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CALLUM, WALKER; FEDERICI, FEDERICO (EDS.). EYE TRACKING

AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES ON TRANSLATION. AMSTERDAM,

BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY, 2018, 299 PP., ISBN: 978-9-

0272-0169-0.

Eye tracking is “the process of recording the point of gaze of a person

and the movement of the eyes from one point to another” (Saldanha &

Eye Tracking and Multidisciplinary Studies on Translation, edited by

Walker and Federici, brings together a number of contributions regarding the

use of eye tracking in Translation Studies. This book aims to serve both as

“a methodological frame of reference for new and seasoned researchers

alike on the tools, methods and approaches adopted [in eye tracking

research] [...] and the principles that are currently prevalent in this discipline”

(p. 1). In particular, it is intended to act as a foundation for researchers who

are working in emergent Cognitive Translation Studies. Readers are

encouraged to adopt a critical eye in order to compare and contrast the

suggested methods as the contributors embark on their research using a

which the principles of eye tracking research in Translation Studies are

examined by the editors. They also call on scholars in Translation Studies to

update not only their experimental and theoretical skills, but also their

methods of statistical analysis and presentation in line with recent

developments in Psychology. Contributions to the first of the three sections

noted in the previous paragraph present methodological challenges

(Chapters 3–5) and focus on experimental design and data analysis. The

second section deals with research into the translation process (Chapters 6–

9), and the third with Product Reception Studies (Chapters 10–12), areas

that have hitherto received little attention.

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enlistment, research equipment and software setup, eye-tracking software

configuration, data collection, data analysis, tool synchronisation, recordings

segmentation, and technical considerations involving the use of monocular

versus binocular data. Their valuable concerns provide an exceptional

methodological framework for future studies carried out under similar

conditions. Moorkens explores the use of eye tracking as a measurement of

cognitive effort for post-editing machine translation, building on Kring’s

(2001) measurements of post-editing effort (temporal, technical, and

cognitive). The study argues that two main eye-tracking measurements can

be used as indicators for cognitive effort, namely fixation count and fixation

the application of regression designs rather than factorial designs in order to

better analyse the relationships between variables within eye-tracking data.

He also promotes the use of rigorous statistical methods for time-course

data, i.e. growth curve modelling instead of the more typical analyses of

variance (ANOVA)—a collection of statistical models and their associated

estimation procedures (such as the "variation" among and between groups)

used to analyse the statistical significance of mean differences (Tabachnick

& Fidell, 2006). He ends his contribution with a call for more robust training

in research methods for researchers working in Cognitive Translation

Studies. These arguments will provide a sound foundation to explore novel,

translation activities from eye tracking and keystroke logging data to suggest

ideas for modelling the translation process in order to develop more effective

CAT tools. Their data results (using ANOVA methods) demonstrate that the

combination of sequences of keystrokes and fixations could be of great

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from Chinese into Portuguese. To triangulate the results, key-logging and

eye-tracking data, as well as retrospective verbal protocols and

questionnaires, are used during the data collection process. The statistical

analysis adopts mixed-effects models. The study finds that, firstly, there is

no expression-type (metaphorical or literal) impact on total production time,

and, secondly, the predictor translation strategy is relevant to production

time. This study contributes to translation research into the

Chinese/Portuguese metaphor, translation pedagogy, and more generally,

research into the translation process itself so as to better understand the

complexity of cognitive processes involved in the translation of metaphors.

task-oriented, and habit/task-oriented. By presenting the performance of the

student translator’s working styles alongside those of the professionals in

existing literature, this research offers an insight into the trainee translator’s

behaviour when involved in revision tasks and, therefore, acts as a

significant contribution to translation pedagogy. Szarkowska, Dutka,

Szychowska, and Pilipczuk look at the little explored field of respeaking— a

method used to produce real-time subtitles for live television programmes,

especially for the d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing. Their study utilises eye tracking

to record the visual attention of the participants (divided into groups:

interpreters, translators, subtitlers, and the control group) during an

on major screen areas: picture, subtitles, dictation area and subtitle panel.

The results demonstrate that those with subtitling experience can manage

their visual attention most efficiently, as more often they fixated on key

screen areas—the picture and the subtitles. They also performed best in the

proof-reading task, as they fixated more often on the subtitles and the

subtitle panel in comparison to other groups. Their findings not only reveal

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English proficiency and familiarity with watching English subtitled AVT

products do not detract from viewers’ appreciation either. This research

offers an insightful contribution to the broader question of the effects of

interlingual AVT products on the viewing experience of audiences—an area

of research that is still nascent in Translation Studies. Walker undertakes a

novel venture into an almost entirely unexplored area—equivalent effect and

cognitive equivalence. He utilises eye tracking to compare readers’ cognitive

efforts in three different translated versions of the same text. This

quantitative means to appraise cognitive equivalence can be combined with

qualitative methods to explore the differing perceptions of marked language

conditions. Łabendowicz investigates the impact of AVT modalities

(subtitling, dubbing, and voice-over) on viewers’ reception and perception.

She applies eye tracking and pre- and post-interviews to address audience

responses to translated forms of humorous, source-culture-embedded

audiovisual materials. Her study finds that the voiced-over or dubbed

versions are more likely to be considered funny than are subtitled versions.

This may be because participants can more easily immerse themselves in

the content. However, this does not necessarily contribute to the

understanding of the cultural references featured. The findings of this

chapter provide a compelling insight into the impact of various modes of AVT

example, a fixation cannot always be interpreted as information processing,

and the absence of a fixation cannot necessarily be interpreted as the

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stimuli in order to validate results and the corresponding conclusions.

Regarding statistical analysis, more rigorous analysis models, such as linear

mixed models, could be used to analyse the finalised statistics in order to

take in as much information as possible, instead of using the more traditional

ANOVA statistical methods, which could lead to a reduction of data and loss

of information under certain circumstances. Apart from SPSS, other software

packages, such as R or Python, could also be applied as tools for data

analysis to enrich the experimental protocol.

Although a number of improvements have been mentioned in the

previous paragraph, this collective volume is a fantastic example of a

sensibly coordinated academic publication, combining kaleidoscopic

REFERENCES

Doherty, S. (2016). The impact of translation technologies on the process

and product of translation. International Journal of Communication, 10,

947–969.

Jakobsen, A. L. (2014). The development and current state of translation

process research. In B. Elke, M. Reine and D. Luc van (Eds.), The

Known Unknowns of Translation Studies (pp. 65–88). Amsterdam,

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Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2006). Experimental Designs Using

ANOVA. Belmont, CA: Duxbury Press.

[JIA HUIHUANG]