While the rhetorical tradition provides many tools for analyzing, evaluating, and producing persuasive discourse, a significant knowledge gap exists in understanding the impact of persuasive messages on various types of individuals and the neural mechanisms involved. The research line on Cognitive Neuroscience of Persuasion seeks to bridge this gap by testing the cognitive adequacy of rhetorical insights regarding the design of persuasive discourse. In particular, it employs cutting-edge neuroimaging methods (MRI and EEG), along with behavioral measures such as self-paced reading and eye-tracking.
The research line Annotating Argumentation in the Wild focuses on identifying argumentative moves in persuasive communication and creating annotated datasets for argumentation research. These datasets are subjected to various types of linguistic analysis and modeling to increase our understanding of how people interpret persuasive communication – whether generated by humans or LLMs – across domains, focusing on statement types, argumentation structures, and various types of arguments and other rhetorical strategies.
LANCAR 