Toward Empathetic Agents in Tutoring Systems

This paper presents a way of improving computerbased with lifelike presence in learning environment. The approach combines Intelligent Tutoring Systems with research on human emotion in Cognitive Sciences, Psychology and Communication. Considering the relations between emotion, cognition and action in contextual learning, we propose an architecture of a multiagent-based instructional system in which two adaptive emotional agents have been integrated. One manifests the tutor’s emotional expressions trough a 3D embodied agent, whereas the second is designed to elicit and analyse the learner’s emotional experiences during the interactions with the system. We present here the system’s architecture and its first implementation.