The persona effect: affective impact of animated pedagogical agents
Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systems
Perfect presence: What does this mean for the design of virtual learning environments?
Education and Information Technologies
User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
VR '02 Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference 2002
Affective Learning — A Manifesto
BT Technology Journal
The importance of affective quality
Communications of the ACM - Special issue: RFID
Design of animated pedagogical agents-A look at their look
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
How real should virtual characters be?
Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology
Designing agents to support learning by explaining
Computers & Education
Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
Components of human experience in virtual environments
Computers in Human Behavior
Impact of media richness and flow on e-learning technology acceptance
Computers & Education
CGIV '09 Proceedings of the 2009 Sixth International Conference on Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization
Usability attributes in virtual learning environments
Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System
Picture perfect: Girls' and boys' preferences towards visual complexity in children's websites
Computers in Human Behavior
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As the technology in computer graphics advances, Animated-Virtual Actors (AVAs) in Virtual Reality (VR) applications become increasingly rich and complex. Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) suggests that complex visual materials could hinder novice learners from attending to the lesson properly. On the other hand, previous studies have shown that visual complexity correlates with presence and may increase the perceived affective quality of the virtual world, towards an optimal experience or flow. Increasing these in VR applications may promote enjoyment and higher cognitive engagement for better learning outcomes. While visually complex materials could be motivating and pleasing to attend to, would they affect learning adversely? We developed a series of VR presentations to teach second-year psychology students about the navigational behaviour of Cataglyphis ants with flat, cartoon, or lifelike AVAs. To assess learning outcomes, we used Program Ratings, which measured perception of learning and perceived difficulty, and retention and transfer tests. The results from 200 students did not reveal any significant differences in presence, perceived affective quality, or learning outcomes as a function of the AVA's visual complexity. While the results showed positive correlations between presence, perceived affective quality and perception of learning, none of these correlates with perceived difficulty, retention, or transfer scores. Nevertheless, our simulation produced significant improvements on retention and transfer scores in all conditions. We discuss possible explanations and future research directions.