Proposition for emotional processing in a "conscious" ITS

Recent studies reveal that emotions have much to do with learner's performances. Consequently, e-learning systems should integrate emotional capabilities in order to optimize learners' experience. This paper presents CTS, our cognitive agent as it is applied to tutoring. Based on Baars' Global Workspace theory on mind and consciousness, CTS mimics the processing accomplished by the brain. Its highly distributed competence lets the agent consider concurrently multiple information sources and analyse a situation from various points of view. Central to this paper is a proposed extension to CTS' emotional processing. It should allow CTS to take into consideration manifestations of learners' emotions along with his evolving knowledge. This aims both at adapting its pedagogical or didactical interventions, and at playing on learner's emotional state to obtain better proficiency.