Animated Pedagogical Agents: The Effect of Visual Information on a Historical Figure Application

Animated Pedagogical Agents (APAs) can be defined as computer-based characters with 2D or 3D animated representation and interactive capabilities through one or more modalities (e.g. text, speech, emotion, gesture, eyes movements) (Clarebout, Elan, & Johnson., 2002; Clark & Choi,, 2005, Craig, Driscoll, & Gholson, 2004; Craig, Gholson, & Driscoll, 2002; Gulz & Haake, 2006). Importantly, APAs have some type of artificial intelligence or intelligent tutor system backend that allows the designer to simulate communicative agent behaviour while guiding human-agent interactions towards pedagogical goals and objectives. Johnson, Rickel, and Lester (2000) argue that APAs were created when animated interface agents were combined with intelligent tutor systems. According to Johnson et al., “APAs present two key advantages over earlier work; they increase the ABSTRACT