Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2005 The Effects of Seductive Augmentation and Agent Role on Learning Interest, Achievement, and Attitude Sanghoon Park Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION THE EFFECTS OF SEDUCTIVE AUGMENTATION AND AGENT ROLE ON LEARNING INTEREST, ACHIEVEMENT, AND ATTITUDE BY SANGHOON PARK A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005 Copyright © 2005 Sanghoon Park All Right Reserved i The members of the committee approved the dissertation of Sanghoon Park defended on October 13, 2005. ______________________________ John Keller Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ Elizabeth Jakubowski Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Amy Baylor Committee Member ______________________________ Walt Wager Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________________________________________ Frances Prevatt, Chairperson, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My time at FSU has provided wonderful memories I will keep for my entire life. Especially, my work on this dissertation has been memorable - at times challenging but overall an exciting, instructive, and fun experience. There are many people who supported and taught me, to whom I would like to show my heartfelt appreciation. First of all, I would like to give a deepest thank to my advisor, Dr. John Keller, both for his inspiring and encouraging manner in guiding me to a deeper understanding of becoming a scholar and for his invaluable comments throughout the dissertation process. Whenever I had problems or concerns, he was always there to listen and provide valuable advice. He and his wife, Cecilia has been true mentors in my life. My sincere thanks go to one member of my committee, Dr. Amy Baylor, for reading all drafts of this dissertation and providing many valuable comments that improved its contents. She was always interested in my academic life and provided me with engaging research opportunities that became a foundation of my studies. I also would like to thank to one of my committee members, Dr. Walter Wager, for his significant contribution in clarifying my study. He offered suggestions for research sources and helped me refine my ideas and perspective. I am also very grateful to my outside committee member, Dr. Elizabeth Jakubowski, for supporting my study and providing valuable feedback during insightful discussions. My special thanks go to Professor Kenneth Baldauf in the computer science department, for allowing me to conduct this study in his classes and providing a good study atmosphere. A friendship with Ryan Wilke has led to many exciting discussions relating to this research. I appreciate his willingness to use his voice for creating pedagogical agents. I am also grateful to my colleagues from RITL (Center for Research of Innovative Technologies for Learning), E Shen, Chanhee Son, and Sue Ebbers, for helping me develop ideas about creating agents. Last but not least, I thanks to Jung Lim for being always there to support and encourage me. Finally, I send my endless love to my parents and sister who has always been with me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ………………………………………………….…..…………………..…….…... vi List of Figures.....…………………………………………….…………..……..………..……... vii Abstract …………………………………………………….…………………………….….…... x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Context of the Problem................................................................................................................. 1 Problem Statement........................................................................................................................ 6 Research Questions....................................................................................................................... 6 Significance of Study.................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE ............................................................. 8 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 8 Theoretical Background of Learning Interest............................................................................. 10 The Framework of Research on Interest..................................................................................... 13 Seductive Augmentations ........................................................................................................... 16 Pedagogical Agent Supported Learning ..................................................................................... 20 Graphics and Interest.................................................................................................................. 23 Hypotheses.................................................................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER III. METHOD .............................................................................................................35 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 35 Participants ................................................................................................................................. 35 Research Design ......................................................................................................................... 36 Independent Variables................................................................................................................. 37 Dependent Variables................................................................................................................... 40 Treatment Group Description.....................................................................................................45 Material....................................................................................................................................... 47 Procedure.................................................................................................................................... 49 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................. 50 iv CHAPTER VI. RESULTS .............................................................................................................55 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 55 Preliminary Data Analysis.......................................................................................................... 56 Tests for the Assumptions for Initially Planned Tests ................................................................ 61 Examination of Hypotheses........................................................................................................ 64 The effects of seductive augmentation and agent role on learning interest ............................ 65 The effects of seductive augmentation and agent role on achievement.................................. 71 The effects of seductive augmentation and agent role on attitude toward instructional material.................................................................................................................................... 74 Summary of the Hypotheses Tests.............................................................................................. 78 CHAPTER V. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 80 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 80 Seductive graphics, learning interest, achievement, and attitude............................................ 81 Seductive messages, learning interest, achievement, and attitude.............................................84 Pedagogical agents, learning interest, achievement, and attitude..............................................87 Limitation of the Study............................................................................................................... 87 Implications ................................................................................................................................ 89 Further Research......................................................................................................................... 90 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 91 APPENDIX A. Instructional Material Text ................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX B. Pre-interest Instrument ......................................................................................... 97