"Oh dear stacy!": social interaction, elaboration, and learning with teachable agents
05 May 2012-pp 39-48
TL;DR: Treating her as a partner, primarily through aligning oneself with Stacy using pronouns like you or the authors rather than she or it significantly correlates with student learning, as do playful face-threatening comments such as teasing, while elaborate explanations of Stacy's behavior in the third-person and formal tutoring statements reduce learning gains.
Abstract: Understanding how children perceive and interact with teachable agents (systems where children learn through teaching a synthetic character embedded in an intelligent tutoring system) can provide insight into the effects of so-cial interaction on learning with intelligent tutoring systems. We describe results from a think-aloud study where children were instructed to narrate their experience teaching Stacy, an agent who can learn to solve linear equations with the student's help. We found treating her as a partner, primarily through aligning oneself with Stacy using pronouns like you or we rather than she or it significantly correlates with student learning, as do playful face-threatening comments such as teasing, while elaborate explanations of Stacy's behavior in the third-person and formal tutoring statements reduce learning gains. Additionally, we found that the agent's mistakes were a significant predictor for students shifting away from alignment with the agent.
Citations
More filters
06 Jul 2020
TL;DR: This work modeled learners’ rapport-building linguistic strategies to understand whether the ways middle school students build rapport with the robot over time follow the same trends as human conversation, and how individual differences might mediate the rapport between human and robot.
Abstract: Social robots have been shown to be effective educational tools. Rapport, or interpersonal closeness, can lead to better human-robot interactions and positive learning outcomes. Prior research has investigated the effects of social robots on student rapport and learning in a single session, but little is known about how individuals build rapport with a robot over multiple sessions. We reported on a case study in which 7 middle school students explained mathematics concepts to an intelligent teachable robot named Emma for five sessions. We modeled learners’ rapport-building linguistic strategies to understand whether the ways middle school students build rapport with the robot over time follow the same trends as human conversation, and how individual differences might mediate the rapport between human and robot.
4 citations
TL;DR: This work charts the ups and downs of turn-taking and other language behaviors along the Fun Curve, a tension between freedom and constraint play out in hundreds of small groups in a variety of activities.
Abstract: When the goal is entertainment, designing language-based interactions between characters and small groups of young children is a balancing act. On the one hand, an autonomous character should support the freedom of expression and natural behaviors of children having fun. On the other hand, an autonomous character is only capable of supporting the activity it’s designed for and the behavior it anticipates. In the last five years we have watched this tension between freedom and constraint play out in hundreds of small groups in a variety of activities. Using two of the activities as examples, we chart the ups and downs of turn-taking and other language behaviors along the Fun Curve.
4 citations
02 Aug 2015
TL;DR: While there was no effect found on memorization of technical terms, it was found that students showed accurate schematic understanding of the relationship between abstract concepts when the PCA used metaphoric gestures matched to speech content than when used gestures mismatched, and no gesture.
Abstract: In this paper, we examine the impact of metaphoric gestures performed by Pedagogical Conversational Agent (PCA) on learners’ memorization of technical terms, understanding of relationships between abstract concepts, learning experience, and perception of the PCA. The study employed a one-factor three-level between-participants design where we manipulated gesture factor (speech-gesture match vs. speech-gesture mismatch vs. no-gesture). The data of 97 students were acquired in on-line learning environment. As the results, while there was no effect found on memorization of technical terms, we found that students showed accurate schematic understanding of the relationship between abstract concepts when the PCA used metaphoric gestures matched to speech content than when used gestures mismatched, and no gesture. Contrary to the result, we also found that students judged the PCA useful, helpful, and felt the PCA looked like a teacher when performed mismatched gestures to speech content than when performed matched gesture.
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored how and for whom different role designs of a text-based agent (i.e., chatbot) can facilitate discussion patterns and systems thinking in small-group discussions and found that both agents facilitated learning of systems mechanisms by enhancing transactive exchange, where students built on prior ideas in their discussion groups.
Abstract: Conversational agents can facilitate learning discussions by applying natural language understanding to process students' discourse. Agents can assume the roles of figures such as peers or mentors, to promote actions similar to human interactions. In this study, we explore how and for whom different role designs of a text-based agent (i.e., chatbot) can facilitate discussion patterns and systems thinking in small-group discussions. Participants included 172 students in 9th grade (ages 13–14). Participants were randomly assigned to groups of five students and interacted with no agent, an expert agent, or a less knowledgeable peer agent. Results suggest that both agents facilitated learning of systems mechanisms by enhancing transactive exchange, where students built on prior ideas in their discussion groups. We also found differences in the agents' effects on discussion and learning outcomes based on groups' variation in systems thinking pre-test. Findings highlight the importance of role design considerations of agents in group settings.
3 citations
Proceedings Article•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The expansion of an educational game designed to develop emotion recognition skills in children with autism spectrum disorder is used to illustrate how simulated learning environments can be used to support the learning of these students.
Abstract: The needs of special education populations require specific support to scaffold learning. The design and use of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) has the potential to meet these needs. Difficulty in the development of these systems lies in their validation due to the ethics associated in studying learners from this population as well as the difficulty associated with accessing members of this learner group. This paper explores the use of simulated learners as a potential avenue for validating ITS designed for a special education population. The needs of special education learners are discussed. Potential avenues for employing simulated learners and simulated learning environments to test ITS, instructional materials, and instructional methods are presented. Lastly, the expansion of an educational game designed to develop emotion recognition skills in children with autism spectrum disorder is used to illustrate how simulated learning environments can be used to support the learning of these students.
3 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a procedure for having two or more judges independently categorize a sample of units and determine the degree, significance, and significance of the units. But they do not discuss the extent to which these judgments are reproducible, i.e., reliable.
Abstract: CONSIDER Table 1. It represents in its formal characteristics a situation which arises in the clinical-social-personality areas of psychology, where it frequently occurs that the only useful level of measurement obtainable is nominal scaling (Stevens, 1951, pp. 2526), i.e. placement in a set of k unordered categories. Because the categorizing of the units is a consequence of some complex judgment process performed by a &dquo;two-legged meter&dquo; (Stevens, 1958), it becomes important to determine the extent to which these judgments are reproducible, i.e., reliable. The procedure which suggests itself is that of having two (or more) judges independently categorize a sample of units and determine the degree, significance, and
34,965 citations
""Oh dear stacy!": social interactio..." refers methods in this paper
...Reliability is given for each coding category below in a Cohen’s K [8]....
[...]
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: Gumperz as discussed by the authors discusses politeness strategies in language and their implications for language studies, including sociological implications and implications for social sciences. But he does not discuss the relationship between politeness and language.
Abstract: Symbols and abbreviations Foreword John J. Gumperz Introduction to the reissue Notes 1. Introduction 2. Summarized argument 3. The argument: intuitive bases and derivative definitions 4. On the nature of the model 5. Realizations of politeness strategies in language 6. Derivative hypotheses 7. Sociological implications 8. Implications for language studies 9. Conclusions Notes References Author index Subject index.
9,542 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1987TL;DR: This paper presents an argument about the nature of the model and its implications for language studies and Sociological implications and discusses the role of politeness strategies in language.
Abstract: This study is about the principles for constructing polite speeches. The core of it first appeared in Questions and Politeness, edited by Esther N. Goody (now out of print). It is here reissued with a fresh introduction that surveys the considerable literature in linguistics, psychology and the social sciences that the original extended essay stimulated, and suggests distinct directions for research. The authors describe and account for some remarkable parallelisms in the linguistic construction of utterances with which people express themselves in different languages and cultures. A motive for these parallels is isolated and a universal model is constructed outlining the abstract principles underlying polite usages. This is based on the detailed study of three unrelated languages and cultures: the Tamil of South India, the Tzeltal spoken by Mayan Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, and the English of the USA and England. This volume will be of special interest to students in linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, anthropology, and the sociology and social psychology of interaction.
9,053 citations
""Oh dear stacy!": social interactio..." refers background in this paper
...face-threatening, by which is meant dialogue moves that threaten the other person’s identity management, or positive sense of him or herself [4]....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1996TL;DR: This chapter discusses the media equation, which describes the role media and personality play in the development of a person's identity and aims at clarifying these roles.
Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. The media equation Part II. Media and Manners: 2. Politeness 3. Interpersonal distance 4. Flattery 5. Judging others and ourselves Part III. Media and Personality: 6. Personality of characters 7. Personality of interfaces 8. Imitating a personality Part IV. Media and emotion: 9. Good versus bad 10. Negativity 11. Arousal Part V. Media and Social Roles: 12. Specialists 13. Teammates 14. Gender 15. Voices 16. Source orientation Part VI. Media and Form: 17. Image size 18. Fidelity 19. Synchrony 20. Motion 21. Scene changes 22. Subliminal images Part VII. Final Words: 23. Conclusions about the media equation References.
4,690 citations
""Oh dear stacy!": social interactio..." refers background in this paper
...Students who made many formal tutoring moves and few social moves often used outside-aligned speech to discuss what Stacy did and did not know, which we hypothesize is because it would be face-threatening to discuss her incompetencies with her in detail, along the lines described by Reeves and Nass [16]....
[...]
...HYPOTHESES Cognitive hypotheses of learning by teaching suggest that tutors will engage in more mental organization of the material and perform more self-explanation as they tutor, leading to learning gains [10,11,16,20,25]....
[...]
...Given conflicting prior work on whether social relationships can be formed with virtual agents [5,16,17,18] we chose to look at the type of language students used when referring to the agent as a clue to their social stance....
[...]
TL;DR: Cooperative learning is one of the greatest success stories in the history of educational research as discussed by the authors, and the most frequent objective of this research is to determine the effects of cooperative learning on student achievement.
1,563 citations
""Oh dear stacy!": social interactio..." refers background in this paper
...For example, researchers have proposed that there are substantial social aspects of peer tutoring that are responsible for evoking tutor learning effects, such as a strong feeling of accountability for ensuring the tutee is learning the proper information [24], as well as a desire to avoid the face-threat of not being able to fully respond to tutee questions [28]....
[...]