Effects of a Pedagogical Agent’s Emotional Expressiveness on Learners Perceptions

Effects of a Pedagogical Agent’s Emotional Expressiveness on Learners Perceptions

Enilda Romero

Ginger Watson, Ph.D.

Darden College of Education

Old Dominion University

INTRODUCTION

Computer–Mediated

Instruction

Content Representation

Animated Pedagogical

Agents

Emotion

•Web–based Instruction•Instructional Simulations•Serious Games

•Text•Audio•Images•Animations

•Interface Agent Characteristics•Character Building Qualities

•Low Intensity•High Intensity

LITERATURE REVIEW

Quantitative Inquiries

Positive Results for both Learning and Learner’s Perception (Lester et al., 1997)

Failed to Obtain Significant Results for Either Variable (Craig et al., 2002)

Qualitative Inquiries

Phenomenological Exploration of Conversational Agent (Veletsianos & Miller, 2008)

PURPOSE STATEMENT

To describe the lived experiences of the learners as they interact with an emotionally expressive animated pedagogical agent in a computer–mediated instructional environment.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

a. How do learners perceive low intensity emotionally expressive agents?

b. How do learners perceive high intensity emotionally expressive agents?

OPERATIONALIZED VARIABLES

Low Intensity Emotion- Soft emotional tone in the voice

- Eyebrow, mouth, and cheek movements were subtle and gentle

- Head movement was limited and delicate.

High Intensity Emotion- Strong emotional tone in the voice, with

very high pitch and intonation

- Eyebrow, mouth, and cheek movements were exaggerated

- Significant amount of head movement.

METHODOLOGY

PARTICIPANTS (8)

50%

25%

25%

Experience with Computers

Competent

Proficient

Expert

37%

63%

Gender

Male

Female

75%

25%

Age

18 – 25

25 – 35

MATERIALS

Instructional Environment

Animated Pedagogical Agent

DATA SOURCES

Individual Interviews

Guided Reflection Journals

Demographic Questionnaire

DATA ANALYSIS

Coding

Keywords

CodebookThemes

Transcripts

RESULTS

RESULTS

• Perceived Importance

– “Emotions are a huge part of people and that

if you take that out of a teacher it would be

harder for the students to relate and they will

get bored.”

– One participant mentioned that they could not see the difference between using an emotionally expressive agent and just videotaping a real person.

RESULTS

• Perceived Enjoyment

– Regardless of agent expressiveness, low or high intensity, participants were both critical and complimentary regarding their perceived enjoyment of the animated agent.

RESULTS

• Perceived Humanness of Agent

– All participants perceived the

agent as “professional looking”, “sharp

dresser,” “very modern” and someone that “looked like a professor.”

– “I noticed that sometimes the voice and the

movement of the mouth did not quite line up.

For a second it discredited the avatar.”

RESULTS

• Perceived Barriers of Implementation

– “I had to focus on what it was saying because

his face distracted me from his voice.”

– “The funny faces he made with the smile and

moving eyebrows distracted me into watching

them instead of listening to what he had to

say.”

RESULTS

• Suggestions for Improvement

– “I could easily spot the same pattern of

movements and expression from the avatar. A

richer library of expressions would make a

great difference.”

– “Sometimes I imagined a person reading a

script.”

DISCUSSION

• Low Intensity Emotion– Perceived the agent as an important element

because it used emotion to provide subtle cues that highlighted important content in the lecture.

– Perceived this agent as friendly and professional looking.

– Did not perceived the agent as human because it lacked proper synchronization between the topic of the dialogue and the expression of emotion.

– Felt it distracted.

• High Intensity Emotion– Perceived the agent as an important because

the emotion contributed to their character as instructors of a lecture.

– Enjoyed the emotion and movement of the agent.

– Felt the agent was not visually pleasant.

– Perceived the agent as distracting.

Design Recommendations

• To utilize animated agents in scenarios that involve performance or decision making

• To design the agent in a manner that it is visually pleasant to the learner

• To develop the agent in a manner that it presents a consistent synchronization

• Number of participants

• The content limited the facial and verbal expressions of the agent to mostly negative emotions

Limitations

ACKNOLEDGEMENT

Dr. Danica HaysAssociate Professor, Old Dominion University

Nicole CoxBiology Student, Old Dominion University

Questions or Comments?

Contact Information:

Enilda Romero

[email protected]

Dr. Ginger Watson

[email protected]