Relational Agents in Clinical Psychiatry
Abstract
Relational agents are computational artifacts, such as animated, screen-based characters or social robots, that are designed to establish a sense of rapport, trust, and even therapeutic alliance with patients, using ideal therapeutic relationships between human counselors and patients as role models. We describe the development and evaluation of several such agents designed for health counseling and behavioral-change interventions, in which a therapeutic alliance is established with patients in order to enhance the efficacy of the intervention. We also discuss the promise of using such agents as adjuncts to clinical psychiatry, a range of possible applications, and some of the challenges and ethical issues in developing and fielding them in psychiatric interventions.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Relational agents can mimic human healthcare professionals' behavior and could be built based on affective computing.
“Third, relational agents (RAs), which can mimic human healthcare professionals' behavior, could be built based on affective computing.”
From Digital Therapeutic Alliance With Fully Automated Mental Health Smartphone Apps: A Narrative Review (2022) · cites this paper as [66]
Bickmore and Gruber argued that relational agents can build long-term relationships with clients when using certain design strategies, such as variability and self-disclosure.
“Bickmore and Gruber (66) further argued that RAs can build long-term relationships with clients when using certain design strategies, such as variability and self-disclosure.”
From Digital Therapeutic Alliance With Fully Automated Mental Health Smartphone Apps: A Narrative Review (2022) · cites this paper as Bickmore and Gruber (66)
Existing systematic and scoping reviews of conversational agent interventions in mental health have focused on a subset of conversational agents with a visual character (embodied) or are now outdated.
“Recent existing reviews have focused exclusively on a subset of embodied conversational agent interventions despite other modalities aiming to achieve the common goal of improved mental health.”
From Conversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review (2019) · cites this paper as [7]
Cites
Motivational interviewing: preparing people for change.
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2002) · Cited by 7,002 · see citing works
ELIZA—a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine
Weizenbaum, J. (1966) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/365153.365168 · Cited by 4,452 · see citing works
Development and validation of the working alliance inventory
Horvath, A. O., & Greenberg, L. S. (1989) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-0167.36.2.223 · Cited by 3,520 · see citing works
ELIZA — a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine
Weizenbaum, J. (1983) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/357980.357991 · Cited by 2,765 · see citing works
Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change, 2nd ed.
Miller, W., & Rollnick, S. (2003) · Journal For Healthcare Quality · doi:10.1097/01445442-200305000-00013 · Cited by 2,634 · see citing works
Embodied Conversational Agents
(2000) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/2697.001.0001 · Cited by 1,817 · see citing works
Lacro, J. P., Dunn, L. B., Dolder, C. R., Leckband, S. G., & Jeste, D. V. (2002) · The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.4088/jcp.v63n1007 · Cited by 1,383 · see citing works
Interventions to Enhance Medication Adherence in Chronic Medical Conditions: A Systematic Review
Kripalani, S., Yao, X., & Haynes, R. B. (2007) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.167.6.540 · Cited by 810 · see citing works
BEAT: the Behavior Expression Animation Toolkit
Cassell, J., Vilhjálmsson, H. H., & Bickmore, T. (2001) · Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques · doi:10.1145/383259.383315 · Cited by 739 · see citing works
Self-citationThis computer responds to user frustration:
Klein, J., Moon, Y., & Picard, R. W. (2002) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1016/s0953-5438(01)00053-4 · Cited by 560 · see citing works
Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence in Schizophrenia
Zygmunt, A., Olfson, M., Boyer, C. A., & Mechanic, D. (2002) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.10.1653 · Cited by 541 · see citing works
Brave, S., Nass, C., & Hutchinson, K. (2005) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2004.11.002 · Cited by 512 · see citing works
Establishing the computer-patient working alliance in automated health behavior change interventions
Bickmore, T., Gruber, A., & Picard, R. (2005) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2004.09.008 · Cited by 494 · see citing works
Self-citationCarroll, K. M., Ball, S. A., Martino, S., Nich, C., Babuscio, T. A., Nuro, K. F., Gordon, M. A., Portnoy, G. A., & Rounsaville, B. J. (2008) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07111835 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
PROUDFOOT, J., GOLDBERG, D., MANN, A., EVERITT, B., MARKS, I., & GRAY, J. A. (2003) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291702007225 · Cited by 389 · see citing works
McCrone, P., Knapp, M., Proudfoot, J., Ryden, C., Cavanagh, K., Shapiro, D. A., Ilson, S., Gray, J. A., Goldberg, D., Mann, A., et al. (2004) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.185.1.55 · Cited by 371 · cited 1× · see citing works
“33 Most of these interactive CCBT programs have not employed relational agents.”
BackgroundToward an ethics of persuasive technology
Berdichevsky, D., & Neuenschwander, E. (1999) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/301353.301410 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
'It's just like you talk to a friend': relational agents for older adults
Bickmore, T. W., Caruso, L., Clough-Gorr, K., & Heeren, T. (2005) · Interacting with Computers · doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2005.09.002 · Cited by 341 · cited 1× · see citing works
“A modified version of the FitTrack system was evaluated with 21 geriatrics patients in order to determine how approachable and effective the system was for individuals with low computer literacy.(25) The randomized trial compared older adults who interacted with the agent daily in their homes for two months with a sta…”
MethodSelf-citationEnsemble methods for spoken emotion recognition in call-centres
Morrison, D., Wang, R., & De Silva, L. C. (2007) · Speech Communication · doi:10.1016/j.specom.2006.11.004 · Cited by 320 · see citing works
Clinician-Assisted Internet-Based Treatment is Effective for Panic: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Wims, E., Titov, N., Andrews, G., & Choi, I. (2010) · Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.3109/00048671003614171 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Taking the time to care: empowering low health literacy hospital patients with virtual nurse agents
Bickmore, T. W., Pfeifer, L. M., & Jack, B. W. (2009) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1518701.1518891 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
Self-citationA Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology
Gorini, A., Gaggioli, A., Vigna, C., & Riva, G. (2008) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.1029 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Health dialog systems for patients and consumers
Bickmore, T., & Giorgino, T. (2006) · Journal of Biomedical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2005.12.004 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Self-citationInterventions to Improve Antipsychotic Medication Adherence: Review of Recent Literature
Dolder, C. R., Lacro, J. P., Leckband, S. G., & Jeste, D. V. (2003) · Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1097/01.jcp.0000085413.08426.41 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Clinician-Assisted Internet-Based Treatment is Effective for Depression: Randomized Controlled Trial
Perini, S., Titov, N., & Andrews, G. (2009) · Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/00048670902873722 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
Newman, M. G., Kenardy, J. A., Herman, S., & Taylor, C. B. (1997) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-006x.65.1.178 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Newman, M. G., Kenardy, J., Herman, S., & Taylor, C. B. (1997) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.65.1.178 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Ethical challenges of telemedicine and telehealth
KAPLAN, B., & LITEWKA, S. (2008) · Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics · doi:10.1017/s0963180108080535 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Kenardy, J. A., Dow, M. G. T., Johnston, D. W., Newman, M. G., Thomson, A., & Taylor, C. B. (2003) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.71.6.1068 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
The coming age of telecommunications in psychological research and practice.
Jerome, L. W., DeLeon, P. H., James, L. C., Folen, R. A., Earles, J. E., & Gedney, J. J. (2000) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.55.4.407 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Using computer agents to explain medical documents to patients with low health literacy
Bickmore, T., Vardoulakis, L., & Paasche‐Orlow, M. K. (2009) · Patient Education and Counseling · doi:10.1016/j.pec.2009.02.007 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Self-citationFully automatic upper facial action recognition
Kapoor, A., Qi, Y., & Picard, R. W. (2004) · IEEE International SOI Conference (SOI) · doi:10.1109/amfg.2003.1240843 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Status of computerized cognitive behavioural therapy for adults
Titov, N. (2007) · Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/00048670601109873 · Cited by 120 · cited 1× · see citing works
“These patients include those with physical obstacles like illness or remoteness, and those with mental obstacles like agoraphobia and the perception that seeking mental health care is stigmatizing.(30)”
BackgroundHelping Patients Follow Prescribed Treatment: Clinical Applications
Haynes, R. B., McDonald, H. P., & Garg, A. X. (2002) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.288.22.2880 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Engagement vs. Deceit: Virtual Humans with Human Autobiographies
Bickmore, T., Schulman, D. J., & Yin, L. (2009) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04380-2_4 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Self-citationKaplan, B., Farzanfar, R., & Friedman, R. H. (2003) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/s1386-5056(03)00072-8 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Practical approaches to comforting users with relational agents
Bickmore, T., & Schulman, D. J. (2007) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/1240866.1240996 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Self-citationLooking for the bright side of user interface agents
Shneiderman, B. (1995) · interactions · doi:10.1145/208143.208150 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
This Computer Responds to User Frustration Theory, Design, Results, and Implications
Klein, J., Moon, Y., & Picard, R. W. (2002) · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Designing for long-term human-robot interaction and application to weight loss
Breazeal, C., & Kidd, C. D. (2008) · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Embedded Empathy in Continuous, Interactive Health Assessment
Liu, K. K., & Picard, R. W. (2005) · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Context awareness in a handheld exercise agent
Bickmore, T., Mauer, D., & Brown, T. (2008) · Pervasive and Mobile Computing · doi:10.1016/j.pmcj.2008.05.004 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Self-citationExperimenting with the Gaze of a Conversational Agent
Heylen, D., van Es, I., Nijholt, A., & van Dijk, E. M. A. G. (2002) · University of Twente Research Information · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Modalities for building relationships with handheld computer agents
Bickmore, T., & Mauer, D. (2006) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/1125451.1125567 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationA virtual laboratory for studying long-term relationships between humans and virtual agents
Bickmore, T., & Schulman, D. J. (2009) · Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agents Systems · doi:10.65109/xdra5701 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Self-citationA computer program using cognitive therapy to treat depressed patients
Colby, K. M. (1995) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/ps.46.12.1223 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Patient-Computer Dialogue: A Review,
Slack, W. V. (2000) · Yearbook of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1055/s-0038-1637944 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Towards Plan-based Health Behavior Change Counseling Systems.
Bickmore, T., & Sidner, C. L. (2006) · National Conference on Artificial Intelligence · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationNegotiating task interruptions with virtual agents for health behavior change
Bickmore, T., Mauer, D., Crespo, F., & Brown, T. G. (2008) · Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agents Systems · doi:10.5555/1402821.1402841 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citationEthical Theories for Promoting Health Through Behavioral Change
O’Connell, J. K., & Price, J. H. (1983) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.1983.tb03170.x · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 52 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Chatbots and Conversational Agents in Mental Health: A Review of the Psychiatric Landscape
Vaidyam, A. N., Wisniewski, H., Halamka, J. D., Kashavan, M. S., & Torous, J. B. (2019) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/0706743719828977 · Cited by 1,048 · see citing works
A Taxonomy of Social Cues for Conversational Agents
Feine, J., Gnewuch, U., Morana, S., & Maedche, A. (2019) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.07.009 · Cited by 586 · see citing works
Embodied conversational agents in clinical psychology: a scoping review
Provoost, S., Lau, H. M., Ruwaard, J., & Riper, H. (2017) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.6553 · Cited by 433 · see citing works
Natural language processing in mental health applications using non-clinical texts
Calvo, R. A., Milne, D., Hussain, M. S., & Christensen, H. M. (2017) · Natural Language Engineering · doi:10.1017/s1351324916000383 · Cited by 383 · see citing works
“Maintaining engagement with any behavior change tool is challenging, even more so with agents that are expected to be used for a semester, a year or a whole life (Bickmore and Gruber 2010; Bickmore, Schulman and Yin 2010).”
BackgroundInfluentialConversational agents in the treatment of mental health problems: mixed-method systematic review
Gaffney, H., Mansell, W., & Tai, S. (2019) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/14166 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
“Evidence has begun to accumulate around the potential benefits of conversational agents in diverse fields [5] within health and medical care [6] and specifically in mental health [7-11].”
The experience of agency in human-computer interactions: a review
Limerick, H., Coyle, D., & Moore, J. W. (2014) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00643 · Cited by 241 · see citing works
“This includes systems designed to support people with psychotic difficulties (Bickmore and Gruber, 2010; Gleeson et al., 2014) and Parkinson’s disease (Bächlin et al., 2010; Espay et al., 2010; Mazilu et al., 2014).”
BackgroundExploring the Ethical Challenges of Conversational AI in Mental Health Care: Scoping Review
Rahsepar Meadi, M., Sillekens, T., Metselaar, S., van Balkom, A., Bernstein, J., & Batelaan, N. (2025) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/60432 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of User Experience of Computerised Therapy for Depression and Anxiety
Knowles, S. E., Toms, G., Sanders, C., Bee, P., Lovell, K., Rennick-Egglestone, S., Coyle, D., Kennedy, C. M., Littlewood, E., Kessler, D., et al. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084323 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
“In recent years researchers such as Bickmore and Gruber have provided initial evidence of the potential of such interfaces in mental health contexts[44].”
BackgroundI did that! Measuring users' experience of agency in their own actions
Coyle, D., Moore, J., Kristensson, P. O., Fletcher, P. C., & Blackwell, A. F. (2012) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2207676.2208350 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
“Giving the growth in HCI research on health and wellbeing, and in research that addresses mental health [7] and seeks to support people experiencing psychotic difficulties [3], we believe the methods described in this paper can also play a valuable role in understanding the unique requirements of these user groups.”
BackgroundJang, S., Kim, J., Kim, S., Hong, J., Kim, S., & Kim, E. J. (2021) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104440 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Designing a Chatbot for a Brief Motivational Interview on Stress Management: Qualitative Case Study
Park, S., Choi, J., Lee, S., Oh, C., Kim, C., La, S., Lee, J., & Suh, B. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/12231 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
“Our findings lead us to suggest that, if properly and carefully designed, a chatbot may conveniently serve the purpose of MI as an interactional practice in health [62,63].”
Almohanna, A. A. S., Win, K. T., & Meedya, S. (2020) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/17361 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
“The use of conversational computers could provide affordability and portability, as observed in other health-related interventions [74,75].”
Exploratory evaluations of a computer game supporting cognitive behavioural therapy for adolescents
Coyle, D., McGlade, N., Doherty, G. J., & O’Reilly, G. (2011) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1978942.1979378 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
“More recently this area has become a focus for HCI research, with investigations of the therapeutic potential of a range of interactive systems, including virtual reality [20], relational agents [4], mobile systems [25] and computer games[9].”
BackgroundDigital Therapeutic Alliance With Fully Automated Mental Health Smartphone Apps: A Narrative Review
Tong, F., Lederman, R., D'Alfonso, S., Berry, K., & Bucci, S. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.819623 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
“Bickmore and Gruber (66) further argued that RAs can build long-term relationships with clients when using certain design strategies, such as variability and self-disclosure.”
BackgroundProchaska, J. J., Vogel, E. A., Chieng, A., Baiocchi, M., Maglalang, D. D., Pajarito, S., Weingardt, K. R., Darcy, A., & Robinson, A. (2021) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108986 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
“…provides reassurance to concerns that digital therapeutics may increase health inequities (Azzopardi-Muscat and Sørensen, 2019) and reinforces the literature demonstrating that relational agents are approachable and usable for people with lower reading literacy (Bickmore and Gruber, 2010).”
BackgroundRethinking Health: ICT-Enabled Services to Empower People to Manage Their Health
Honka, A. M., Kaipainen, K., Hietala, H., & Saranummi, N. (2011) · IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering · doi:10.1109/rbme.2011.2174217 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
“Computer agents can be used for educational purposes and they may provide additional benefits over humans in real-life settings: they have more time to explain contents, patients feel less stupid if they need to ask the agent to repeat questions, agents treat every user in the same way without bias [54], and comprehen…”
BackgroundMartínez-Miranda, J., Martínez, A., Ramos, R., Aguilar, H., Jiménez, L., Arias, H., Rosales, G., & Valencia, E. (2019) · Journal of Medical Systems · doi:10.1007/s10916-019-1387-1 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Delivery of Compassionate Mental Health Care in a Digital Technology–Driven Age: Scoping Review
Kemp, J., Zhang, T., Inglis, F., Wiljer, D., Sockalingam, S., Crawford, A. S., Lo, B., Charow, R., Munnery, M., Takhar, S. S., et al. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/16263 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
“Of the 37 articles, 15 [19,24,39,41,42, 45,46,48,51,52,57,58, 64-66] and 22 [20,26,35-38, 40, 43, 44 , 47, 49, 50, 53-56”
BackgroundDesigning for mental wellbeing
Thieme, A., Wallace, J., Meyer, T. D., & Olivier, P. L. (2015) · British HCI Conference · doi:10.1145/2783446.2783586 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Tielman, M. L., Neerincx, M. A., van Meggelen, M., Franken, I., & Brinkman, W.-P. (2018) · Technology and Health Care · doi:10.3233/thc-170899 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“Therapeutic alliance has been shown to be relevant for virtual agents [34,35] as well as human therapists.”
BackgroundSlimMe, a Chatbot With Artificial Empathy for Personal Weight Management: System Design and Finding
Rahmanti, A. R., Yang, H., Bintoro, B. S., Nursetyo, A. A., Muhtar, M. S., Syed-Abdul, S., & Li, Y. (2022) · Frontiers in Nutrition · doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.870775 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“Although a rule-based chatbot can deliver emotional responses using keyword matching emotion lexicons and word embedding (21, 22), the responses generated seem unnatural and sound less human.”
BackgroundVirtual Reality and Robotics for Stroke Rehabilitation: Where Do We Go from Here?
Wade, E., & Winstein, C. J. (2011) · Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation · doi:10.1310/tsr1806-685 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Park, S., Thieme, A., Han, J., Lee, S., Rhee, W., & Suh, B. (2021) · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · doi:10.1145/3461778.3462143 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“Others include virtual humans [48] and relational agents [3, 4, 81, 88], with evidence for less fear of self-disclosure and more intense emotional expression in interacting with agents, and that such interaction is enjoyable and capable of facilitating empathy and trust with these agents, leading to positive health be…”
BackgroundValidity of Chatbot Use for Mental Health Assessment: Experimental Study
Schick, A., Feine, J., Morana, S., Maedche, A., & Reininghaus, U. (2022) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/28082 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“In addition, chatbots have been investigated in several studies and applied to assess or monitor mental health [16], deliver information for improving mental health literacy [9,14,15,17], and assist and compound therapy sessions as guided or blended care [18-22].”
BackgroundKornfield, R., Meyerhoff, J., Studd, H., Bhattacharjee, A., Williams, J. J., Reddy, M. C., & Mohr, D. C. (2022) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3491102.3502046 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
“Afterall, the premise of CASA is that we respond to social cues unconsciously or “mind-lessly,” regardless of whether they are coming from a computer or a person [79], and people may simply tend to underestimate their tendency to accept computers as social actors [15].”
BackgroundMartínez-Miranda, J. (2017) · Journal of Medical Systems · doi:10.1007/s10916-017-0784-6 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
He, L., Balaji, D., Wiers, R. W. H. J., Antheunis, M. L., & Krahmer, E. (2022) · Nicotine & Tobacco Research · doi:10.1093/ntr/ntac281 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Mobile health interventions: exploring the use of common relationship factors
Grekin, E. R., Beatty, J. R., & Ondersma, S. J. (2019) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/11245 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“Relational agents are “computational artifacts, such as animated, screen-based characters or social robots, that are designed to establish a sense of rapport, trust, and even therapeutic alliance with patients,” by whatever means are appropriate [21].”
BackgroundFrom robots to chatbots: unveiling the dynamics of human-AI interaction
Łukasik, A., & Gut, A. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569277 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Conversational Agent Research Toolkit
Araujo, T. (2020) · Computational Communication Research · doi:10.5117/ccr2020.1.002.arau · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Calvo, R. A., Dinakar, K., Picard, R. W., & Maes, P. (2016) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/2851581.2856463 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“The discoveries that led to the development of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are the antecedent to computer based approaches like those used in Embodied Conversational Agents [3, 2] and in other computer based CBT [1].”
Method"This Chatbot Would Never...": Perceived Moral Agency of Mental Health Chatbots
Wester, J., Pohl, H., Hosio, S. J., & van Berkel, N. (2024) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3637410 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“Directly following the interaction with the chatbot, participants provided ratings on three different scales: the Multi-Dimensional Measure of Trust (MDMT) [83], Godspeed III, and Godspeed V [7], as based on our feasibility study and recent research [2, 8, 82, 93].”
Method"It's small talk, jim, but not as we know it."
Large, D. R., Clark, L., Burnett, G., Harrington, K., Luton, J., Thomas, P., & Bennett, P. (2019) · ACM Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (CUI) · doi:10.1145/3342775.3342789 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
“Specifically, we drew guidance from previous papers on in-car assistants, relational agents and linguistics to identify trust markers of small talk [3, 16, 22], pronouns [4], and common ground (manifested as trust through expertise during the interaction) [11, 12, 22].”
BackgroundExploring Computational Models for Intelligent Support of Persons with Depression
Aziz, A. A. (2015) · Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) · doi:10.13140/rg.2.1.4712.0085 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Usability and acceptability assessment of an empathic virtual agent to prevent major depression
Bresó, A., Martínez‐Miranda, J., Botella, C., Baños, R. M., & García‐Gómez, J. M. (2016) · Expert Systems · doi:10.1111/exsy.12151 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“As presented in different studies (Lisetti, 2008; Bickmore & Gruber, 2010) the conveying of empathic <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Ambiguous World of Emotion RepresentationPreprint
Sethu, V., Provost, E., Epps, J., Busso, C., Cummins, N., & Narayanan, S. S. (2019) · arXiv.org · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1909.00360 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“Affective technologies can also provide the emotional reasoning that enables embedded agents – virtual or robotic – to provide support services or in cybertherapy settings [5,48,59].”
BackgroundLet’s talk! speaking virtual counselor offers you a brief intervention
Yasavur, U., Lisetti, C., & Rishe, N. (2014) · Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces · doi:10.1007/s12193-014-0169-9 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“ECA-based systems usually involve spoken dialog (versus menu options to choose from), but their dialog management usually still relies on hand-crafted methods [2,30].”
Gaffney, H., Mansell, W., & Tai, S. (2020) · Digital Health · doi:10.1177/2055207620911580 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Chatbots and mental health: a scoping review of reviews
Mayor, E. (2025) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-025-08094-2 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Psychosocial Implications of Avatar Use in Supporting Therapy for Depression
Claudia, P., Burton, C. D., McKinstry, B., Szentatotai, A., Daniel, D., Serrano‐Blanco, A., Ferrini, L., Albertini, S., Carlos, C. J., Estevez, S., et al. (2012) · Studies in health technology and informatics · doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-121-2-329 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
“[7] While appropriate briefing of users can help to avoid possible misapprehensions, it must be recognised that social projection is an inevitable consequence of our human need to understand others, presenting a classic dilemma in social computing - creating things that are real enough to be useful but not too real as…”
BackgroundInteraction design and emotional wellbeing
Coyle, D., Linehan, C., Tang, K. P., & Lindley, S. E. (2012) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/2212776.2212718 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Virtual Assistant to Improve Self-care of Older People with Type 2 Diabetes: First Prototype
Buinhas, S., Cláudio, A. P., Carmo, M. B., Balsa, J., Cavaco, A. M. D. N., Mendes, A., Félix, I. B., Pimenta, N. M., & Guerreiro, M. P. (2019) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-16028-9_21 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
The Effectiveness of Social Influence Tactics when Used by a Virtual Agent
Lucas, G., Lehr, J., Krämer, N. C., & Gratch, J. S. (2019) · ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) · doi:10.1145/3308532.3329464 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Using Virtual Doppelgängers to Increase Personal Relevance of Health Risk Communication
Ahn, S. J., Fox, J., & Hahm, J. M. (2014) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09767-1_1 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Conversational Agents for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Callejas, Z., & Griol, D. (2021) · Logic, argumentation & reasoning · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-61438-6_11 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Chiauzzi, E. J., Williams, A. A. A., Mariano, T. Y., Pajarito, S., Robinson, A. H., Kirvin-Quamme, A., & Forman‐Hoffman, V. L. (2024) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-024-05532-6 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“When conversational agents are built to form an alliance with users over time, they may be referred to as relational agents [20, 21].”
He, L., Başar, E., Krahmer, E., Wiers, R. W. H. J., & Antheunis, M. L. (2024) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/53134 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“Human-computer interaction research in health care has emphasized the chatbots’ relational strategies to improve their effectiveness and acceptability [39,40], which are keenly matched to the principles of MI [25].”
Thompson, D. I., Callender, C. S., Gonynor, C., Cullen, K. W., REDONDO, M. J., Butler, A. M., & Anderson, B. J. (2019) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/15318 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
“Ragts have been found to be feasible and acceptable with a variety of age groups and health behaviors [23,25-30].”
BackgroundProvoost, S., Kleiboer, A. M., Ornelas, J., Bosse, T., Ruwaard, J., Rocha, A., Cuijpers, P. J., & Riper, H. M. (2020) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-020-04777-2 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“The idea of using ECAs in psychological treatment procedures goes back roughly a decade [10], and a recent scoping review has shown that many different such applications have since been developed for a variety of common mental health disorders [11].”
Potential Roles for New Communication Technologies in Treatment of Addiction
Johnson, K., Isham, A., Shah, D. V., & Gustafson, D. H. (2011) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-011-0218-y · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“ICTs can boost motivation via social support [12–14].”
BackgroundLook on the Bright Side: A Model of Cognitive Change in Virtual Agents
Martínez-Miranda, J., Bresó, A., & García-Gómez, J. M. (2014) · Lecture Notes in Computer Science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09767-1_37 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“A key characteristic that believable virtual agents should have for their use in clinical psychiatry is the generation of adequate emotional responses that convey empathy during the interaction with the user [2].”
BackgroundAbdulrahman, A., & Richards, D. (2019) · ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) · doi:10.1145/3308532.3329413 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“As a technology-based intervention, embodied conversational agents (ECAs) have become more popular in the health domain due to its ability to mimic the human therapist-patient therapy and build an agent-patient therapeutic alliance (TA) [3, 4].”
BackgroundKabir, M. F., Schulman, D. J., & Abdullah, A. S. M. (2019) · Journal of Medical Systems · doi:10.1007/s10916-019-1360-z · Cited by 17 · see citing works
What Do Learners and Pedagogical Agents Discuss When Given Opportunities for Open-Ended Dialogue?
Veletsianos, G., & Russell, G. S. (2013) · Journal of Educational Computing Research · doi:10.2190/ec.48.3.e · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“Such strategies have included agents’ use of first and second person points of view in their speech (Anderson et al., 2008, Bickmore & Gruber, 2010), the vernacular via phrases like “yippee” or “you know” (Bickmore & Cassell, 2005; Moreno et al., 2001), and physical cues such as eye gaze, body…”
BackgroundHussain, M. S., Li, J., Ellis, L. A., Ospina‐Pinillos, L., Davenport, T. A., Calvo, R. A., & Hickie, I. B. (2015) · Journal of Technology in Human Services · doi:10.1080/15228835.2015.1105768 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“Computerized interventions using different modalities such as online chat (Dowling & Rickwood, 2013), relational agents (Bickmore & Gruber, 2010), and interactive graphical exercises (Coyle, Doherty, Matthews, & Sharry, 2007; Doherty et al., 2012) have been investigated.”
MethodAbdulrahman, A., Richards, D., & BILGIN, A. A. B. (2022) · Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems · doi:10.1007/s10458-022-09553-x · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“Some of these IVAs are designed to build a user-agent relationship through the use of verbal or nonverbal empathy [39, 50, 51].”
BackgroundUse of Relational Agents to Improve Family Communication in Type 1 Diabetes: Methods
Thompson, D. I., Cullen, K. W., REDONDO, M. J., & Anderson, B. J. (2016) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/resprot.5817 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“…relational agents can establish a therapeutic relationship with patients and that they are accepted by a wide variety of patient populations [18,19], relational agents have the potential to enhance reach and public health impact of efficacious interventions by overcoming limitations associated…”
McKay, J. R., Gustafson, D. H., Ivey, M. A., Mctavish, F. M., Pe‐Romashko, K., Curtis, B. L., OSLIN, D., Polsky, D. E., Quanbeck, A., & Lynch, K. G. (2018) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-018-2466-1 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Coyle, D., Thieme, A., Linehan, C., Balaam, M., Wallace, J., & Lindley, S. E. (2014) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.05.008 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“, 2012), and relational agents (Bickmore and Gruber, 2010) or robotic companions (Wada and Shibata, 2007) designed to provide emotional support.”
BackgroundAbdulrahman, A., & Richards, D. (2021) · Multimodal Technologies and Interaction · doi:10.3390/mti5090056 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“The same relational agent was then used in several clinical studies by the group [98].”
BackgroundMethodKuhail, M. A., Al-Shamaileh, O., Farooq, S., Shahin, H., Abdelzaher, F., & Thomas, J. (2025) · Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies · doi:10.1155/hbe2/9942295 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Gleason, M. M., Flom, M., Rapoport, S., Williams, A. A. A., Birch, A., Wells, N. K., Forman‐Hoffman, V. L., & Robinson, A. H. (2025) · JAACAP Open · doi:10.1016/j.jaacop.2025.02.002 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“28 To our knowledge, no existing adolescent RCTs have examined stand-alone DMHI (ie, nonadjunctive to psychotherapy) guided by a relational agent to therapist-delivered care.”
Pervasive Therapy: Designing Conversation-Based Interfaces for Ecological Momentary Intervention
Bowman, R., Cooney, O., Thieme, A., Cowan, B. R., & Doherty, G. J. (2022) · IEEE Pervasive Computing · doi:10.1109/mprv.2022.3209068 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“9 Methods of fostering therapeutic alliance include social and relational talk, for example, expressing empathy, humour, continuity behaviors, and references to mutual knowledge between the patient and the system.”
BackgroundInfluentialLangener, S., Kolkmeier, J., VanDerNagel, J., Klaassen, R., van Manen, J. G., & Heylen, D. (2023) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/42523 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“These ECAs, however, used mainly informational social influences (the need to be right) [26-31], even though normative influences (the need to be liked) with relational behavior (eg, building rapport [32-38]) appear decisive for peer pressure.”
BackgroundAshrafi, N., Neuhaus, V., Vona, F., Peperkorn, N., Shiban, Y., & Voigt‐Antons, J. (2024) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-60428-7_1 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Prochaska, J. J., Vogel, E. A., Chieng, A., Baiocchi, M., Pajarito, S., Pirner, M., Darcy, A. M., & Robinson, A. H. (2023) · Contemporary Clinical Trials · doi:10.1016/j.cct.2023.107125 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Karnik, N. S., Kuhns, L. M., Hotton, A., Vecchio, N. D., McNulty, M., Schneider, J. A., Donenberg, G. R., Baker, K. K., Diskin, R., Muldoon, A. L., et al. (2023) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/43653 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“Another promising line of inquiry that has shown impact is the use of relational agents (ie, using avatars, conversational bots, or other interfaces) that simulate face-to-face dynamics and allow for a more holistic experience during screening and a brief intervention [30-32].”
Participatory medicine: model based tools for engaging and empowering the individual
Sagar, M. A., & Broadbent, E. (2016) · Interface Focus · doi:10.1098/rsfs.2015.0092 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Grekin, E. R., Beatty, J. R., McGoron, L., Kugler, K. C., McClure, J. B., Pop, D. E., & Ondersma, S. J. (2019) · Psychology of Addictive Behaviors · doi:10.1037/adb0000502 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Relational factors may be unrelated to outcomes in technology-delivered interventions, despite research suggesting that people respond to lifelike software in ways that are strikingly similar to the ways in which they respond to other human beings (Bickmore & Gruber, 2010; Nass & Moon, 2000).”
BackgroundA sociable robotic aide for medication adherence
Gonzales, M. J., & Riek, L. D. (2012) · International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA) · doi:10.1145/2413097.2413146 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“This could be an influential factor in how well users continue to use a device based on the trust and rapport a patient may develop while using the robot [4].”
BackgroundDai, Z., & MacDorman, K. F. (2021) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2021.739038 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“This study builds on past research on how a relational agent’s characteristics influence credibility and trust in health counseling (Bickmore et al., 2005; Bickmore et al., 2010a; Bickmore and Gruber, 2010; Sillice et al., 2018) and pedagogy (Baylor and Kim, 2005).”
BackgroundThe Psychodynamics of Transference—A Virtual Reality Model
Gorrindo, T., & Groves, J. E. (2012) · American Journal of Psychotherapy · doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2012.66.2.151 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Araujo, T. (2019) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/9ukyf · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Six, S., Schlesener, E. A., Hill, V., Babu, S. V., & Byrne, K. A. (2025) · JMIR Mental Health · doi:10.2196/67381 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Past work has shown that ECA-style virtual agents that mimic human-human interactions may enhance perceived empathy and working alliance with the user [45,69].”
Towards enhancing human experience by affective robots: Experiment and discussion
Matsumoto, T., Seko, S., Aoki, R., Miyata, A., Watanabe, T., & Yamada, T. (2015) · IEEE RO-MAN · doi:10.1109/roman.2015.7333591 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“A counselor CG agent that engages a patient by attempting to share the patient’s emotion can build rapport with the patient and thus maximize the value of the service provided [26].”
BackgroundUser Experiences and Perceptions of Internet Interventions for Depression
Drozd, F., Andersen, C. E., Haga, S. M., Slinning, K., & Bjørkli, C. A. (2017) · Advances in psychology, mental health, and behavioral studies (APMHBS) book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-3241-5.ch002 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Zalake, M. S. (2020) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/3334480.3375026 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“…as virtual agents) reciprocate social behaviors with people using social conversation protocols, such as natural language dialogue, eye gaze, head movements, etc. Building upon the CASA paradigm, prior work has used virtual agents to assist people in performing health-related activities [2, 11].”
BackgroundMethodJang, Y., Im, S. H., Kang, Y., & Baek, J. S. (2022) · ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems · doi:10.1145/3488056 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“RAs are effective in improving the health and welfare of physically and emotionally vulnerable people, such as patients with chronic diseases or severed relationships, by establishing friendly relationships without stigmas, time restrictions, or location constraints [1, 3, 4, 7–9].”
BackgroundSelf-disclosure and relational agents for mental health: a scoping review protocol
Sha, S., Loveys, K., Francis, I., Ji, E., Lyu, L., Krpan, D., Galizzi, M. M., & Taylor, M. (2025) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-100613 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“12 Relational agents are AI that specifically seek to build productive long-term relationships with patients, 13 and they can be scalable interventions.”
MODELLING THERAPEUTIC EMPATHY IN A VIRTUAL AGENT TO SUPPORT THE REMOTE TREATMENT OF MAJOR DEPRESSION
Martı́nez-Miranda, J., Bresó, A., & Garcia-Gomez, J. M. (2012) · International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART) · doi:10.5220/0003833302640269 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for Medical Education and TrainingPreprint
Lema, K. G. (2023) · doi:10.31730/osf.io/xytzm · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Brady, J. E., Livingston, N. A., Sawdy, M., Yeksigian, K., Zhou, S., Bickmore, T., Simon, S. R., & Rubin, A. (2023) · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s41347-023-00332-3 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Relational Agents provide the opportunity to form therapeutic bonds with patients (Bickmore & Gruber, 2010) by fostering a setting of comfort and confidentiality and thereby providing patients with an alternative method to disclose and discuss behaviors that may be uncomfortable when meeting with…”
BackgroundSelf-citationMarcoux, A., Tessier, M.-H., Grondin, F., Reduron, L. R., & Jackson, P. L. (2021) · Santé mentale au Québec · doi:10.7202/1081509ar · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Modelling Personality-Based Individual Differences in the Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies
Martı́nez-Miranda, J., & Alvarado, M. (2017) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57351-9_41 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“The displaying of specific emotions with a suitable level of intensity is an important aspect especially for applications where the objective of the virtual agent is to support the user with therapeutic-based activities [1].”
BackgroundAn Online Therapeutic Intervention for Veterans Patients Suffering with Chronic Pain
Reilly, E. D., Volonte, M., & Bickmore, T. (2023) · IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) · doi:10.1109/vrw58643.2023.00039 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Especially, in scenarios that demand highly social and conversational interaction such as mental therapy [6].”
BackgroundSelf-citationEmbodied Virtual Agents as a Means to Foster E-Inclusion of Older People
Noy, D., Ribeiro, P., & Iurgel, I. (2013) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5082-4_7 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Embodied Virtual Agents as a Means to Foster E-Inclusion of Older People
Noy, D., Ribeiro, P., & Iurgel, I. (2015) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-6708-2_8 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Pinelli, M., Sarda, E., & Bry, C. (2023) · International Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.5334/irsp.669 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Reddy, N. S., Nayyar, V., & Khanna, P. (2024) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-83608-708-320241015 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Evolving Applications of Conversational Agents in Healthcare: A Literature Review
Carchiolo, V., & Malgeri, M. (2024) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-78090-5_12 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Prochaska, J. J., Wang, M., Chieng, A., Moore, J. B., Vogel, E. A., Baiocchi, M., Pajarito, S., Pirner, M., Bullard, L., Darcy, A. M., et al. (2026) · Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment · doi:10.1016/j.josat.2026.209993 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Subjektives Erleben einer affektorientierten Intervention in kritischen Dialogsituationen der HCI
Wahl, M., Lange, J., Rösner, D., & Frommer, J. (2013) · DuEPublico (University of Duisburg-Essen) · doi:10.17185/duepublico/31348 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Beispielsweise berücksichtigen „Relational Agents“, die zunehmend auch in der Unterstützung der klinischen Patientenversorgung eingesetzt werden (Bickmore & Gruber, 2010), ebenfalls die Wichtigkeit eines solchen Bündnisses und sind mit den entsprechenden Fähigkeiten ausgestattet (z.B. Agenten die…”
BackgroundShared Planning for building Human-agent Therapeutic Alliance
Abdulrahman, A., Richards, D., & Mascarenhas, S. F. (2018) · ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) · doi:10.1145/3267851.3267873 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“3267873 There is evidence that empathic Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) can promote treatment adherence by developing TA with the patients [1; 4].”
BackgroundRelaxing in virtual reality: one synthetic agent relaxes all
Gamito, P. S., Souto, T., Conde, A. R., Salvador, Á., Ferreira, M. J., de Sousa, J. A., Ferreira, M. A. M., Dias, F., Mansuklal, S. A., Pereira, R., et al. (2022) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-022-00650-6 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Empathy and agency are dimensions that are frequently brought to discussion as the foundations of the sense of affinity, reliability, and therapeutic alliance (Bickmore and Gruber 2010).”
BackgroundChatbots and mental health: A scoping review of reviewsPreprint
Mayor, E. (2024) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/j6825 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Statistical Dialog Management for Health Interventions
Yasavur, U. (2014) · doi:10.25148/etd.fi14071186
Feledichuk, D. (2019) · ERA: Education and Research Archive (University of Alberta) · doi:10.7939/r3-9avb-gq80
User Experiences and Perceptions of Internet Interventions for Depression
Drozd, F., Andersen, C. E., Haga, S. M., Slinning, K., & Bjørkli, C. A. (2019) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-2351-3.ch016
Yoshida, N., & Yonezawa, T. (2022) · Journal of Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics · doi:10.3156/jsoft.34.3_579
A hybrid structured-neural dialog system for automated counseling
Ólafsson, S. (2021) · doi:10.17760/d20413990
- Authors
- Bickmore, T., & Gruber, A.
- Affiliations
- Northeastern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bickmore, Timothy
- ORCID
- Bickmore, Timothy
- Venue
- Harvard Review of Psychiatry
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 119-130
- ISSN
- 1067-3229 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2149556084
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 5.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard Review of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- relational agents, social robots, therapeutic relationship, health counseling, behaviour change interventions, clinical psychiatry, rapport building, trust, ethical considerations
- MeSH terms
- Counseling, Humans, Psychiatry, Internet
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
