Translation, Cognition & Behavior - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2025

We investigated how translation expertise and untrained bilingualism modulate the retrieval of translation equivalents of idiomatic units across languages. We employed a dual task paradigm to assess the cognitive resources that untrained bilinguals and professional translators engaged to process idioms for later translation. Our hypothesis was that translators would be able to map idioms cross-linguistically in a relatively more automatic way than untrained bilinguals, based on the idea that comprehension and retrieval processes become faster and more automatic because of training in translation tasks. This automaticity presumably plays a key role in the allocation of task-relevant cognitive resources. Results did not match our predictions and showed that translators exerted higher levels of cognitive control over the task, possibly to guarantee the high-quality standards required by professional practice. Findings are discussed considering theoretical models of bilingual idiomatic processing, implications for the translation process and translation pedagogy.

This study investigates the role of personality and motivation in shaping Chinese translators’ extra-role behaviors (ERBs) — discretionary and unrewarded actions that contribute to project success — through Self-Determination Theory. Although there is growing interest in translators’ motivation, the motivational underpinnings of translators’ ERBs remain underexplored, particularly in non-Western contexts. To address this gap, we developed and validated an ERB scale through a thematic analysis of 38 interviews and factor analyses of 522 survey responses, identifying conscientiousness, help, and voice as ERB subdimensions. We used partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine how Core Self-Evaluations and motivation profiles affect ERBs, with role perception as a psychological mediator. The results reveal distinct motivational pathways for affiliative and challenging ERBs and offer insights into optimizing incentives for ERB engagement. The study contributes to motivation theory and translation studies by elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying translators’ ERBs, with implications for training and professional practice.

This study explores coaching as a pedagogical framework to enhance translation learners’ competence development through a problem-solving lens. Grounded in three core assumptions — translation essentially as a complex, iterative process of resolving ill-structured problems; translation competence as an ill-structured problem-solving competence with translation thinking abilities as its core; and the necessity of cultivating learners’ translation thinking and facilitating their translation learning processes to promote translation competence development and acquisition — the research proposes an interconnection model integrating constructivism, complexity theory, and metacognitive self-regulation. To operationalize this framework, two sub-models are introduced: (1) the Translation Problem-Solving Coaching (TPSC) model, which guides learners through structured cycles to develop adaptive thinking; and (2) the Student-Centred Learning Process Coaching (SCLPC) model, which supports learners in aligning their learning processes with goals. Case-based validation illustrates how coaching scaffolds cognitive and metacognitive growth. Implications for translation pedagogy are discussed.

Creativity is one of the most valued human qualities, capable of enhancing the quality of final products across diverse fields, including translation. This study integrated translation products and processes through an experiment in which 42 student participants translated six excerpts from science fiction and science-technology texts, with data collected via eye-tracking and keylogging tools. The translation products were classified and quantified using entropy values, and statistical significance tests were conducted to examine the correlations between product and process indicators. The findings reveal no significant correlations between translation entropy and overall task duration, fixation count, or pause count, whereas creative products were associated with significantly higher revision frequency. From the product-process interface, it can be inferred that translational creativity involves sustained cognitive effort throughout the translation process, with active engagement in revisions playing a crucial role in enabling the final translation to display creativity.

This article investigated the viability of using electrodermal activity (EDA) in interpreting studies to understand stress and provided guidance for research design and analysis. Considering that EDA interpreting studies are still rare, we introduced EDA basics that are relevant to our field and offered suggestions about how to use EDA-related terms precisely and consistently to help standardize the nomenclature in our field. Discussion has been made about how to select appropriate EDA measures and specific parameters for different interpreting contexts to help future studies align EDA measures and specific parameters with research design. We also offered concrete suggestions about research design and implementation to help future studies accurately obtain EDA signals.