Abstract
Abstract. Advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have made virtual agents ubiquitous, leading to widespread disruption of higher education. Many are asking whether these agents will replace educators altogether. In this paper, we explore some of the literature on virtual agents and past work from the edu- cational technology literature to outline one of the key limitations of education- al virtual agents: their inability to generate social presence. We then provide reasons why the N400 event-related potential (ERP) may be sensitive to aspects of social presence and thus reflect associated perceptions of virtual teachers and virtual agents broadly. We conclude with a proposal for an experiment which could establish cognitive differences, as measured by N400 amplitude differ- ences and their relationship to Cloze probability of phrase endings. This would also suggest that user expectations are important considerations in the effective design of virtual teachers.
Authors
Conrad, C., Boakye, Newman, N. &., & A.A.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-00815-2_5