ESCRAG-R1: Retrieval-Augmented Reinforcement Learning for Emotional Support Conversation
Emotional Support Conversation (ESC) systems aim to provide holistic support by balancing professional therapeutic competence with natural empathy. However, existing methods struggle to simultaneously achieve structured, stage-aware reasoning and seamless empathy-expertise alignment, often resulting in an artificial splicing of clinical strategies and generic reassurance. To overcome these limitations, we propose ESCRAG-R1, a unified framework that integrates retrieval-based psychological guidance into Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO). By incorporating retrieval into the reinforcement learning loop, ESCRAG-R1 transforms external knowledge into a robust learning signal that stimul...
| Authors | Weichu Liu, Yuxuan Hu, Yirong Sun et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 22 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 22 August 2026 |
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