1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Translation, Cognition & Behavior
  4. Volume 8, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 8, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2542-5277
  • E-ISSN: 2542-5285
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This study investigates how congruence between ideologically charged sentences and translation students’ political orientations influences cognitive processing during translation. Using reaction times (RTs) as an index of processing effort, we examined the effects of ideological alignment, emotional arousal, personality traits, and working memory capacity on oral translation performance. In our predominantly progressive sample, progressive sentences elicited faster responses overall, whereas progressive participants were generally slower than conservative participants. The interaction between sentence ideology and participants’ ideology did not reach significance, although the descriptive pattern suggested faster responses to congruent content among progressive participants. Emotional arousal modulated processing speed in combination with ideology: medium arousal facilitated progressive sentences but produced the slowest RTs for conservative sentences. Higher working memory capacity significantly predicted faster RTs. Openness to Experience showed a small positive association with RTs, possibly reflecting a more reflective or creative approach to translation choices. Overall, these findings highlight the relevance of ideological congruence and emotional arousal in translation processing and support interdisciplinary approaches that integrate cognitive individual differences into translation research.

© 2025 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
2026-07-03
2026-07-16

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Álvarez Rodríguez, Román and M. Carmen-África Vidal
    1996 « Translating: a political act ». InTranslation, Power, Subversion, 1–9. Multilingual Matters.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bakker, Bert Nico
    2014 “Personality and Politics. The Direct and Indirect Associations between the Five Factor Model and Political Attitudes.” PhD diss., University of Southern Denmark.
  3. Bradley, Margaret M., and Peter J. Lang
    1994 “Measuring Emotion: The Self-Assessment Manikin and the Semantic Differential.” Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry25 (1): 49–59. 10.1016/0005‑7916(94)90063‑9
     https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(94)90063-9 [Google Scholar]
  4. Brady, William J., Ana P. Gantman, and Jay J. van Bavel
    2020 “Attentional Capture Helps Explain Why Moral and Emotional Content Go Viral.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General149 (4): 746–56. 10.1037/xge0000673
     https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000673 [Google Scholar]
  5. Carney, Dana R., John T. Jost, Samuel D. Gosling, and Jeff Potter
    2008 “The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind.” Political Psychology29 (6): 807–40. 10.1111/j.1467‑9221.2008.00668.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00668.x [Google Scholar]
  6. Citron, Francesca M. M., Brendan S. Weekes, and Evelyn C. Ferstl
    2013 “Effects of Valence and Arousal on Written Word Recognition: Time Course and ERP Correlates.” Neuroscience Letters533 (January): 90–95. 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.10.054
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2012.10.054 [Google Scholar]
  7. Costa, Paul T., and Robert R. McCrae
    2008 “The revised neo personality inventory (neo-pi-r).” The SAGE handbook of personality theory and assessment2.21: 179–198. 10.4135/9781849200479.n9
     https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200479.n9 [Google Scholar]
  8. Cowan, Nelson
    2012 Working Memory Capacity. Psychology Press. 10.4324/9780203342398
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203342398 [Google Scholar]
  9. Ding, Jinfeng, Lin Wang, and Yufang Yang
    2016 “The Dynamic Influence of Emotional Words on Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study.” Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience16 (3): 433–46. 10.3758/s13415‑016‑0403‑x
     https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0403-x [Google Scholar]
  10. Galli, Giulia, Davide Angelucci, Stefan Bode, Chiara de Giorgi, Lorenzo de Sio, Aldo Paparo, Giorgio di Lorenzo, and Viviana Betti
    2021 “Early EEG Responses to Pre-Electoral Survey Items Reflect Political Attitudes and Predict Voting Behavior.” Scientific Reports11 (1): 18692. 10.1038/s41598‑021‑96193‑y
     https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96193-y [Google Scholar]
  11. Galli, Giulia, Miroslav Sirota, Maurizio Materassi, Francesca Zaninotto, and Philip Terry
    2017 “Brain Indices of Disagreement with One’s Social Values Predict EU Referendum Voting Behavior.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience12 (11): 1758–65. 10.1093/scan/nsx105
     https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx105 [Google Scholar]
  12. Graham, Jesse, Zoe Englander, James Morris, Carlee B. Hawkins, Jonathan Haidt and Brian A. Nosek
    2012 “Warning bell: Liberals implicitly respond to group morality before rejecting it explicitly.” SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.2071499
     https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2071499 [Google Scholar]
  13. Groot, Annette M. B. de
    1992 “Chapter 20 Bilingual Lexical Representation: A Closer Look at Conceptual Representations.” InR. Frost & L. Katz (Eds.), Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning (pp.389–412). North-Holland. 10.1016/S0166‑4115(08)62805‑8
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(08)62805-8 [Google Scholar]
  14. Henderson, John. A.
    1987 “Personality and the Linguist: A Comparison of the Personality Profiles of Professional Translators and Conference Interpreters.” Target. International Journal of Translation Studies, Volume4, Issue2 1992, p.247 — 250. 10.1075/target.4.2.10tou
     https://doi.org/10.1075/target.4.2.10tou [Google Scholar]
  15. Jiménez-Ortega, Laura, Manuel Martín-Loeches, Pilar Casado, Alejandra Sel, Sabela Fondevila, Pilar Herreros de Tejada, Annekathrin Schacht, and Werner Sommer
    2012 “How the Emotional Content of Discourse Affects Language Comprehension.” PLoS ONE7 (3): e33718. 10.1371/journal.pone.0033718
     https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033718 [Google Scholar]
  16. Kousta, Stavroula, David Vinson, and Gabriella Vigliocco
    2009 “Emotion Words, Regardless of Polarity, Have a Processing Advantage over Neutral Words.” Cognition112 (3): 473–81. 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.06.007
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.06.007 [Google Scholar]
  17. Kuzderová, Henrieta, and Klaudia Bednárova-Gibová
    2021 “The Impact of Ideologies on the Translator’s Work: A Conceptual Reflection and Application.” Hermēneus. Revista de Traducción e Interpretación231: 31–67. 10.24197/her.23.2021.31‑67
     https://doi.org/10.24197/her.23.2021.31-67 [Google Scholar]
  18. Lachaud, Christian M.
    2011 “EEG, EYE and KEY: Three simultaneous streams of data for investigating the cognitive mechanisms of translation.” InCognitive Explorations of Translation, ed. byS. O’Brien, 131–153. London: Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Lehka-Paul, Olha and Bogusława Whyatt
    2016 “Does Personality Matter in Translation? Interdisciplinary Research into the Translation Process and Product.” Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics52 (2). 10.1515/psicl‑2016‑0012
     https://doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2016-0012 [Google Scholar]
  20. Lehr, Caroline and Kristian T. Hvelplund
    2020 “Emotional experts: Influences of emotion on the allocation of cognitive resources during translation.” InR. Muñoz Martín, & S. L. Halverson (Eds.), Multilingual Mediated Communication and Cognition (pp.44–68). Routledge. 10.4324/9780429323867‑3
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429323867-3 [Google Scholar]
  21. Li, Jie
    2021 “The Impact of Verbal Working Memory on Written Translation: Empirical Evidence and an Initial Model.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series — Themes in Translation Studies19 (January). 10.52034/lanstts.v19i0.558
     https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v19i0.558 [Google Scholar]
  22. Li, Wenfu, Xueting Li, Lijie Huang, Xiangzhen Kong, Wenjing Yang, Dongtao Wei, Jingguang Li,
    2015 “Brain Structure Links Trait Creativity to Openness to Experience.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience10 (2): 191–98. 10.1093/scan/nsu041
     https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu041 [Google Scholar]
  23. Lodge, Milton, and Charles S. Taber
    2005 “The Automaticity of Affect for Political Leaders, Groups, and Issues: An Experimental Test of the Hot Cognition Hypothesis.” Political Psychology26 (3): 455–82. 10.1111/j.1467‑9221.2005.00426.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2005.00426.x [Google Scholar]
  24. Macizo, Pedro, and M. Teresa Bajo
    2004 “When Translation Makes the Difference: Sentence Processing in Reading and Translation”. Psicológica, 25 (2): 181–205.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. 2006 “Reading for Repetition and Reading for Translation: Do They Involve the Same Processes?” Cognition99 (1): 1–34. 10.1016/j.cognition.2004.09.012
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2004.09.012 [Google Scholar]
  26. Mahieux, Emmanuel, Lee de-Wit, Leun J. Otten, Joseph T. Devlin, and Nicole Y. Wicha
    2024 The N400 effect captures nuances in implicit political preferences. Scientific reports, 14(1), 16730. 10.1038/s41598‑024‑67763‑7
     https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67763-7 [Google Scholar]
  27. Miyake, Akira, Marcel Adam Just, and Patricia A. Carpenter
    1994 “Working Memory Constraints on the Resolution of Lexical Ambiguity: Maintaining Multiple Interpretations in Neutral Contexts.” Journal of Memory and Language33 (2): 175–202. 10.1006/jmla.1994.1009
     https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1994.1009 [Google Scholar]
  28. Miyake, Akira and Priti Shah
    1999 “Models of Working Memory: An Introduction.” InA. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (pp.1–27). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9781139174909.003
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139174909.003 [Google Scholar]
  29. Munday, Jeremy
    2007 “Translation and Ideology.” The Translator13 (2): 195–217. 10.1080/13556509.2007.10799238
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2007.10799238 [Google Scholar]
  30. Naranjo Ruiz, Mónica, and Diana Lorena Giraldo Ospina
    2023 “Units of Translation and the Limited Capacity of Working Memory.” Translatology, Translation and Interpretation — Toward a New Scientific Endeavor. IntechOpen. 10.5772/intechopen.1001996
     https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1001996 [Google Scholar]
  31. Perfetti, Carles A.
    1994 “Psycholinguistics and reading ability.” InM. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp.849–894). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Ponari, Marta, Sara Rodríguez-Cuadrado, David Vinson, Neil Fox, Albert Costa, and Gabriella Vigliocco
    2015 “Processing Advantage for Emotional Words in Bilingual Speakers.” Emotion15 (5): 644–52. 10.1037/emo0000061
     https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000061 [Google Scholar]
  33. Rojo López, Ana María, and Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris
    2023 “Emotions in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Translation, Interpreting and Bilingualism, ed. byAline Ferreira and John W. Schwieter 206–221. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781003109020‑18
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003109020-18 [Google Scholar]
  34. Rojo López, Ana María, and Marina Ramos Caro
    2014 “The Impact of Translators’ Ideology on the Translation Process: A Reaction Time Experiment.” MonTI. Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación, Special Issue11: 247–271. 10.6035/MonTI.2014.ne1.8
     https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2014.ne1.8 [Google Scholar]
  35. Rojo López, Ana María, and Purificación Meseguer Cutillas
    2021 “The Effect of Attitude towards Catalonia’s Independence on Response Latency When Translating Ideologically Conflicting Press Headlines.” Onomázein Revista de Lingüística Filología y Traducción, Special Issue81: 128–145. 10.7764/onomazein.ne8.02
     https://doi.org/10.7764/onomazein.ne8.02 [Google Scholar]
  36. Rojo López, Ana María, Roldán Torralba, Cristina, and Pérez Sánchez, Miguel Ángel
    . In press. When the source text contradicts your beliefs’: Measuring the effects of political value congruence on students’ response latencies during a translation task. Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Ruiz, Carmen, N. Paredes, Pedro Macizo, and M. Teresa Bajo
    2008 “Activation of Lexical and Syntactic Target Language Properties in Translation.” Acta Psychologica128 (3): 490–500. 10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.08.004
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.08.004 [Google Scholar]
  38. Santiago, Julio, Purificación Meseguer Cutillas, and Javier Valenzuela Manzanares
    2025 “Reaction time.” InRojo López, A. M. & Muñoz Martín, R. (Eds.) Research Methods in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (pp.324–346). John Benjamins. 10.1075/rmal.10.14san
     https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.10.14san [Google Scholar]
  39. Schacht, A., and W. Sommer
    2009 “Time Course and Task Dependence of Emotion Effects in Word Processing.” Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience9 (1): 28–43. 10.3758/CABN.9.1.28
     https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.9.1.28 [Google Scholar]
  40. Schaeffer, Moritz, Kevin B. Paterson, Victoria A. McGowan, Sarah J. White, and Kirsten Malmkjær
    2017 “Reading for Translation.” InTranslation in Transition between Cognition Computing and Technology, ed. byArnt L. Jakobsen and Bartolomé Mesa-Lao, 17–53. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.133.01sch
     https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.133.01sch [Google Scholar]
  41. Schäffner, Christina
    2004 “Political Discourse Analysis From The Point Of View Of Translation Studies.” Journal of Language and Politics, 31: 117–150. 10.1075/jlp.3.1.09sch
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.3.1.09sch [Google Scholar]
  42. Sočan, Gregor, and Valentin Bucik
    1998 “Relationship between Speed of Information-Processing and Two Major Personality Dimensions — Extraversion and Neuroticism.” Personality and Individual Differences25 (1): 35–48. 10.1016/S0191‑8869(98)00031‑2
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00031-2 [Google Scholar]
  43. Sorace, Miriam, and Sara Binzer Hobolt
    . “A Tale of Two Peoples: Motivated Reasoning in the Aftermath of the Brexit Vote.” Political Science Research and Methods9, no.4 (2021): 675–92. 10.1017/psrm.2020.50
     https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2020.50 [Google Scholar]
  44. Tymoczko, Maria
    2003 “Ideology and the Position of the Translator: In What Sense Is a Translator ‘In-Between’.” InApropos of Ideology: Translation Studies on Ideology, edited byMaria Calzada Pérez, 181–201. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Verhulst, Brad, Lindon J. Eaves, and Peter K. Hatemi
    2012 “Correlation Not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies.” American Journal of Political Science56 (1): 34–51. 10.1111/j.1540‑5907.2011.00568.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00568.x [Google Scholar]
  46. Vural, Haldun
    2022 “Do Personality Traits Matter in Preferences of Translation Strategies?” Research in Social Sciences and Technology7 (1): 42–55. 10.46303/ressat.2022.4
     https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2022.4 [Google Scholar]
  47. Wechsler, David
    2008 Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). San Antonio, TX: Pearson. 10.1037/t15169‑000
     https://doi.org/10.1037/t15169-000 [Google Scholar]
  48. Wehrmeyer, Ella, and Sarita Antunes
    2020 “Different Strokes for Different Folks.” Translation, Cognition & Behavior3 (2): 189–208. 10.1075/tcb.00040.weh
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00040.weh [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
Loading
When beliefs translate
Translation, Cognition & Behavior 8, 154 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
/content/journals/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
/content/journals/10.1075/tcb.00098.tor
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): emotional arousal; ideological congruence; personality traits; reaction time (RT); working memory (WM)

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error