Teaching Learning Strategies with a Pedagogical Agent: The Effects of a Virtual Tutor and its Appearance on Learning and Motivation

Numerous studies have tested the effects of pedagogical agents on learning and the influence of their specific appearance. What has not been analyzed, however, is whether an agent can have indirect effects when it is employed as a tutor for learning strategies rather than directly teaching the relevant learning material. In a between-subjects design ( N = 45) we compared two different kinds of pedagogical agents – a cartoon-like rabbit and a realistic anthropomorphic agent – with a control group that was not tutored by an animated agent but was informed by voice only. Results showed no clear advantages for the agents compared to voice-based tutoring with regard to indirect learning effects, but they did demonstrate that the appearance of the agent matters. The rabbit-like agent was not only preferred, but people exposed themselves longer to the tutoring session when the rabbit provided feedback.