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Modern text-to-speech voices can convey social cues ideal for narrating multimedia learning materials. Amazon Alexa has a unique feature among modern text-to-speech vocalizers as she can infuse enthusiasm cues into her synthetic voice. In this first study examining modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm effects in a multimedia learning environment, a between-subjects online experiment was conducted where learners from a large Asian university (n = 244) listened to either Alexa's: (1) neutral voice, (2) low-enthusiastic voice, (3) medium-enthusiastic voice, or (4) high-enthusiastic voice, narrating a multimedia lesson on distributed denial-of-service attack. While Alexa's enthusiastic voices did not enhance persona ratings compared to Alexa's neutral voice, learners could infer more enthusiasm expressed by Alexa's medium-and high-enthusiastic voices than Alexa's neutral voice. Regarding cognitive load, Alexa's low-and high-enthusiastic voices decreased intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load ratings compared to Alexa's neutral voice. While Alexa's enthusiastic voices did not impact affective-motivational ratings differently from Alexa's neutral voice, learners reported a significant increase of positive emotions from their baseline positive emotions after listening to Alexa's medium-enthusiastic voice. Finally, Alexa's enthusiastic voices did not enhance the learning performance on immediate retention and transfer tests compared to Alexa's neutral voice. This study demonstrates that a modern text-to-speech voice enthusiasm can positively affect learners' emotions and cognitive load during multimedia learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of the Cognitive Affective Model of E-learning, Integrated-Cognitive Affective Model of Learning with Multimedia, and Cognitive Load Theory. We further outline this study's limitations and recommendations for extending and widening the text-to-speech voice emotions research.

AbstractCyberloafing refers to the act of using the internet for personal purposes, such as browsing social media or engaging in non-work-related online activities, while pretending to be engaged in work. While it is often seen as a form of procrastination or a way to escape from work-related tasks, it can also serve as a way for individuals to cope with emotions or alleviate stress. Based on the mediational model of stress, this study proposes that cyberloafing may mediate the impact of work stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload) on job-related strain which in this case is employees’ emotional exhaustion, and then emotional exhaustion will influence work outcomes. Subsequently, the responses to a survey by 299 employees from Malaysian public-listed organisations were gathered, while the structural equation modelling through partial least squares (PLS) was utilised to test the hypotheses of the direct and mediating effect. As a result, it was found that some work stressors might lead to cyberloafing among employees, while emotional exhaustion was found to influence job satisfaction and work efficiency. Additionally, the findings highlighted the underlying factor of the relation between cyberloafing among employees and different forms of cyberloafing. However, no support was found regarding the serial mediation effect of cyberloafing between work stressors and emotional exhaustion.

Purpose: This study aims to examine if a pedagogical agent's expressed anger, when framed as a feedback cue, can enhance mental effort and learning performance in a multimedia learning environment than expressed happiness. Design/methodology/approach: A between-subjects experiment was conducted in which learners engaged with a multimedia learning material that taught programming algorithms, featuring a pedagogical agent who expressed anger or happiness as a feedback cue in response to the learners' prior performance. Learners completed a self-reported scale and post-test for measuring mental effort and learning performance, respectively. Findings: Female learners reported higher mental effort and had better learning performance when the pedagogical agent expressed anger than happiness. Male learners reported marginally lower mental effort when the pedagogical agent expressed anger than happiness. Originality/value: This study focuses on a pedagogical agent's expressed emotion as social information to learners. Extending from research advocating a pedagogical agent's positive emotional expression, this study highlights the potential benefits of a pedagogical agent's negative emotional expression, such as anger, as a cue for learners to enhance learning effort and performance in a multimedia learning environment.

Emotional design refers to imbuing a multimedia learning environment with design attributes that promote learners' positive affect and motivation to enhance learning. One such feature is anthropomorphism, in which human-like attributes are infused into learning elements in a multimedia learning environment. This study examines the affective, motivational, and cognitive effects of incorporating cute and funny human-like images and dialogues into learning objects depicting malware, bots, and servers in an animation conveying a lesson on how a distributed denial-of-service attack occurs. A between-subjects online experiment was conducted in which undergraduates from a large Asian university (n = 70) engaged with either the anthropomorphized or non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. The findings partially supported the anthropomorphism effects on learners' affective-motivational states insofar as the anthropomorphized multimedia lesson evoked a significantly greater change of positive affect but did not differently affect intrinsic motivation and learning outcome than the non-anthropomorphized version. Concerning cognitive load, anthropomorphism led to significantly lower perceived difficulty regarding the learning topic (intrinsic load), which conforms with most emotional design findings. There was a marginal trend in which learners engaged longer with the anthropomorphized than the non-anthropomorphized multimedia lesson. This study offers insights on anthropomorphism in multimedia learning that extends to cultural factors unique to Asian learners and information technology subject domain. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed through the lens of cognitive-affective theory of learning with media, integrated cognitive affective model of learning with multimedia, and cognitive load theory. Future directions concerning anthropomorphism research in the multimedia learning context are addressed in this paper.

In various domains, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a valuable tool for simulating specific scenarios and facilitating training within controlled and secure conditions. As peripheral vision plays a crucial role in numerous contexts, it must be duly considered in VR simulations. However, while peripheral vision was examined in VR, comparisons between VR and the real world (RW) are rarely made. Therefore, this study is aimed at comparing RW and VR reaction times (RTs) to peripheral visual stimuli and the field of view (FOV). This comparison is achieved using the peripheral perception‐R (PP‐R) of the Vienna Test System and a programmed virtual replica. The virtual replica underwent additional testing, revealing good reliability for RTs but only moderate to poor for measurements of the participant's FOV. The comparison between the two environments indicates slower RTs to peripheral visual stimuli in VR than in RW. This observed discrepancy is consistent with the results of previous studies investigating RTs to foveal stimuli and can be partially explained by the latencies in the hardware and software configurations used. Nevertheless, the observed correlations between the RTs in both conditions suggest comparable visual processing within the peripheral visual field and affirm the decent replication of the real PP‐R in VR. Overall, the study's results support the usage of VR as a tool for practicing and examining specific scenarios, including peripheral vision. The discrepancies revealed in the RTs between VR and RW emphasize the need to continue examining hardware and software components in VR research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifaceted nature of body experience, encompassing affective, cognitive, and perceptual components, plays a critical role in the development and persistence of conditions such as anorexia nervosa (AN). Recent research attempted to address such disturbance to improve therapeutical effectiveness, using mirror exposure (ME) and body‐swapping (BS) techniques in immersive virtual reality (VR). Procedures from a third‐person perspective—as mirror‐like experiences—were primarily used to address bodily cognitive and affective components, whereas first‐person ones—as BS—were used to correct distorted body perception. This study investigated the effect of spatial reference frame on body self‐consciousness and body perception during BS. Data revealed two main findings: Even though embodiment was significantly enhanced when participants engaged with a virtual body from a first‐person viewpoint, both egocentric and allocentric perspectives influenced body size estimation (BSE), suggesting that both spatial perspectives critically form and sustain body self‐perception. We discussed predictive coding theory to explain spatial perspective influence on body experience, highlighting the potential therapeutic benefits of incorporating first and third‐person perspectives on body illusions (BIs) for more effective interventions targeting body‐related disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instagram Stories advertising has the advantages of precise targeting, diverse advertising formats, and a wide range of users; it has, thus, become an important medium for mobile game marketing. To find the most effective ad designs for mobile games on Instagram Stories, this study applied the stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) theory to investigate how game involvement and ad designs affect users' visual attention. Visual attention is an important physiological indicator of advertising effectiveness, and eye‐tracking technology can accurately assess consumers' visual attention. This study applied eye‐tracking technology to 80 participants, grouped as follows: high‐involvement gamers, low‐involvement gamers, and nongamers. This study used the eye movement indicators for first fixation duration (FFD) and total fixation duration (TFD) to, respectively, evaluate the attentional salience and hold of mobile game ads. The ads were presented in three formats (5 s video, 15 s video, and 5 s image) with two types of content (gameplay and game characters). Results showed that the mobile game ads on Stories exerted the highest attentional hold on high‐involvement gamers. In terms of ad format, video ads offered a higher attentional hold and attentional salience. In terms of ad content, ads that introduced game characters resulted in better attentional salience; however, ads that introduced gameplay exerted better attentional hold for nongamers. This study examined both individual differences in media users and ad design to provide recommendations for the personalization of mobile game ads for social media. For example, ads designed for a high‐involvement gamer should incorporate more diverse and complex information. In addition, we found that when the marketing goal is the promotion of game characters, image ads are the most appropriate format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that a smiling expression on the face of a talking pedagogical agent could positively affect a learner's emotions, motivation, and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment. Contrary to the hypothesis, results from Experiment 1 demonstrated that the pedagogical agent's smile induced negative emotional and motivational responses in learners. Experiment 2 showed that the social meaning of a pedagogical agent's smile might be perceived by learners as polite or fake. In addition, qualitative data provided insights into factors that may cause negative perceptions of a pedagogical agent's smile, which in turn lead to negative affective (emotional and motivational) states in learners. Theoretical and design implications for pedagogical agents in virtual learning environment are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effects of voice enthusiasm (enthusiastic voice vs calm voice) on social ratings of the speaker, cognitive load and transfer performance in multimedia learning. Design/methodology/approach: Two laboratory experiments were conducted in which learners learned from a multimedia presentation about computer algorithm that was narrated by either an enthusiastic human voice or a calm human voice. Findings: Results from Experiment 1 revealed that the enthusiastic voice narration led to higher social ratings of the speaker and transfer performance when compared to the calm voice narration. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the enthusiastic voice led to higher affective social ratings (human-like and engaging) and transfer performance as compared to the calm voice. Moreover, it was shown that a calm voice prompted a higher germane load than an enthusiastic voice, which conforms to the argument that prosodic cues in voice can influence processing in multimedia learning among non-native speakers. Originality/value: This study extends from prior studies that examined voice effects related to mechanization, accent, dialect, and slang in multimedia learning to examining the effects of voice enthusiasm in multimedia learning.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of a learner's regulatory focus orientation and message frame of a motivational virtual agent in an e-learning environment. Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of quasi-experimental design, university sophomores (n = 210) categorized as chronic promotion-focus, chronic prevention-focus or neutral regulatory focus interacted with either an agent that conveyed gain-frame message or an agent that conveyed loss-frame message to persuade learners to engage with the e-learning content. Statistical analyses assessed the effects of regulatory focus and message frame on agent perception, motivation and cognitive load. Findings: The results of this paper did not support the hypotheses that chronic promotion-focus learners will benefit more with gain-frame agent than a loss-frame agent, and that chronic prevention-focus learners will benefit more with loss-frame agent than a gain-frame agent. There were main effects of message frame (albeit small effects) -- the loss-frame agent was perceived to be more engaging, induced higher motivation and prompted higher germane load than the gain-frame agent. With gain-frame agent, chronic promotion-focus learners had higher motivation toward the e-learning task than other learners. Originality/value: Prior studies have examined regulatory focus and message frame with agents simulating virtual health advocates. This paper extended on this by examining these roles with a persuasive agent simulating virtual tutor in an e-learning environment.

As more of our lives are spent using electronic devices, it comes as a natural deduction that those digital tools could be used to maintain people's health. Gamified exercise or exergames are indeed promising means to motivate the population to get physically active and even cognitively active if paired with the appropriate games. Considering the global concern of an aging population which could benefit from both physical and cognitive stimulation, these tools appear to be an encouraging solution to keep the population healthier over time. This scoping review reports on the digital tools used in publications between January 2015 and December 2023 regarding the physical and cognitive stimulation of healthy elderly people. The search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases. Of the 1579 publications retrieved, a total of 68 publications were analyzed in this review. A wide variety of digital tools were used in the corpus for the combined physical and cognitive stimulation of the elderly. These tools can be categorized into six types of hardware: pressure plates, optical motion capture, inertial motion capture, virtual reality, ergometers, and driving simulators. The apparition of publications using virtual reality and an increase in publications using inertial motion capture in 2020 could be an indicator that digital tools used for cognitive and physical stimulation of the elderly are evolving. Another finding is the wide variety in evaluation tools used to monitor the outcomes of each protocol. A standardization of the testing process might be needed in order to improve comparisons between experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cognitive-Affective Theory of Learning with Media framework posits that the multimedia learning process is mediated by the learner's mood. Recent studies have shown that positive mood has a facilitating effect on multimedia learning. Though literature has shown that negative mood encourages an individual to engage in a more systematic, elaborate, and analytical cognitive processing, this effect has not been empirically tested in the context of multimedia learning. The work is supported by two experiments. Experiment 1 was conducted to determine if the facilitating effects of positive mood found in previous works can be replicated with a multimedia learning system that teaches basic programming algorithm to learners at an Asian university. Experiment 2 investigated the effects of induced negative mood on learners' cognition and motivation in a multimedia learning environment. Results revealed that negative mood enhanced intrinsic motivation and germane load, while reducing learning transfer. Learning transfer was enhanced by the presence of positive moods among males. Moreover, positive mood had a favorable effect on germane load, extraneous load, and intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications related to affective learning are discussed in this paper.

The present study examined the relationship among learners' differences, behaviors in manipulating variables, and learning achievements in a simulation-based program that supports discovery learning in the subject of C-programming algorithm. Participants (n = 66) took the Group Embedded Figures Test, Action Control Scale, and Computer Self-Efficacy Scale to determine their field dependence, action-state orientation, and computer self-efficacy before interacting with the simulation program. Results from this study have shown that reading domain information supported learners to manipulate more simulation variables systematically. In addition, manipulating simulation variables in a systematic manner positively affects learning post-test achievement. In the context of individual differences, failure-related action control and computer self-efficacy were found to affect learners' behaviors in manipulating variables, while field dependence was shown to affect learning post-test achievement. Implications for both theoretical and instructional designs are discussed in terms of how various support types can accommodate the needs of different learners in simulation programs.

In this article, the effects of personalized narration in multimedia learning on learners' computer perceptions and task-related attitudes were examined. Twenty-six field independent and 22 field dependent participants studied the computer-based multimedia lessons on C-Programming, either with personalized narration or non-personalized narration. The result of this study lent support to the social agency theory: personalized narration in multimedia learning positively affects learners' computer perceptions and task-related attitudes. Contrary to the authors' prediction, personalized narration did not positively affect field dependent learners' computer perceptions and task-related attitudes. Instead, it was shown that field independent learners were marginally more anxious in learning task when learning with personalized narration than with non-personalized narration.

The present study examined the impact of peer-like and expert-like agent stereotypes, as operationalized by agent's image and voice, on learners' agent perceptions, task-related attitudes, and learning achievement. 56 university freshmen (23 males and 33 females) interacted with either the peer-like agent (female college student) or the expert-like agent (female college lecturer) in computer-based multimedia lesson on C-Programming. Consistent with similarity-attraction hypothesis, expert hypothesis, and interference hypothesis, it was found that: (1) learners assigned higher ratings on lesson enjoyment with peer-like agent than with expert-like agent, (2) female learners assigned higher trust to the lesson presented by expert-like agent that to the lesson presented by peer-like agent, (3) female learners reported less anxiety in learning task with expert-like agent than with peer-like agent, and (4) learners who were more attracted to virtual agent were more likely to score lower in learning achievement. Additionally, results from this study suggest that gender bias affects learner's perception on virtual agent. Implications are discussed in terms of how stereotypes of expert-like and peer-like agent can be effectively utilized in e-learning environment. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)