A biocybernetic approach for intelligent tutoring systems

Intelligent tutoring systems are instructional technologies that try to minimize the mismatch between learner needs and the learning environment. To this day, they try to elicit the learner needs with performance measures but they do not take into account individual differences in learning characteristics and abilities. Nowadays, advances in psychophysiological measurements, such as brain scanning, make it possible to identify differences in human brain processing that correspond to differences in learning characteristics and abilities. In this paper we propose a biocybernetic approach for intelligent tutoring systems where the system takes advantage of psychophysiological data as means of monitoring the learner's cognitive abilities and functioning. The paper reviews related work and offers the justification of such an approach, analyzes its implications, proposes an implementation model, and outlines future challenges.

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