Daniel Willingham--Science & Education
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The "human touch" in computer-based instruction.

9/12/2012

 
The importance of a good relationship between teacher and student is no surprise. More surprising is that the "human touch" is so powerful it can improve computer-based learning.

In a series of ingenious yet simple experiments, Rich Mayer and Scott DaPra showed that students learn better from an onscreen slide show when it is accompanied by an onscreen avatar that uses social cues.
Picture
Eighty-eight college students watched a 4-minute Powerpoint slide show that explained how a solar cell converts sunlight to electricity. It  consisted of 11 slides and a voice-over explanation.

Some subjects saw an avatar which used a full compliment of social cues (gesturing, changing posture, facial expression, changes in eye gaze, and lip movements synchronized to speech) which were meant to direct student attention to relevant features of the slide show.

Other subjects saw an avatar that maintained the same posture, maintained eye gaze straight ahead, and did not move (except for lip movements synchronized to speech).

A third group saw no avatar at all, but just saw the slides and listened to the narration.

All subjects were later tested with fact-based recall questions and transfer questions (e.g. "how could you increase the electrical output of a solar power?") meant to test subjects ability to apply their knowledge to new situations.

There was no difference among the three groups on the retention test, but there was a sizable advantage (d = .90) for the high embodiment subjects on the transfer test. (The low-embodiment and no-avatar groups did not differ.)

A second experiment showed that the effect was only obtained when a human voice was used; the avatar did not boost learning when synchronized to a machine voice.

The experimenters emphasized the social aspect of the situation to learning; students process the slideshow differently because the avatar is "human enough" for them to treat it prime interaction like those learners would use with a real person. This interpretation seems especially plausible in light of the second experiment; all of the more cognitive cues (e.g., the shifts in the avatar's eye gaze prompting shifts in learner's attention) were still present in the machine-voice condition, yet there was no advantage to learners.

There is something special about learning from another person. Surprisingly, that other person can be an avatar.

Mayer, R. E. & DaPra, C. S. (2012). An embodiment effect in computer-based learning with animated pedagogical agents. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18,  239-252.
C. Scott DaPra
9/12/2012 03:40:54 am

It was also suggested from the data that there is a hierarchy of effectiveness to the social cues used (i.e gesture is most important and trumps all other cues, voice is important, body movement (shifting posture) lends a natural quality to the on screen agent, and changing eye gaze (looking at the learner and then looking toward the static diagram) conveys a sense of importance to the topic being discussed. What was interesting is that there did NOT seem to be an additive effect of social cue use. Either the social response to increase meaningful learning was triggered, or was not. Of course more research is needed to understand the importance and then implementation of the most effective social cues to make online learning optimally effective.

Dan Willingham
9/12/2012 03:45:06 am

Many thanks for this addition/clarification, Scott.

KSWood
10/9/2012 09:25:07 pm

Fascinating.

I don't necessarily buy the analogy between an on-screen avatar and a "good relationship between teacher and student." Whatever occurs in the one-way flow from avatar to student is not really a "relationship," is it? So I'm curious: if the presence of a reasonable facsimile of a human is enough to trigger deeper learning, is it because we are so fundamentally social, right down to our wiring? Does that mean information accompanied by, or delivered by, a human "package" is always more compelling than disembodied information?

I think I'm missing something — otherwise, wouldn't every tv commercial feature a person speaking directly to you, for instance?

Daniel Willingham
10/9/2012 09:50:11 pm

@KSWood I agree with your skepticism--one study, we shouldn't make more of it than it is, especially going beyond the specific conditions they examined. But yes, I think it fits well with other data indicating that there are parts of the brain that are more or less "pre-wired" (or better, predisposed to wire) for social purposes.

KSWood
10/11/2012 06:01:36 am

Thanks for your reply. Are you referring to what Dan Goleman calls our social intelligence, essentially? I'd be interested in being pointed in the direction of that data if you have any particular suggestions.

Thanks for the site and your columns — extremely interesting.

KSWood
10/11/2012 06:01:58 am

Thanks for your reply. Are you referring to what Dan Goleman calls our social intelligence, essentially? I'd be interested in being pointed in the direction of that data if you have any particular suggestions.

Thanks for the site and your columns — extremely interesting.

KSWood
10/11/2012 06:02:20 am

Thanks for your reply. Are you referring to what Dan Goleman calls our social intelligence, essentially? I'd be interested in being pointed in the direction of that data if you have any particular suggestions.

Thanks for the site and your columns — extremely interesting.

Dan Willingham
10/12/2012 02:43:06 am

well. . . possibly. but I think it might also reflect a natural bias to attend to biological motion, and facial cues. some interesting work in the last twenty years (esp. the last five) on neural circuits that seem to be devoted to this sort of thing. But the whys and hows are just what need further study.


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