Cover not available

In:Translation Studies between Disciplines and Practices
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier
[Benjamins Translation Library 174] 2026
► pp. 107–123

Chapter 6
Cognitive linguistics in translation and interpreting studies

 | Macquarie University | North-West University
 | Wilfrid Laurier University | McMaster University | University College Dublin
 | University of California, Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Cognitive theories in translation and interpreting studies explore how memory, working memory components, and cognitive load affect these tasks. In this chapter, we first review several theoretical frameworks from cognitive linguistics and their relevance to translation and interpreting studies. We then examine cognitive aspects of interpreting, including the argument that interpreters, as expert language users, may exhibit cognitive advantages over monolinguals and, to a lesser extent, “ordinary” bilinguals. On this backdrop, we delve into cognition in translation, drawing insights from psycholinguistic research, along with cognitive processes in multimodal contexts, such as audiovisual translation, with a focus on how sensory modalities interact. Finally, we outline interdisciplinary research directions for future exploration.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Cognitive theories in translation and interpreting studies (TIS)
  • 3.Cognition in interpreting
  • 4.Cognition in translation
  • 5.Cognition in multimodal contexts
  • 6.Interdisciplinary research agendas for future research
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
References (60)
References
Alves, Fabio, and José Luiz Vila Real Gonçalves. 2007. “Modelling translator’s competence: Relevance and expertise under scrutiny.” In Doubts and directions in translation studies, edited by Yves Gambier, Miriam Shlesinger and Radegundis Stolze. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, Richard C., and Richard Martin Shiffrin. 1968. “Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes.” In The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory, edited by Kenneth Wartenbee Spence and Janet Taylor Spence. Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baddeley, Alan. 2000. “The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory?” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4 (11): 417–423. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Working memory.” Current Biology 20 (4): 136–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies.” Annual Review of Psychology 63 (1): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baddeley, Alan D. 2022. “Working memory and the challenge of language.” In The Cambridge handbook of working memory and language, edited by John W. Schwieter & Zhisheng (Edward) Wen. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baddeley, Alan D., and Graham Hitch. 1974. “Working memory.” In The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory, edited by Gordon H. Bower. Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boutyline, Andrej, and Laura K. Soter. 2021. “Cultural schemas: What they are, how to find them, and what to do once you’ve caught one.” American Sociological Review 86 (4): 728–758. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carl, Michael, Yuxiang Wei, Sheng Lu, Longhui Zou, Takanori Mizowaki, and Masaru Yamada. 2024. “Hesitation, orientation, and flow: A taxonomy for deep temporal translation architectures.” Ampersand 12: 100164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christoffels, Ingrid K., and Annette M. B. de Groot. 2005. “Simultaneous interpreting: A cognitive perspective.” In Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches, edited by Judith F. Kroll and Annette M. B. de Groot. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coltheart, Max. 1980. “Iconic memory and visible persistence.” Perception & Psychophysice 27 (3): 183–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daems, Joke, Sonia Vandepitte, Robert J. Hartsuiker, and Lieve Macken. 2017. “Translation methods and experience: A comparative analysis of human translation and post-editing with students and professional translators.” Meta 62 (2): 245–270. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darwin, Christopher, Michael Turvey, and Robert G. Crowder. 1972. “An auditory analogue of the Sperling partial report procedure: Evidence for brief auditory storage.” Cognitive Psychology 3 (2): 255–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Bot, Kees. 2019. “Defining and assessing multilingualism.” In The Handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism, edited by John W. Schwieter and Michel Paradis. Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dick, Anthony Steven, Nelcida L. Garcia, Shannon M. Pruden, et al. 2019. “No evidence for a bilingual executive function advantage in the nationally representative ABCD study.” Nature Human Behavior 3 (7), 692–701. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dragsted, Barbara. 2010. “Coordination of reading and writing processes in translation: An eye on uncharted territory.” In Translation and Cognition, edited by Gregory M. Shreve and Erik Angelone. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. Anders, and Herbert A. Simon. 1993. Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Revised edition. MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferreira, Aline, Stefan Th. Gries, and John W. Schwieter. 2021. “Assessing indicators of cognitive effort in professional translators: A study on language dominance and directionality.” In Translation, interpreting, cognition: The way out of the box, edited by Tra&Co group. Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gernsbacher, Morton Ann. 2015. “Video captions benefit everyone.” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2 (1): 195–202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gile, Daniel. 1988. “Le partage de l’attention et le ‘modèle d’effort’ en interprétation simultanée.” [Attention sharing and the ‘effort model’ in simultaneous interpretation]. The Interpreters’ Newsletter 1: 4–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. “Conference interpreting as a cognitive management problem.” Applied Psychology 3: 196–214.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. “Testing the Effort Models’ tightrope hypothesis in simultaneous interpreting: A contribution.” Hermes, Journal of Linguistics 23: 153–172. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “The Effort Models of interpreting as a didactic construct.” In Advances in cognitive translation studies, edited by Ricardo Muñoz Martín, Sanjun Sun and Defeng Li. Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halverson, Sandra. 2013. “Implications of cognitive linguistics for translation studies.” In Cognitive Linguistics and translation: Advances in some theoretical models and applications, edited by Ana Rojo and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano. De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hervais-Adelman, Alexis, Barbara Moser-Mercer, and Narly Golestani. 2015. “Brain functional plasticity associated with the emergence of expertise in extreme language control.” Neuroimage 114: 264–274. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hönig, Hans G., Paul Kussmaul. 1982. Strategie der Übersetzung: ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch [Translation strategy: A teaching and workbook]. Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, Minxia, Wenjiao Fan. 2021. “The interpreter advantage in executive functions — A systematic review and meta-analysis”. Forum for Linguistic Studies 3 (1): 131–161. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jääskeläinen, Riitta. 1993. “Investigating translation strategies.” In Recent trends in empirical translation research, edited by Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit and John Laffling. University of Joensuu Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koshkin, Roman, Yury Shtyrov, Andriy Myachykov, and Alex Ossadtchi. 2018. “Testing the efforts model of simultaneous interpreting: An ERP study.” PLOS ONE 13 (10): e0206129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krings, Hans-Peter. 1986. “Translation problems and translation strategies of advanced German learners of French (L2).” In Interlingual and intercultural communication: discourse and cognition in translation and second language acquisition studies, edited by Juliana House and Shoshana Blum-Kulka. Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leppink, Jimmie, Fred Paas, Tamara van Gog, Cees P. M. van der Vleuten, and Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer. 2014. “Effects of pairs of problems and examples on task performance and different types of cognitive load.” Learning and Instruction 30: 32–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liao, Sixin, Lili Yu, Erik D. Reichle, and Jan-Louis Kruger. 2021. “Using eye movements to study the reading of subtitles in videos.” Scientific Studies of Reading 25 (5): 417–435. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lörscher, Wolfgang. 1991. “Translation performance, translation process, and translation strategies: A psycholinguistic investigation.” Target 4 (1): 126–129.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lörscher, Wolfgang. 1996. “A psycholinguistic analysis of translation processes.” Meta 41 (1): 26–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayer, Richard, ed. 2014. The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, George. 1956. “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.” Psychological Review 63 (2), 81–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, Emily S., Conor J. Wild, Bobby Stojanoski, Michael E. Battista, and Adrian M. Owen. 2020. “Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: A population study of executive function in 11,000 people.” Psychological Sciences 31 (5): 548–567. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nour, Soudabeh, Esli Struys, Evy Woumans, Ily Hollebeke, and Hélène Stengers. 2020. “An interpreter advantage in executive functions?: A systematic review.” Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 22 (2): 163–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon. 2011. “Towards predicting post-editing productivity.” Machine Translation 25: 197–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pratte, Michael. 2018. “Iconic memories die a sudden death.” Psychological Science 29(6): 877–887. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reichle, Erik, ed. 2021. Computational models of reading: A handbook. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reichle, Erik, Alexander Pollatsek, and Keith Rayner. 2012. “Using E-Z reader to simulate eye movements in nonreading tasks: A unified framework for understanding the eye–mind link.” Psychological Review 119 (1): 155–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rohrer, Doug, and Harold E. Pashler. 2003. “Concurrent task effects on memory retrieval.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 10 (1): 96–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rojo, Ana, and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano, eds. 2013. Cognitive Linguistics and translation: Advances in some theoretical models and applications. De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schnotz, Wolfgang. 2005. “Integrated model of text and picture comprehension.” In Cambridge handbook of multimodal learning, edited by Richard. E. Mayer. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Integrated model of text and picture comprehension.” In The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. 3rd edition. Edited by Richard. E. Mayer and Logan Fiorella. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schnotz, Wolfgang, and Maria Bannert. 2003. “Construction and interference in learning from multiple representation.” Learning and Instruction 13 (2): 141–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seeber, Kilian G., Laura Keller, and Alexis Hervais-Adelman. 2020. “When the ear leads the eye: The use of text during simultaneous interpretation.” Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience 35 (10): 1480–1494. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Séguinot, Candace. 1991. “A study of student translation strategies.” In Empirical research in translation and intercultural studies, edited by Sonja Tirkkonen-Condity. Gunter Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperling, George. 1960. “The information available in brief visual presentations.” Psychological monographs: General and applied 74 (11): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sui, Longjiao, Haidee Kruger, and Helen Slayter. 2019. “The central processing bottleneck during word production: Comparong simultaneous interpreters, bilinguals, and monolinguals.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognitinion 22 (5): 968–985. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sweller, John. 1988. “Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning.” Cognitive Science 12 (2): 257–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Cognitive load theory.” In The psychology of learning and motivation: Cognition in education, edited by José Mestre and Brian H. Ross. Elsevier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wickens, Christopher D. 1984. “Processing resources in attention.” In Varieties of attention, edited by Raja Parasuraman and David Roy Davies. Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002. “Multiple resources and performance prediction.” Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science 3: 159–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiao, Kairong. 2021. “Cognitive linguistics and translation studies.” In The Routledge handbook of cognitive linguistics, edited by Wen Xu and John R. Taylor. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yudes, Carolina., Pedro Macizo, and Teresa Bajo. 2011. “The influence of expertise in simultaneous interpreting on non-verbal executive processes.” Frontiers in Psychology 2 (309). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue