Elisabetta Gola

Argumentation as a Bridge Between Metaphor and Reasoning

The aim of this chapter is to explore the relationship between metaphor and reasoning, by claiming that argumentation might act as a bridge between metaphor and reasoning. Firstly, the chapter introduces metaphor as a framing strategy through which some relevant properties of a (generally more concrete and known) source domain are selected to understand a (generally less concrete and known) target domain. The mapping of properties from the source to the target domain implicitly forces the interpreter to consider the target from a specific perspective. Secondly, the chapter presents metaphor as an implicit argument where some inferences can be drawn from the comparison between the source and the target domain. In particular, this chapter aims to understand whether and to what extent such an argument might be linked to analogical reasoning. The chapter argues that, in case of faulty analogy, this kind of argument might have the form of a quaternio terminorum, where metaphor is the middle term. Finally, the chapter presents the results of an experimental study, aiming to test the effect of the linguistic nature of the middle term on the detection of such faulty analogy. The chapter concludes that a wider context is needed to make sense of an analogical argument with novel metaphors, whilst in a narrow context, a lexicalised metaphor might be extended and the overall argument might be interpreted as metaphoric.

Who Learns Better - Achieving Long-term Knowledge Retention by Programming-based Learning.

In this paper we describe the experience of a year-long experiment devoted to understanding if retention of knowledge acquired by students while learning a specific subject can be improved by letting them build by themselves interactive models of that knowledge by means of a visual programming language based on the block metaphor. What we propose is along the lines of active learning and learning-by-teaching. Students build an interactive model that tests the knowledge of a specific topic and it is assumed that the topic will be better memorized and understood than using standard learning strategies. To test this hypothesis, we run an experiment on the students of two 5th grade classes, split in three groups. One group learned the topic by both following standard explanations and by creating by themselves multimedia interactive projects by means of a block language. A second group learned by following standard explanations and by playing with multimedia interactive projects created by their peers in the first group. A third group learned by only following standard explanations. The experiment outcome shows that there is a significant improvement in the retention rate after several months for those students that build their digital tools by themselves with respect to both students that use digital tools built by others and students that do not use digital tools at all. It is our opinion that this strategy can be applied to topics of all disciplines, providing the bases of what we can define as programming-based learning, a general learning methodology based on computer

Review of Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres, edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville (2017). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 301 pp.

The papers collected in the reviewed volume question the hegemony of the verbal in argumentation theory, focusing on different modes of arguing, ranging from the audio and visual to the gestural, across a variety of media genres. The volume aims at presenting the ways in which the different modes structure argumentation and coherently interact in multimodal text.

Emotions as Intrinsic Cognitive Load: An Eye Movement Analysis of High and Low Intelligent Individuals

Cognitive load is the measure of cognitive effort imposed by a task demand. Emotion is considered to be an extraneous variable to influence the overall cognitive load. In this study we try to embed the positive and negative emotions in the cognitive task itself to make it a part of intrinsic load. We assumed that the embedded emotional valence will interfere with the parallel cognitive processing and influence the cognitive load of individuals with high and low intelligence. Our eye movement and blink rate results suggest that negative emotion significantly increases the cognitive load of individuals with lesser intelligence but not of individuals with higher intelligence.

Argomenti metaforici: come integrare persuasione e argomentazione / Metaphor in Arguments: How to Integrate Persuasion and Argumetation

The persuasive power of metaphor is often seen in opposition to rational procedures in argumentation, which should guarantee deliberative democracy in the public sphere. Against this view, referable to the classic theory of argumentation, we adopt the argumentative theory of reasoning (MERCIER, SPERBER 2011) and present the results of an experimental study on the role of metaphors in a specific argumentative fallacy, the quaternio terminorum (ERVAS, LEDDA 2014; ERVAS, GOLA, LEDDA, SERGIOLI 2015). In light of the experimental evidence, we argue that (1) it is no longer possible to evaluate the role of metaphors in argumentation without distinguishing different kinds of metaphors (in the experimental study the distinction between dead and live metaphors is analysed); (2) it is possible to identify different argumentative styles (i.e. argumentative persuasion and reflective argumentation). Connecting different kinds of metaphors with different argumentative styles, we propose an interpretative framework able to integrate persuasion and argumentation.

Come affinare le armi della seduzione: emozioni e vigilanza epistemica / How to Sharpen the Seduction Weapons: Emotions and Epistemic Vigilance

Seduction is often seen as a deceptive strategic game, which hampers deliberation. However, in case of seduction, emotions play a central role in modulating communicated contents. In this sense, seduction is not a form of deception, but an impulse to know. How to provide a cognitive account of seduction able to distinguish it from deception? Within philosophical Western tradition, emotions have a negative role in deliberation as they are automatic, unconscious and obliged. In contrast with this tradition, Mascaro and Sperber have recently argued that the capacity for epistemic vigilance enables people to filter misinformation, based not only on epistemic but also on affective knowledge. Some of the cognitive mechanisms presupposed by epistemic vigilance are targeted at the source of information, others at its content. Within the framework of the argumentative theory of reasoning, we propose a cognitive account of seduction able to distinguish it from deception, by focusing on the affective component of epistemic vigilance. We argue that in seduction emotions, far from being totally automatic, unconscious and obliged, contribute to the appreciation of both the source and content of information. Diversely from deception, seduction presupposes a positive role of emotions which induces a creative style of argumentation.

Arguing by metaphors

Recent work in rhetorical citizenship by Christian Kock and Lisa Villadsen combines the theories of political argumentation and deliberation with rhetorical agency. A theory of rhetorical citizenship where deliberation in the context of political argumentation plays a crucial role makes use of rhetorical theory in both an epistemic and evaluative capacity. However, as much as deliberation is about weighing two sides of an issue, or two issues side by side, the metaphor of weight is not listed as a rhetorical concept in rhetorical canon. This essay explores a common sense scientific understanding of weight to explicate the senses in which we use the term “weight” metaphorically.

Are Educators Ready for Coding

During the last year, several countries, such as England, Finland and Italy, have decided to focus their new school curricula on computing, coding and IT. However, present teachers do not feel confident about moving to this new paradigm. Furthermore, coding would be relegated to be taught for just a few hours. Luckily, recent new tools have been designed to introduce young students to coding that can be also easily used by teachers to create engaging multimedia supports for their everyday lessons. In this paper, we describe several experiments that show how a new path from teachers to students and then back to teachers can be followed in order to build a new model of digital teaching. The proposed model does not require present teachers to become proficient IT experts.

FacilUeb: When Web Publishing is Only One Click Away

Publication of documents on the web is a non trivial task for non technical people. People that are are not interested in learning the elements of the web and its protocols should be allowed to publish documents on the web in HTML format without having to change their habits or having to learn hot to use new, specialized authoring tools.The FacilUeb Project aimed at studying the behavior of non technical users when confronted with the task of making their documents available on the web, in order to develop a working prototype of the simplest possible interface that will allow them to accomplish this task on both static and dynamic web sites. Final goal of the project was to design a transparent process that would allow non technical users to accomplish this task by using their everyday authoring tools so that they won’t need to acquire any additional specific knowledge.