Abstract
<p class="2">The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that a smiling expression on the face of a talking pedagogical agent could positively affect a learner’s emotions, motivation, and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment. Contrary to the hypothesis, results from Experiment 1 demonstrated that the pedagogical agent’s smile induced negative emotional and motivational responses in learners. Experiment 2 showed that the social meaning of a pedagogical agent’s smile might be perceived by learners as polite or fake. In addition, qualitative data provided insights into factors that may cause negative perceptions of a pedagogical agent’s smile, which in turn lead to negative affective (emotional and motivational) states in learners. Theoretical and design implications for pedagogical agents in virtual learning environment are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.</p>
Highlights
One of the major drawbacks of e-learning relates to the lack of social and personal presence in this environment (Searls, 2012)
Similar to previous studies (Ku et al, 2005; Tsai et al, 2012), we focus on smiling expressions of talking virtual agents as the potential cause for emotional contagion in learner-agent interaction in virtual learning systems
It was shown that participants who interacted with the smiling-face virtual agent experienced lower positive affect, joviality and self-assurance than did participants who interacted with the neutralface virtual agent
Summary
One of the major drawbacks of e-learning relates to the lack of social and personal presence in this environment (Searls, 2012). This issue has prompted the implementation of artificial intelligent characters known as “pedagogical agents” in virtual learning systems (Krämer & Bente, 2010; Veletsianos & Russell, 2014). Pedagogical agents are visual characters that reside within the digital space of virtual learning systems. They are viewed as intrinsically social interfaces, which allows for the inclusion of socio-emotive values in the learning process (Guo & Goh, 2015; Kim & Baylor, 2015).
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