The case for social agency in computer-based teaching: Do students learn more deeply when they interact with animated pedagogical agents?

College students (in Experiment 1) and 7th-grade students (in Experiment 2) learned how to design the roots, stem, and leaves of plants to survive in. 8 different environments through a computer-based multimedia lesson. They learned by interacting with an animated pedagogical agent who spoke to them (Group PA) or received identical graphics and explanations as on-screen te xt without a pedagogical agent (Group No PA). Group PA outperformed Group N o PA on transfer tests and interest ratings but not on retention tests. To investigate further the basis for this personal agent effect, we varied the interactivity of the agent-based lesson (Experiment 3) and found an intera ctivity effect: Students who participate in the design of plant parts remem ber more and transfer what they have learned to solve new problems better t han students who learn the same materials without participation. Next, we v aried whether the agent's words were presented as speech or on-screen text, and whether the agent's image appeared on the screen. Both with a fictiona l agent (Experiment 4) and a video of a human face (Experiment 5), students performed better on tests of retention and problem-solving transfer when w ords were presented as speech rather than on-screen text (producing a modal ity effect) but visual presence of the agent did not affect test performanc e (producing no image effect). Results support the introduction of interact ive pedagogical agents who communicate with students via speech to promote meaningful learning in multimedia lessons.