ABSTRACT: Central theories of learning in human agents emphasize that the quality of instruction and interaction between agents is of high importance for effective knowledge transfer. On the other side, within-agent characteristics such as a certain level of emotion and motivation is required to participate in social interactions. Consequently, the interplay between characteristics of social interactions and characteritics of learners influences learning in a way that might speed up knowledge transfer. In the PI lecture, key principles of learning in humans from the perspective of research in motivational and intructional psychology are reviewed and possible transfers to synthetic agents are discussed. Challenges of understanding human learning in social interaction will be illustrated in an overview of related project in SCIoI that address questions of emotions in social learning.