Benefits of Affective Pedagogical Agents in Multimedia Instruction

Abstract

The goal of the present study is to explore whether the affective states (happy or neutral) of a pedagogical agent (PA) in an online multimedia lesson yields different learning processes and outcomes, and whether the effects of affective PAs depend on the learners’ emotion regulation strategies and their prior knowledge. In three experiments, undergraduates were asked to view a narrated animation about synaptic transmission that included either a happy PA (smiling expression and enthusiastic voice) or a neutral PA (neutral expression and calm voice) and subsequently took emotions, motivation, cognitive outcomes tests. Across three experiments, the happy PA group reported more positive emotions (ds = 0.70, 0.46, and 0.60) and higher level of motivation (ds = 0.76, 0.49, and 0.51) than the neutral PA group. Moreover, the happy PA prompted higher germane load (d = 0.41) than a neutral PA in Experiment 3. However, adding a happy PA to the screen did not improve learning performance. In addition, in Experiment 2, learners’ usage of emotion regulation strategies moderated the effectiveness of affective PA on positive emotions in learners. Specifically, happy PAs increased the positive emotions of students who used expressive suppression strategy (d = 0.99) but not those who used cognitive reappraisal strategy (d = 0.13). In Experiment 3, the effectiveness of affective PAs was not moderated by learners’ prior knowledge. Results support the cognitive affective theory of learning with media (CATLM) that students are happier and more motivated when they learn from happy PAs than from neutral PAs.

I am Alexa, your virtual tutor!: The effects of Amazon Alexa’s text-to-speech voice enthusiasm in a multimedia learning environment

“…Whereas, for the learners subjected to the high mental load conditions, the enthusiastic human voice increased extraneous cognitive load while decreasing germane cognitive load. Other studies found that while human voices with positive emotional tones such as enthusiasm and happiness in a multimedia learning environment enhanced learning performance, perceived difficulty was not impacted by the voices (Lawson et al, 2021b ; Liew et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Wang et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Liew et al ( 2017 ) revealed that nonverbal cues, including facial expression, gesture, and voice conveying enthusiasm elevated learners’ positive emotions and intrinsic motivation. Likewise, across three experiments, Wang et al ( 2022 ) found that a pedagogical agent’s positive emotional tone exhibiting a smiling facial expression and an enthusiastic voice evoked higher positive emotions and motivation than a neutral emotional tone displaying a neutral facial expression and a calm voice. From the Cognitive Affective Model of E-learning model perspective, Horovitz and Mayer ( 2021 ) showed that an instructor’s expressed happiness was associated with higher learners’ positive affect (happiness) and motivation.…”

“…For instance, Beege et al ( 2020 ) revealed that voice enthusiasm could enhance germane cognitive load, but only for learners experiencing low than high mental load. Wang et al ( 2022 ) found that a pedagogical agent’s positive emotional tone, including an enthusiastic voice, was associated with higher germane load ratings in only one of three conducted experiments. Further, the voice enthusiasm effect on germane cognitive load ratings should be considered within a non-native language speaker context (see Sect.…”

“…Similarly, Ba et al ( 2021 ) showed that a pedagogical agent’s voice expressing a positive than a neutral emotional tone enhanced learners’ positive affect (pride) and transfer performance. Across three experiments, Wang et al ( 2022 ) found that a pedagogical’s agent positive emotional tone exhibiting a smiling facial expression and an enthusiastic voice robustly elevated learners’ positive emotions and motivation than a neutral emotional tone depicting a neutral facial expression and a calm voice.…”

“…Enthusiastic voices can be considered an appealing emotional design cue (Beege et al, 2020 ); hence, they may decrease perceived difficulty. However, the scant research generally demonstrated that voice enthusiasm was not associated with reduced perceived difficulty, including intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load ratings (Liew et al, 2017 , 2020 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). Contrariwise, Beege et al ( 2020 ) found evidence that voice enthusiasm could lead to decreased extraneous cognitive load ratings (perceived difficulty in processing the learning materials due to the instructional design features), albeit only for learners experiencing low mental load.…”