According to Steenstra et al, half of the 28 counselor programs they investigated through meta-review use role plays for motivational interviewing and 18% of them use SPs. Yet, the authors note: “[a]lthough essential for learning, feedback from role-plays and standardized patients is infrequent, inconvenient, and potentially costly, since they involve another person who is often an actor with specialized training, and laborious coding and scoring of trainee-client interactions following standardized protocols.” “To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of training counselors,” they argue, “human standardized patients could be replaced with virtual, simulated patients.”

 

The article documents the authors’ foray into creation of a new LLM that “trainees can inter­act with in an unconstrained, unprompted manner, more closely approximating the experience of a human-human role-play.” They argue that such technology can “reduce costs associated with hiring actors, but also enhance the availability and adaptability of training scenarios, allowing per­sonalized and context-rich interactions for clinicians.” The model they developed provides a responsive interlocutor with detailed feedback and performance ratings. While the article’s focus is on the LLM instead of SPs, it may be of interest to ASPE members keeping on top of developments in competing/supplementary AI modalities.

 

Read the full article in the [CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems] [https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3706598.3714014].

 

Communications and Connections Committee Mission: “To bring high quality reporting of current research, trends, techniques and information regarding SP methodology and other relevant industry articles to the attention of the membership through the web-based ASPE eNews blog.”