The series of workshops on Computational Models of Natural Argument, active since 2001, acts to nurture and provide succour to the ever growing community working in “argument and computation”.  AI has witnessed a prodigious growth in uses of argumentation throughout many of its subdisciplines: agent system negotiation protocols that demonstrate higher levels of sophistication and robustness; argumentation-based models of evidential relations; groupwork tools that use argument to structure interaction and debate; computer-based learning tools that exploit monological and dialogical argument structures in designing pedagogic environments; decision support systems that build upon argumentation theoretic models of deliberation to better integrate with human reasoning. The CMNA workshop series  focuses in particular on “natural” argumentation. Naturalness may involve the use of means which are more visual than linguistic to illustrate a point, such as graphics or multimedia. Or to the use of more sophisticated rhetorical devices, interacting at various layers of abstraction. Or the exploitation of “extra-rational” characteristics of the audience, taking into account emotions and affective factors.

Topics
Contributions are solicited addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:
* The characteristics of “natural” arguments: ontological aspects and cognitive issues.
* Personalisation and tailoring of argument to a specific audience
* Models of arguer and models of audience
* The use of models from informal logic and argumentation theory, and in particular, approaches to specific schools of thought developed in informal logic and argumentation.
* Rhetoric and affect: the role of emotions, personalities, etc. in models of argumentation.
* The linguistic characteristics of natural argumentation. Empirical work based on corpora looking at these topics would be especially welcomed.
* Natural argumentation and media: visual arguments, multi-modal arguments, spoken arguments.
* Evaluative arguments and their application in AI systems (such as decision support and advice giving).
* Applications of argumentation based systems, including, for example, the pedagogical, health-related, political, and promotional.
* Tools for interacting with structures of argument, including visualisation tools and interfaces supporting natural, stylised or formal dialogue.
* The building of computational resources such as online corpora related to argumentation.

Format:
CMNA 12 intends to provide, primarily, an informal forum for discussion, a venue to foster discussion and encourage cooperation. To facilitate this, accepted papers (by multiple reviewer blind review) are distributed to all participants in advance of the event, to improve coherence and interaction.

Attendance:
Attendance to the CMNA workshop is open to all interested in the field, as well as authors of accepted papers. Those interested to attend who have not a paper to present, are encouraged to send a brief submission of interest to the workshop chairs before the event.