Check out this interesting research in joint attention and avatars. It examines the role of leading someones gaze with your own in stimulating the reward and motivation centres of your brain. It also shows that when you follow someone elses gaze, it stimulates those parts of your brain responsible for imagining another persons thoughts. As a consultant I have rarely advocated the use of avatars to my clients, preferring other ways of providing mentoring/advisory scaffolding. But this could be useful in developing avatars that not only form part of the learning, but also reinforce the learning.

Research by Vermeulen et al. shows that the brain responds to facial expressions denoting fear and disgust quite differently. Expressions denoting fear heighten our sensory input and increase our attention to the material immediately following the stimuls, whilst a face denoting disgust throttles our sensory input and attention. What does this mean for adult learning? Using imagery and soundscapes it would be relatively simple to stimulate fear in learners, fear of job loss, fear of poor health and so on, then follow it up with critical information to prevent these fears being realised.