Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 60-69.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.01.07

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Effects of Emotional Expression and Role of Affective Pedagogical Agent on Video Learning: The Moderating Role of Learners’ Experience

WANG Zhen, SHI Baoying, ZHAO Haoli, GUO Yunfei, WANG Enguo   

  1. School of Psychology, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004
  • Published:2026-01-19

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Abstract: The effectiveness of affective pedagogical agent (PA) is one of the hot issues in the field of video-based learning. In order to investigate the impact of learners’ experience and affective PA on video-based learning outcomes, this study selected 196 college students with high or low knowledge experience through prior knowledge test. The emotional expression of affective PA was manipulated at two levels: positive and neutral, and the role of affective PA was manipulated at two levels: teacher agent and peer agent. The results showed that: (1) Positive affective PA was beneficial for improving positive emotions and retention performance; (2) Learners’ experience moderated the effects of the affective PA on video-based learning outcomes. Specifically, for low experienced learners, positive peer affective PA could enhance their positive emotions; peer affective PA could increase their perceived agent engaging; positive affective PA could improve their retention performance. However, for high experienced learners, the impact of different characteristics of affective PA was relatively small. The results support the social agency theory and the emotional response theory, and further provide a new perspective for exploring individual differences in the context of affective PA.

Key words: affective pedagogical agent, emotional expression, role of agent, prior knowledge, video-based learning, college students

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