Title: Foundation of an affective tutoring system: learning how human tutors adapt to student emotion

Authors: Samuel Alexander, Abdolhossein Sarrafzadeh, Stephen Hill

Addresses: Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 102 904, NSMC, New Zealand. ' Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 102 904, NSMC, New Zealand. ' School of Psychology, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract: The developing field of Affective Tutoring Systems (ATSs) has created a need to understand how such tutoring systems should adapt to the emotional state of students. To this end, an observational study of human tutors was conducted to learn how human tutors adapt to the affective state of students. This knowledge can then be used to implement the tutoring strategies of an ATS and is hence a critical foundation in its development. This paper presents the methodology and results of this observational study of human tutors and looks ahead to the future development of an animated pedagogical agent capable of detecting, expressing and adapting to emotion.

Keywords: affective tutoring systems; ATSs; animated pedagogical agents; facial expressions; human tutors; student emotions; tutoring strategies; teaching; learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2008.017278

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2008 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.355 - 367

Published online: 22 Feb 2008 *

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