Examining the effects of a pedagogical agent with dual-channel emotional cues on learner emotions, cognitive load, and knowledge transfer performance

Shen BA, David STEIN, Qingtang LIU, Taotao LONG, Kui XIE, Linjing WU

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite the continuous emphasis on emotion in multimedia learning, it was still unclear how pedagogical agent emotional cues might affect learning. In the present study, a between-subjects experiment was performed to examine the effects of a pedagogical agent with dual-channel emotional cues on learners' emotions, cognitive load, and knowledge transfer performance. Participants from a central Chinese university (age mean = 21.26, N = 66) were randomly divided into three groups. These groups received instructions from an affective pedagogical agent, a neutral pedagogical agent, or a neutral voice narration without pedagogical agent embodiment. Results showed that learners assigned the affective pedagogical agent reported a significantly higher emotional level than learners assigned the neutral pedagogical agent. Learners’ perceived task difficulty was not significantly different among groups while instructional efficiency was significantly higher for learners with the affective pedagogical agent. Moreover, learners assigned to the affective pedagogical agent performed significantly better on the knowledge transfer test than those assigned the neutral pedagogical agent or the neutral voice. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1114-1134
JournalJournal of Educational Computing Research
Volume59
Issue number6
Early online dateFeb 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2021

Citation

Ba, S., Stein, D., Liu, Q., Long, T., Xie, K., & Wu, L. (2021). Examining the effects of a pedagogical agent with dual-channel emotional cues on learner emotions, cognitive load, and knowledge transfer performance. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 59(6), 1114-1134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633121992421

Keywords

  • Pedagogical agent
  • Emotion
  • Dual-channel assumption
  • Multimedia learning

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