Effects of thinking aloud on cognitive effort in translation

Sanjun Sun,Xiaoyan Zhou,Tian Li

doi:10.52034/lanstts.v19i0.556

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of thinking aloud on cognitive effort in translation as a function of source-text difficulty level. It does so by considering time on task, duration of different translation phases (i.e., orientation, draft, revision), cognitive effort of processing the source and target texts, and translation quality. Twenty participants took part in an English–Chinese translation experiment, which comprised two matched sessions – translating while thinking aloud and translating silently. Their translation processes were recorded by means of an eye tracker and a key logger. An adapted NASA Task Load Index was employed to elicit their subjective assessments of translation difficulty levels. The quality of their translations was evaluated. The results of the study reveal a number of important effects of thinking aloud on cognitive effort during translation: on translation duration, cognitive effort, the perceived level of difficulty of a translation as measured by NASA-TLX, and on translating easier texts.

Highlights

As a data elicitation method, thinking aloud (TA) refers to verbalizing one’s thoughts out loud while engaging in a task, and written transcripts of the verbalizations are called think-aloud protocols (TAPs) (Ericsson & Simon, 1993; Jääskeläinen, 2010)
This study investigated the effects of TA on cognitive effort in translation according to time on task, the duration of different translation phases, cognitive effort involved in processing the source texts (STs) and TTs, and translation difficulty as functions of ST difficulty level
The results were as follows: (1) TA has a significant influence on translation duration, and the duration under the TA condition is about 30% longer than that under the silent condition

Summary

Introduction

As a data elicitation method, thinking aloud (TA) refers to verbalizing one’s thoughts out loud while engaging in a task, and written transcripts of the verbalizations are called think-aloud protocols (TAPs) (Ericsson & Simon, 1993; Jääskeläinen, 2010). It used to be a primary method for investigating translators’ cognitive processes from the mid1980s until the end of the 1990s. For various reasons, TAP-based translation studies have dwindled noticeably. One reason is the emerging and increasing use of keystroke logging, eye-tracking and other methods (see Jakobsen, 2017). Another reason is concerns and doubts about TA’s validity and comprehensiveness (Hansen, 2005; Jääskeläinen, 2011). Few studies (e.g., Jakobsen, 2003) have empirically tested TA’s validity, despite calls for more research into this method (Jääskeläinen, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion