Affective Transitions in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments

Affect has been the subject of increasing attention in cognitive accounts of learning. Many intelligent tutoring systems now seek to adapt pedagogy to student affective and motivational processes in an effort to increase the effectiveness of tutorial interaction and improve learning outcomes. To this end, recent work has begun to investigate the emotions experienced during learning in a variety of environments. In this paper we extend this line of research by investigating the affective transitions that occur throughout narrative-centered learning experiences. Further analysis differentiates the likelihood of affective transitions stemming from pedagogical agent empathetic responses to student affect.