Interacting With Motivational Virtual Agent: The Effects of Message Framing and Regulatory Fit in an E-Learning Environment

Virtual agents can be integrated in e-learning environments to encourage learning behavior through persuasive and motivational messages. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of agent’s message-frame, i.e., gainframe and loss-frame on cognitive load and intrinsic motivation of learners interacting with motivational virtual agent in an e-learning environment. Based on regulatory fit theory, this study also investigated if matching a learner’s regulatory focus orientation i.e., promotion-focus or prevention-focus to compatible agent’s message-frame i.e., gain-frame or loss-frame would produce cognitive and motivational benefits. The results of our experiment (n=210) revealed that the motivational virtual agent that utilized lossframe message to encourage learning behavior induced significantly higher germane cognitive load and intrinsic motivation in learners, as compared to the gain-frame motivational virtual agent. It was also shown that when the virtual agent used gain-frame message to encourage learning behavior, chronic promotion-focus learners experienced greater intrinsic motivation in e-learning than did chronic prevention-focus learners. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed in this paper.