SGER: Research to Improve Communication by Pedagogical Agents

迫切需要可访问和有效的智能教学系统，以改善儿童和成人的学习。在这个项目中，PI将调查栩栩如生的动画角色产生的面部表情和头部动作的作用，目的是在故事中指示重要信息或角色的情感。PI的假设是，虚拟说书人模仿自然的头部动作和情绪的故事将导致受试者更多的参与，对说书人的积极评价，以及对故事的更好理解。为了验证这一假设，PI将进行实验，她操纵虚拟说书人的头部动作和面部情绪，以强调特定的语音间隔或通过说书人S的声音提供情感表达。她将分析受试者听和看故事者的录像带，以评估他们的注意力有多集中，她还将使用问卷来衡量受试者？给人的印象是虚拟的讲故事的人看起来有多么可信、可信和人性化。她将进一步要求受试者总结他们听到的故事，然后分析总结，以便理解和回忆情感内容。通过这些手段，PI希望为一种强大的新的实验方法奠定基础，以研究逼真的动画角色通过语音、头部动作和情感的面部表情进行参与和有效的交流，并就如何以最佳方式结合声音和面部表情以使教学代理提供更可信和有效的沟通体验得出重要的新见解。更广泛的影响：这项探索性研究将提供关于面部和头部手势以及面部情感展示在使用逼真教学代理的智能辅导项目中参与和学习的新见解和新知识。项目成果将有助于设计能够产生更吸引人和自然的对话和叙述的教学代理，这反过来最终将导致更有效的技术，使广泛应用领域的不同学习群体受益。

There is great need for accessible and effective intelligent tutoring systems that can improve learning by children and adults. In this project, the PI will investigate the role of facial expressions and head movements produced by a lifelike animated character with the goal of indicating important information in a story or the emotions of the characters. The PI's hypothesis is that stories in which the virtual storyteller emulates natural head movements and emotions will lead to increased engagement by subjects, more positive ratings of the storyteller, and better comprehension of the stories. To validate the hypothesis, the PI will conduct experiments in which she manipulates the head movements and facial emotions of a virtual storyteller, so as to emphasize specific speech intervals or to provide emotional expression through the storyteller?s voice. She will analyze videotapes of subjects listening to and looking at the storyteller to assess how attentive they are, and she will also employ questionnaires to measure the subjects? impressions of how believable, credible and human-like the virtual storyteller appears to be. She will further ask subjects to summarize the stories they heard, and will then analyze the summaries both for comprehension and for recollection of emotional content. By these means the PI expects to lay the foundation for a powerful new experimental approach for investigating engaging and effective communication by lifelike animated characters through speech, head movements and facial expression of emotions, and to derive important new insights about how voice and facial expressions can be combined in optimal ways to enable pedagogical agents to provide more believable and effective communication experiences.Broader Impacts: This exploratory research will provide new insights and knowledge about the role of face and head gestures, and facial displays of emotion, on engagement and learning in intelligent tutoring programs that use lifelike pedagogical agents. Project outcomes will inform the design of pedagogical agents that can produce more engaging and natural dialogs and narrations, which in turn will ultimately lead to more effective technology that benefits diverse learner groups across a wide range of application domains.