"A high school student is working on a geometry problem with her tutor, “Jane.” The student solves the problem incorrectly and expresses frustration. Empathetic, Jane shows momentary frustration, too.
Then she responds encouragingly, “Let’s read again what the problem is asking.”
This scene would not be out of place in most educational environments were it not for one important detail: Jane is a character on a computer screen.
Developed by teams of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Arizona State University in Tempe, the computer tutor in this scenario is part of a growing number of research projects around the country looking to build a social and emotional support system into intelligent-"