How to Design Personalized Affective Pedagogical Agent: The Role of Individual Characteristics and Learner Choice

Prior studies have examined the effects of affective pedagogical agent (PA), revealing mixed results. One possible explanation is that learners’ emotion regulation ability may influence their perception of affective PA, which in turn affects their emotional experiences and learning outcomes. Thus, this study first examines whether learners’ emotion regulation ability serves as a key moderating variable that influences the effectiveness of affective PA. In Experiment 1, learners’ emotion regulation ability moderated the impacts of affective PA on learning. Specifically, affective PA enhanced learning for low emotion regulation ability learners but triggered more negative emotions and lower physiological arousal in high emotion regulation ability learners. Secondly, this study further investigates whether providing learners with the opportunity to make their own choices regarding the functional characteristics of affective PA will be more conducive to learning. In Experiment 2, providing students with the choice of affective PA created a more controllable learning environment for learners and satisfied the need for autonomy. Moreover, autonomous choice of affective PA also increased learners’ physiological arousal and happiness, reduced frustration, and improved germane cognitive load as well as retention performance. These findings help extend prior theories and provide reference for educators to design and develop online learning courses.