A 2007 Stanford University study asked: “Do you learn more if you interact with a live person, or if you interact with a computer?” The conclusion was that people do better when they believe that they are interacting with a person. But what if that person is really an avatar? And what are the implications for eLearning?

Read a short discussion at Learning Solutions Magazine:
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1021/research-for-practitioners-social-interaction-belief-and-learning

The Stanford Study:
http://aaalab.stanford.edu/papers/cogsci07_okita_id_7451.pdf