The Case for Social Agency in Computer-Based Teaching: Do Students Learn More Deeply When They Interact With Animated Pedagogical Agents?

TLDR

College students and 7th‑grade students learned to design plant parts to survive in eight environments through a computer‑based multimedia lesson. The study investigated whether increasing the interactivity of the agent‑based lesson would improve retention and transfer, to understand the basis for the personal agent effect. Students learned by interacting with an animated pedagogical agent that spoke to them, while a control group received identical graphics and explanations as on‑screen text; the study also varied whether the agent’s words were spoken or displayed as text and whether the agent’s image appeared on screen. Students interacting with the animated agent performed better on transfer and interest tests, and when the agent’s words were spoken rather than displayed as text, they also showed improved retention and transfer, supporting the use of interactive, speech‑based pedagogical agents to promote meaningful learning.

Abstract

College students (in Experiment 1) and 7th-grade students (in Experiment 2) learned how to design the roots, stem, and leaves of plants to survive in 8 different environments through a computer-based multimedia lesson. They learned by interacting with an animated pedagogical agent who spoke to them (Group PA) or received identical graphics and explanations as on-screen text without a pedagogical agent (Group No PA). Group PA outperformed Group No PA on transfer tests and interest ratings but not on retention tests. To investigate further the basis for this personal agent effect, we varied the interactivity of the agent-based lesson (Experiment 3) and found an interactivity effect: Students who participate in the design of plant parts remember more and transfer what they have learned to solve new problems better than students who learn the same materials without participation. Next, we varied whether the agent's words were presented as speech or on-screen text, and whether the agent's image appeared on the screen. Both with a fictional agent (Experiment 4) and a video of a human face (Experiment 5), students performed better on tests of retention and problem-solving transfer when words were presented as speech rather than on-screen text (producing a modality effect) but visual presence of the agent did not affect test performance (producing no image effect). Results support the introduction of interactive pedagogical agents who communicate with students via speech to promote meaningful learning in multimedia lessons.