Can an angry pedagogical agent enhance mental effort and learning performance in a multimedia learning environment?
Information and Learning Sciences
ISSN: 2398-5348
Article publication date: 17 May 2022
Issue publication date: 24 October 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine if a pedagogical agent’s expressed anger, when framed as a feedback cue, can enhance mental effort and learning performance in a multimedia learning environment than expressed happiness.
Design/methodology/approach
A between-subjects experiment was conducted in which learners engaged with a multimedia learning material that taught programming algorithms, featuring a pedagogical agent who expressed anger or happiness as a feedback cue in response to the learners’ prior performance. Learners completed a self-reported scale and post-test for measuring mental effort and learning performance, respectively.
Findings
Female learners reported higher mental effort and had better learning performance when the pedagogical agent expressed anger than happiness. Male learners reported marginally lower mental effort when the pedagogical agent expressed anger than happiness.
Originality/value
This study focuses on a pedagogical agent’s expressed emotion as social information to learners. Extending from research advocating a pedagogical agent’s positive emotional expression, this study highlights the potential benefits of a pedagogical agent’s negative emotional expression, such as anger, as a cue for learners to enhance learning effort and performance in a multimedia learning environment.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the insightful comments from the editor and the three anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme with ID: FRGS/1/2019/SSI09/MMU/03/5.
Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Citation
Liew, T.W., Tan, S.-M. and Kew, S.N. (2022), "Can an angry pedagogical agent enhance mental effort and learning performance in a multimedia learning environment?", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 123 No. 9/10, pp. 555-576. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-09-2021-0079
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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