User-centric profiling on the basis of cognitive and emotional characteristics: An empirical study

Abstract

In order to clarify whether extending learners' profiles in an adaptive educational system to cognitive and emotional characteristics may have a positive effect on performance, we conducted an empirical study that consists of two subsequent experiments. The human factors that were taken into consideration in the personalization process were cognitive style, visual working memory span, control/speed of processing and anxiety. With the exception of control/speed of processing, matching the instructional style to users' characteristics was revealed to be statistically significant in optimizing their performance (n=219). On the basis of this empirical assessment, this paper argues that individual differences at this intrinsic level are important, and their main effect can be manipulated by taking advantage of adaptive technologies. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.