, 281–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.08.004.
Iverson, J. M., & Fagan, M. K. (2004). Infant vocal-motor coordination: Precursor to the gesture-speech system? Child Development, 75, 1053–1066. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00725.x.
Leavens, D. A., Russell, J. L., & Hopkins, W. D. (2005). Intentionality as measured in the persistence and elaboration of communication by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Child Development, 76, 291–306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00845.x.
Lemasson, A., Ouattara, K., & Zuberbühler, K. (2013). Exploring the gaps between primate calls and human language. In The evolutionary emergence of language: Evidence and inference (pp. 181–203). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Maestripieri, D., & Call, J. (1996). Mother-infant communication in primates. In J. S. Rosenblatt & C. T. Snowdon (Eds.), Advances in the study of behavior, parental care: Evolution, mechanisms, and adaptive significance (pp. 613–642). New York: Academic. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-3454(08)60344-7.
Maille, A., Engelhart, L., Bourjade, M., & Blois-Heulin, C. (2012). To beg, or not to beg? That is the question: Mangabeys modify their production of requesting gestures in response to human’s attentional states. PLoS One, 7, e41197. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041197.
Malavasi, R., & Huber, L. (2016). Evidence of heterospecific referential communication from domestic horses (Equus caballus) to humans. Animal Cognition, 19, 899–909. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-0987-0.
Marler, P., Dufty, A., & Pickert, R. (1986). Vocal communication in the domestic chicken: II. Is a sender sensitive to the presence and nature of a receiver? Animal Behaviour, 34, 194–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(86)90023-0.
Meguerditchian, A., Cochet, H., & Vauclair, J. (2011). From gesture to language: Ontogenetic and phylogenetic perspectives on gestural communication and its cerebral lateralization. In Primate communication and human language: vocalization, gestures, imitation and deixis in humans and non humans (Vilain, A., Shwartz, JL., Abry, C., & Vauclair J. p 91–119) Amsterdam John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ais.1.07meg.
Newman, J. D. (2007). Neural circuits underlying crying and cry responding in mammals. Behavioural Brain Research, 182, 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2007.02.011.
Ohkita, M., Nagasawa, M., Kazutaka, M., & Kikusui, T. (2016). Owners’ direct gazes increase dogs’ attention-getting behaviors. Behavioural Processes, 125, 96–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2016.02.013.
Palagi, E. (2008). Sharing the motivation to play: The use of signals in adult bonobos. Animal Behaviour, 75, 887–896. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.07.016.
Pika, S., Liebal, K., & Tomasello, M. (2003). Gestural communication in young gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): Gestural repertoire, learning, and use. American Journal of Primatology, 60, 95–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.10097.
Prieur, J., Pika, S., Barbu, S., & Blois-Heulin, C. (2016a). A multifactorial investigation of captive chimpanzees’ intraspecific gestural laterality. Animal Behaviour, 116, 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.03.024.
Prieur, J., Pika, S., Barbu, S., & Blois-Heulin, C. (2016b). Gorillas are right-handed for their most frequent intraspecific gestures. Animal Behaviour, 118, 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.06.008.
Rohlfing, K. J., Grimminger, A., & Lüke, C. (2017). An interactive view on the development of deictic pointing in infancy. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1319.
Taglialatela, J. P., Russell, J. L., Schaeffer, J. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2011). Chimpanzee vocal signaling points to a multimodal origin of human language. PLoS One, 6, e18852. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018852.
Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of human communication. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Townsend, S., Koski, S., Byrne, R., Slocombe, K., Bickel, B., Boeckle, M., Goncalves, I. B., Burkart, J., Flower, T., Gaunet, F., Glock, H. J., Gruber, T., Jansen, D. A., Liebal, K., Linke, A., Miklosi, A., Moore, R., van Schaik, C., Stoll, S., Vail, A., Waller, B., Wild, M., Zuberbühler, K., & Manser, M. (2017). Exorcising Grice’s ghost: An empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals. Biological Reviews, 92, 1427–1433. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12289.
Xitco, Gory, J. D., & Ii, S. A. K. (2004). Dolphin pointing is linked to the attentional behavior of a receiver. Animal Cognition, 7, 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-004-0217-z.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rochais, C. (2018). Attention-Getting Behaviors. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_248-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_248-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences