Publications (4)0 Total impact
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Conference Proceeding: Mere belief in social action improves complex learning.
Cre8ing a learning world: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for the Learning Sciences, ICLS '08, Utrecht, The Netherlands, June 23-28, 2008, Volume 2; 01/2008 -
Article: Young Children's Understanding of Animacy and Entertainment Robots.
I. J. Humanoid Robotics. 01/2006; 3:393-412. -
Article: The mere belief of social interaction improves learning
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ABSTRACT: Thirty-five adult participants tested the hypothesis that one's mere belief in having a social interaction with someone improves learning and understanding. Participants studied a passage on the body's mechanism for causing fever. They then entered a virtual reality environment with an embodied agent on the other side of a table. The participant read scripted questions relevant to the fever passage, and the agent gave scripted responses. In the Avatar condition, participants heard that the virtual representation was controlled by a person whom they had just met. In the Agent condition, participants heard that the virtual representation was computer controlled. The Avatar condition yielded better learning and inference at posttest, even though all interactions within VR were held constant across conditions. Skin conductance measures also indicated that the Avatar condition exhibited more arousal and that higher arousal was correlated with learning on a problem-by-problem basis. Further results suggest the hypothesis that the learning effect was not due to social belief per se, but rather in the belief of taking a socially relevant action. -
Article: When observation beats doing: learning by teaching
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ABSTRACT: Forty adult participants tested the hypothesis that an important aspect of learning-by-teaching is the opportunity to watch one's student perform. Participants studied a passage on the body's mechanisms for causing fever. They then completed one of four conditions. (a) Teach and then observe their student answer questions. (b) Teach and then self-study the same questions oneself. (c) Self-study and then observe a student answer questions. (d) Self-study and then self-study again. Results indicated that teaching and observing one's student led to greatest learning gains both for the questions one's student tried to answer and new questions that had not been raised. In some cases, it is better to observe than do.
