Embodiment and Learning: When Avatars Smile

In Embodiment and Learning: When Avatars Smile, Saadia Khan examines how embodiment in virtual environments enhances learning and motivation and she describes the role embodied emotion plays in embodied learning. Khan’s embodied learning framework (ELF) identifies various types of embodiment, and her avatar adoption framework (AAF) explains how a user views an avatar as a part or extension of the self in a virtual environment. Through her embodied affect framework (EAF), she illustrates the use of embodied strategies for affect induction to enhance learning and motivation and identifies different types of embodied affect. Khan’s research demonstrates that embodiment enhances memory retrieval, comprehension, transfer of learning, and motivation and learning can be further enhanced when different types of embodiment (emotional, physical, surrogate, and mental) are combined.