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Seven trialogue designs for two-agent conversations with a human learner, adaptively administered by learner knowledge

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

Trialogues involve a human interacting with two agents, typically a tutor agent and a student peer agent. Graesser et al. (2015b) identified seven designs: (1) vicarious learning with human observer; (2) vicarious learning with limited human participation via yes/no or single-word prompts; (3) tutor agent interacting with human and student agent; (4) expert agent staging a competition between human and peer agent; (5) human teaches a student agent with tutor facilitation; (6) human interacts with two peer agents varying in proficiency; and (7) human interacts with two agents expressing contradictions or different views. The two agents can model good questions and answers or stage arguments that create cognitive disequilibrium, productive confusion, and deeper learning. The student agent can also fill in missing words when the human's answer is incomplete, circumventing negative short feedback.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Two agents that can take on different roles, typically one tutor and one student peer, with conversation mechanisms adaptive and flexible like AutoTutor

Constraints

  • The article states research needs to be conducted to assess empirically the conditions under which different trialogue designs facilitate learning and motivation

Target Learners

  • learners with limited knowledge (vicarious designs)
  • more capable students attempting deeper knowledge (designs 5 and 7)

Learning Goals

  • modeling good answers and reasoning, deeper learning through cognitive disequilibrium and productive confusion, motivation through game competition

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Graesser, A. C. (2016). Conversations with AutoTutor Help Students Learn. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-015-0086-4
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id seven-trialogue-designs-two-agents
title Seven trialogue designs for two-agent conversations with a human learner, adaptively administered by learner knowledge
description Trialogues involve a human interacting with two agents, typically a tutor agent and a student peer agent.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-17
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — graesser-2016

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