Joint attention

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Joint attention is the process by which one alerts another to a stimulus via nonverbal means, such as gazing or pointing. For example, one person may point to another, and then point to an object. In this case, the pointing person is trying to get the other to look at the object. The person seeing the other point responds to the gesture by looking at the object. It typically develops around one year of age in human infants, and is essential to building strong social connections. Before one year of age, infants merely look at the hand of the person pointing; after developing joint attention, they look in the direction of the pointing. Chimpanzees also show some understanding of joint attention, although they primarily use it as a means to an end, rather than for pure communicative purposes. Although chimps do display joint attention, the general consensus is that only humans use it in a purely altruistic way.