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Auteurs principaux: Ye, Jing, Zhao, Xinpei, Xiang, Lu, Zhang, Yaping, Zong, Chengqing
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15434
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author Ye, Jing
Zhao, Xinpei
Xiang, Lu
Zhang, Yaping
Zong, Chengqing
author_facet Ye, Jing
Zhao, Xinpei
Xiang, Lu
Zhang, Yaping
Zong, Chengqing
contents While current emotional support dialogue systems typically rely on expert-defined scalar rewards for alignment, these signals suffer from severe information sparsity. They cannot explain why a response failed or how to adapt to dynamic user states, often diverging from the actual goal of facilitating positive emotional shifts. In practice, the most direct and reliable learning signal emerges from the user's continuous reactions during ongoing interaction. We therefore propose Reaction Aware Policy Optimization (RAPO), a framework that optimizes over interaction consequences rather than rubric scores. RAPO treats dialogue as a reaction-driven process and utilizes simulated user responses to generate dense natural-language feedback through three core components: Hindsight Dialogue Selection, which isolates pivotal turns that meaningfully alter user emotional trajectories; Generative Hindsight Feedback, which transforms user reactions into contrastive ranking signals and natural-language critiques; and Scalar-Verbal Hybrid Policy Optimization, which couples scalar reward optimization for global alignment with verbal feedback distillation for fine-grained semantic refinement. Extensive experiments on ESC and Sotopia demonstrate that RAPO significantly outperforms strong reinforcement learning baselines in driving positive interaction outcomes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15434
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publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Listening to the Echo: User-Reaction Aware Policy Optimization via Scalar-Verbal Hybrid Reinforcement Learning
Ye, Jing
Zhao, Xinpei
Xiang, Lu
Zhang, Yaping
Zong, Chengqing
Artificial Intelligence
While current emotional support dialogue systems typically rely on expert-defined scalar rewards for alignment, these signals suffer from severe information sparsity. They cannot explain why a response failed or how to adapt to dynamic user states, often diverging from the actual goal of facilitating positive emotional shifts. In practice, the most direct and reliable learning signal emerges from the user's continuous reactions during ongoing interaction. We therefore propose Reaction Aware Policy Optimization (RAPO), a framework that optimizes over interaction consequences rather than rubric scores. RAPO treats dialogue as a reaction-driven process and utilizes simulated user responses to generate dense natural-language feedback through three core components: Hindsight Dialogue Selection, which isolates pivotal turns that meaningfully alter user emotional trajectories; Generative Hindsight Feedback, which transforms user reactions into contrastive ranking signals and natural-language critiques; and Scalar-Verbal Hybrid Policy Optimization, which couples scalar reward optimization for global alignment with verbal feedback distillation for fine-grained semantic refinement. Extensive experiments on ESC and Sotopia demonstrate that RAPO significantly outperforms strong reinforcement learning baselines in driving positive interaction outcomes.
title Listening to the Echo: User-Reaction Aware Policy Optimization via Scalar-Verbal Hybrid Reinforcement Learning
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15434