Sustained Learning in 4th and 5th Graders but not 7th Graders: Two Experiments with a Talking Pedagogical Agent

In this chapter, agent movement and temporal speech cueing were designated for empirical study. In Experiment 1 an agent presented students in grades 4 and 5 (n = 133) with instruction, practice, and feedback on the proper usage of the apostrophe to show singular and plural ownership. Analyses of the data in Experiment 1 showed that modality effects favoured speech cueing over text cueing but agent animation had no effect. In Experiment 2, a different agent presented students in grade 7 (n = 91) with examples and practice questions on multiplying and dividing fractions. Experiment 2 data showed no effects for modality or agent animation. The data reflects previous findings of inconsistent effects in modality research.