Cognitive effort and different task foci in post-editing of machine translation: A think-aloud study

Abstract

Post-editing of machine translation is gaining popularity as a solution to the ever-increasing demands placed on human translators. There has been a great deal of research in this area aimed at determining the feasibility of post-editing, and at predicting post-editing effort based on source text features and machine translation errors. However, considerably less is known about the mental workings of post-editing and post-editors' decision-making or, in particular, the relationship between post-editing effort and different mental processes. This paper investigates these issues by analysing data from a think-aloud study through the lens of eye movements and subjective ratings obtained in a separate task. The results show that mental processes associated with grammar and lexis are significantly associated with cognitive effort in post-editing. This association was not observed for other aspects of the task concerning, for example, discourse or the real-world use of the text. In addition, it was noted that lexical issues are linked to long sequences of thought processes. The paper shows that lexis plays a central role in post-editing, and argues that more emphasis should be placed on this issue in future research and in post-editor training.

A Comparative Study on the Effort of Human Translation and Post-Editing in Relation to Text Types: An Eye-Tracking and Key-Logging Experiment

“…It is being increasingly used by translators to improve productivity (Moorkens et al, 2018, p. 240), reduce cost and provide better support to international customers (Castilho, 2016, p. 7). The popularity of MT is attributable to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency (Krings, 2001, p. 33), and to the large volume of content to be translated nowadays (Castilho, 2016, p. 6; Vieira, 2016, p. 1). Besides, the MT technology has been advancing fast.…”

Effects of thinking aloud on cognitive effort in translation

“…In translation process research, it used to be a primary method for investigating translators' cognitive processes from the mid-1980s until the end of the 1990s. In recent years, TA has been adopted by some translation researchers (e.g., Angelone, 2010;Vieira, 2017). And yet, for various reasons, TAP-based translation studies have dwindled noticeably.…”

Bevezetés a fordítás és a tolmácsolás kutatásmódszertanába I. Általános rész

“…Muňoz-Miquel 2018, Pavlovič 2007, technológiai megoldások alkalmazása (pl. Vieira 2017). Módszerei tekintetében itt is a paradigmák ötvözése a jellemző, így pl.…”