Two fairly separate fields - but should they be?
Joint Action is the study of how multiple individuals coordinate their actions. Joint Attention, a more-or-less separate field entirely, is the study of how multiple individuals coordinate their attention to the environment.
This statement is likely to have already angered many. Should the term Joint Action be saved for more complex coordination behaviours, like when actors work together towards a joint goal? Or should it include emergent coordination, such as when starlings flock? Equally, should the term Joint Attention only be used to describe encounters where knowledge is shared between individuals, or is it enough simply to be looking at the same thing? What role does communication play? Either verbal or non-verbal...
Are flocking starlings participating in joint action? Can young infants engage in joint attention?
Malinda Carpenter (University of St Andrews), and I recently published a review paper in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, trying to set out some common ground (like what I did there?) across these two fields. Both are dealing with very similar problems, many of which come from disagreement over definitions.
We provide some suggestions for how we can get on the same page both within each field, by agreeing on use of terminology to describe different levels of each phenomenon, and across fields, in the hope that methods and theoretical frameworks can be shared.
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