The Effect Of Pedagogical Agent In Multimedia Learning: Evidence From Eye Movement

Previous studies showed that the effect of Pedagogical Agent (PA) in multimedia learning was debatable. The possible reason was that researchers didn't know why PA can improve learning. Therefore some unreasonable PAs were designed, which were lack of social cues. To explore these questions, animations related to the process of chemical synaptic transmission were used as multimedia learning materials, and SMI RED 250 Eye tracker was used to record eye movement data in this study. In Experiment 1, A single factor (PA vs. non-PA) between participants design was employed to investigate whether PA can facilitate learning. In Experiment 2, A 2(PA's image vs. no PA's image) X 2(gesture vs. no gesture) between-subjects design was employed to investigate the role PA's visual image and gesture played. In Experiment 3, A 2(social cues vs. no social cues) ×2(physical cues vs. no physical cues) between-subjects design was employed to investigate the effects of PA's social attention cue.Experiment 1 found that compared with no PA, fixation time of AOI of learners in the PA condition was longer. In addition, the fixation count and revisits of PA group were also much more than non-PA group. Relative fixation time of learning material of PA group were longer than PA's image. Group PA outperformed Group non-PA on retention tests, transfer tests, interest and motivation ratings. Experiment 2 found that in 5 seconds after-the commentaries were presented, fixation time in the PA condition was much more than no PA condition. And fixation time, glance count, fixation count of AOI were much more in the condition of gesture than no gesture. What's more, under the condition of PA, learners in the condition of gesture have higher retention and transfer score than no gesture; Under the condition of gesture, learners in the condition of PA performed better on retention tests, transfer tests than no PA. Experiment 3 found that fixation time, glance count, fixation count, revisits of AOI of learners in the social cues condition were much more than no social cues condition, and they were much more in the condition of physical cues than no physical cues. In addition, under the condition of physical cues, learners in the condition of social attention cues have less fixation time than no social signals; Under the condition of no physical cues, learners in the condition of social attention cues have more glance count, fixation count and revisits than no social attention cues. What's more, learners in the condition of social attention cues performed better on retention tests, transfer tests, interest and motivation ratings than no social attention cues.In conclusion, PA can atract learner's a small amount of attention, but it can't reduce learner's attention to the learning stuff and can promote multimedia learning. Gesture can guide learner's attention. Learners have the best performance when PA's visual image and gesture were presented simultaneously. Although social cues and physical cues can effectively guide learners' attention, only social cues can improve learning. So social cues can't be replaced by physical cues effectively.