Training Software that Adjust Motivation Level of User

The BIKA team of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT) uses Training Animated Pedagogical Agents (TAPA) to train children with learning disabilities. The system allows the software to adjust to the motivation or frustration level of the user to maximize training results.

Research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology in Germany shows that by using an adaptive user interface and by altering the program to suit the personality and mental states of the users, the reliability and effectiveness of the training systems can be improved.

The website of the BIKA team explains it as following: “Animated Pedagogical Agents (APAs) that inhabit interactive training environments can exhibit lifelike behaviors. APAs combined with adaptive user interfaces opens up new perspectives in realizing individual tele-therapeutical systems. As a consequence the team started to develop a tele-medical Training system that is primarily based on the concept of Animated Pedagogical Agents (TAPA). These agents are able to impart and coach memory strategies in a very suitable way to children. In addition to provide problem-solving advice in response to children’s activities, TAPA may also be able to play a powerful motivational role.”

With the knowledge of the child’s current feelings, a TAPA will be employed to attract the child’s attention and encourage the pursuit of training goals while adapting its behavior in response to unforeseen events. This way, a TAPA can respond to a child with a human-like combination of verbal communication and non-verbal gestures such as gaze, pointing, body stance and head nods. The team working on the developments hope to convey emotions such as surprise, approval or disappointment with a TAPA.

The results of the research are promising but the team is working to strengthen the technical integration of physiological emotional measuring system.

Source: Cognitive Training by Animated Pedagogical Agents (Development of a Tele-Medical System for Memory Improvement in Children with Epilepsy)