Using Virtual Peers to Guide Visual Attention During Learning

This study tested the hypothesis that animated pedagogical agents (APAs) can effectively support students’ learning by signaling visual information in multiple-representation learning environments. Novice students learned about electrical circuit analysis with an agent-based instructional program that included circuit diagrams and the corresponding Cartesian graphs. For some students, attention to relevant parts of the display was guided by an animated arrow (A group) or the deictic movements of a pedagogical agent (P group). A control (C) group learned with no visual attention-guiding method. Group P outperformed groups C and A on a posttest and gave lower difficulty ratings than group C. The findings suggest that a promising function of APAs is to support students’ cognitive processing during learning.