Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Affective Tutoring Agent in Specialized Education

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder affecting the way in which the brain processes information. Autism is characterized by impairments in learning and communication, in social interaction, imaginative ability as well as in repetitive and restricted patterns of behavior [9]. This research contributes to the advancement of intelligent tutoring systems by proposing an affective intelligent tutoring system in the field of specialized education. We have conducted an experiment in mathematical learning with one controlled group of six participants who interacted without the support of the pedagogical agent Jessie, while the test group of six participants interacted with Jessie. The purpose of this study was to validate the support provided by the pedagogical agent Jessie based on our accompaniment model. The results showed significant improvement in learning by the test group.