Evaluating the affective tactics of an emotional pedagogical agent

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative (with students of a local middle school) and a qualitative evaluation (with teachers) of a lifelike and emotional pedagogical agent, called Pat. Pat has the goal of inferring students' emotions and applying affective tactics in order to adapt the learning environment. These tactics aim at motivating students and making them increase their efforts and their intrinsic motivation. Pat attempts to achieve these goals by presenting emotional animated attitudes and encouragement messages that are chosen dynamically to compose its affective tactics.