# Discourse Behavior of Older Adults Interacting With a Dialogue Agent Competent in Multiple Topics

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.06279 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.06279/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jul 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [An Integrative Survey on Mental Health Conversational Agents to Bridge Computer Science and Medical Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.17017/) (2023)
- [SAPIEN: Affective Virtual Agents Powered by Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03022/) (2023)
- [Human-Centered AI Communication in Co-Creativity: An Initial Framework and Insights](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18385/) (2025)
- [Supporting Experts with a Multimodal Machine-Learning-Based Tool for Human Behavior Analysis of Conversational Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11145/) (2024)
- [Improving User Experience with FAICO: Towards a Framework for AI Communication in Human-AI Co-Creativity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02526/) (2025)
- [AI Standardized Patient Improves Human Conversations in Advanced Cancer Care](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02694/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present some results concerning the dialogue behavior and inferred sentiment of a group of older adults interacting with a computer-based avatar. Our avatar is unique in its ability to hold natural dialogues on a wide range of everyday topics---27 topics in three groups, developed with the help of gerontologists. The three groups vary in ``degrees of intimacy", and as such in degrees of difficulty for the user. Each participant interacted with the avatar for 7-9 sessions over a period of 3-4 weeks; analysis of the dialogues reveals correlations such as greater verbosity for more difficult topics, increasing verbosity with successive sessions, especially for more difficult topics, stronger sentiment on topics concerned with life goals rather than routine activities, and stronger self-disclosure for more intimate topics. In addition to their intrinsic interest, these results also reflect positively on the sophistication of our dialogue system.