Towards cognitive-affective modeling based on students' traits and preferences

This paper presents preliminary results in the construction of a cognitive-affective model based on both students' internal and external characteristics and student's preferences an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for mathematics. The development of such model is important because using students' traits to predict achievement and affective reactions in the use of the tutoring system may be a more economical solution than real time modeling both cognition and affect. The hypothesis of this research project is that it is possible to conceptualize a model that could be used to predict students' affect and cognitive achievement in the interaction with a tutoring system for mathematics. Preliminary results suggest that, at least when considering students' preferences, it is possible to observe tendencies in line with our research hypothesis. Future studies will use other theoretical constructs to make the proposed conceptual model more robust.