Schema-Guided Response Generation using Multi-Frame Dialogue State for Motivational Interviewing Systems

Abstract: The primary goal of Motivational Interviewing (MI) is to help clients build their own motivation for behavioral change. To support this in dialogue systems, it is essential to guide LLMs to generate counselor responses aligned with MI principles. By employing a schema-guided approach, this study proposes a method for updating multi-frame dialogue states and a strategy decision mechanism that dynamically determines the response focus in a manner grounded in MI principles. The proposed method was implemented in a dialogue system and evaluated through a user study. Results showed that the proposed system successfully generated MI-favorable responses and effectively encouraged the user's (client's) deliberation by asking eliciting questions.