Mirroring the Past: Exploring How Ancestral Digital Self Influences History Learning
2026-08-10 • Human-Computer Interaction
Human-Computer Interaction
AI summaryⓘ
The authors created an AI teacher that looks and sounds like the student but shows the student as if they lived in the past. They tested this idea with 36 people and found that it made learners feel more connected and interested in the story. However, this did not help them remember facts better right away. Some students liked the familiarity, but others found the AI a bit strange, which distracted them. The authors suggest ways to improve using AI teachers for learning history.
AI-generated agentspedagogical agentexperiential learningnarrative transportationself-other inclusionRemember/Know judgmentsfacial feature mirroringhistorical empathyeducation technologyuser experience
Authors
Duo Gong, Fan Sun, Yucen Wang, Yufan Hu, Wen Zhong, Wei Zhang, Pengcheng An
Abstract
Learners often perceive history as distant from themselves, which limits immersion and empathy in history learning. To bridge this gap, we introduce the "Ancestral Digital Self," an AI-generated pedagogical agent presented in prerecorded videos that mirrors the learner's facial features and vocal timbre, representing a historically situated version of the self. We developed a reproducible workflow for creating AI-generated historical learning videos and conducted a within-subjects study (N=36) comparing a Digital Self agent with a non-self pedagogical agent. The Digital Self agent enhanced experiential measures, including narrative transportation, perceived relatedness, self-other inclusion, and agent perception. However, it did not improve immediate learning outcomes: quiz scores were lower in the Digital Self condition, and Remember/Know judgments showed no reliable differences. Interviews further suggested that self-similarity increased familiarity and motivation, while novelty and uncanniness could draw attention away from historical content. These findings offer design implications for future educational environments supported by pedagogical agents.