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However this work has been useful in two main
ways. The first is that as far as we know no one has
conducted an experiment of this sort investigating
specifically the context of statistics tutoring and
anthropomorphism. The closest we have found was
by Moundridou and Virvou (2002), which was in an
algebra context (briefly reviewed in section 1). Their
anthropomorphic feedback was used for giving
instructions and feedback. However, in contrast, the
work conducted by the authors used the
anthropomorphic feedback (in one of the conditions)
to also convey the instructional material. The second
aspect of usefulness of this experiment has
potentially shown the way forward for improving on
this work. The work can be particularly improved by
obtaining more participants, altering the tutorial
material to be more advanced so that differences in
the modes of presentation may emerge and by
improving upon the procedure used during the
experiment. The approach of using four laptops and
only three experimental observers could have meant
some bias being present in terms of inconsistent
observation (despite efforts at controlling this) and
some relevant occurrence not being noticed, due to
the reality of at least one observer having to observe
two individuals at once. A further aspect that could
be improved is to link this work with perhaps some
learning theories or other suitable theory of
cognition/interaction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Prof Sunil Vadera, Prof Tim Ritchings and the
Universiti of Malaysia Sabah are acknowledged for
their support of this research.
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