This study investigates how partner avatar design affects learning and memory when an avatar serves as a lecturer. Based on earlier research on the environmental context dependency of memory, we hypothesize that the use of diverse partner avatars results in a slower learning rate but better memory retention than that of a constant partner avatar. Accordingly, participants were tasked with memorizing Tagalog--Japanese word pairs. On the first day of the experiment, they repeatedly learned the pairs over six sessions from a partner avatar in an immersive virtual environment. One week later, on the second day of the experiment, they underwent a recall test in a real environment. We employed a between-participants design to compare the following conditions: the varied avatar condition, in which each repetition used a different avatar, and the constant avatar condition, in which the same avatar was used throughout the experiment. Results showed that participants in the varied avatar condition recalled significantly worse during the learning trials on the first day. However, we found no significant difference between conditions in the delayed recall test on the second day. We discuss these effects in relation to the social presence of the partner avatar. This study opens up a novel approach to optimizing the effectiveness of instructor avatars in immersive virtual environments.

翻译：本研究探讨当化身作为讲师时，伙伴化身设计如何影响学习与记忆。基于先前关于记忆环境情境依赖性的研究，我们假设使用多样化的伙伴化身相较于使用固定伙伴化身会导致学习速率较慢但记忆保持效果更好。为此，我们要求参与者记忆塔加路语-日语单词对。在实验的第一天，他们于沉浸式虚拟环境中通过伙伴化身在六个学习阶段中反复学习单词对。一周后，在实验的第二天，他们在真实环境中接受回忆测试。我们采用被试间设计比较以下两种条件：变化化身条件（每次重复使用不同的化身）与固定化身条件（整个实验使用同一化身）。结果显示，在第一天学习阶段中，变化化身条件下的参与者回忆表现显著较差。然而，在第二天的延迟回忆测试中，我们未发现两种条件之间存在显著差异。我们结合伙伴化身的社会存在感对这些效应进行了讨论。本研究为优化沉浸式虚拟环境中教学化身的有效性开辟了一条新途径。