Inducing, Tracking, and Regulating Confusion and Cognitive Disequilibrium during Complex Learning

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This research will explore interactions between cognition and emotion during the learning of scientific methods in the context of a computer tutoring environment. The primary focus will be on the relations between impasses, cognitive disequilibrium, and the affective-cognitive state of confusion. Confusion correlates with learning gains because it is diagnostic of cognitive disequilibrium, a state that occurs when learners face obstacles to goals, contradictions, incongruities, anomalies, conflicts, and system breakdowns. Cognitive equilibrium is normally restored after thought, reflection, problem solving and other effortful cognitive activities. Therefore, pedagogical tactics that challenge, perplex, and productively confuse learners are stimulating alternatives to the typical information delivery systems in education that promote shallow knowledge in the comfort zone of the learner, but rarely deep comprehension. This research will develop tutorial interventions that induce, track, and regulate confusion and cognitive disequilibrium in the minds of learners, as well as the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that restore cognitive equilibrium. The research has three specific objectives: (1) To promote deep learning by developing tutorial interventions that experimentally induce impasses, cognitive disequilibrium, and the resulting confusion; (2) to integrate sensing devices and signal processing algorithms that detect and track the associated confusion; and (3) to develop affect-sensitive pedagogical strategies to help learners regulate their confusion. The three objectives will be accomplished by augmenting an existing Intelligent Tutoring System (ARIES, Acquiring Research Investigative and Evaluative Skills) with technologies that automate assessment of emotion and cognition, as well as an intelligent handling of emotions. State-of-the-art sensing devices detect relevant emotions during learning (confusion, frustration, boredom, flow/engagement, delight, surprise) on the basis of the dialogue history, facial expressions, and body posture. The ARIES system promotes scientific inquiry skills by presenting case studies that exhibit flawed scientific methods and that require learners to offer thoughtful critiques on the scientific merits of the studies. The critiques encourage (a) the general cognitive processes of drawing inferences, constructing causal models, identifying problems, and asking diagnostic questions and (b) skills that directly target scientific reasoning, such as stating hypotheses, identifying dependent and independent variables, isolating potential confounds in designs, interpreting trends in data, and determining whether data support predictions. Students interact with ARIES through conversational trialogues in natural language with two animated agents: a tutor agent and a peer agent. Cognitive disequilibrium is created when the agents produce messages with contradictions, conflicts, and clashes with what the student knows. Correct information eventually emerges in the trialogue, which restores cognitive equilibrium. The broader significance and importance of the project is to advance science education, intelligent learning environments, and human-computer interfaces. It is widely acknowledged that the level of science understanding among students and adults in the United States needs improvement and does not compare favorably with several other nations. The proposed research will help fill this gap by developing technological interventions to fortify citizens and aspiring scientists with the skills needed for critical thinking, complex reasoning, and problem solving in science. The project will develop intelligent learning environments targeted for deeper learning, which is needed for a technologically sophisticated workforce, and for a motivating learning experience, which is expected in recent generations of students. The project will develop advanced sensing devices for detecting emotions and cognition, a contribution that should impact the fields of human-computer interaction, cognitive science, and the learning sciences.