Theories about translation and about translation equivalence that have held sway over time are discussed, and corpus exploration is introduced and practised. Methods for investigating the cognitive processes involved in translating include reports by translators themselves about their cognitive activity, but also methods that allow researchers to track translators’ behaviour – in particular their eye movements and gaze and their use of the keyboard when typing their translations. Methods for tracking brain activity during translating are introduced and explained, and the influence of emotion, a relatively recent interest in the discipline, is highlighted. Influential figures in the establishment of translation studies as an independent discipline are introduced.

This chapter focuses on the effects of attention, including when and where in the brain these effects occur. It begins with studies of visual-spatial attention, expands to different varieties of visual attention (e.g., feature-based attention), and concludes with the effects of attention across sensory modalities. Evidence is presented from ERP studies showing the effects of attention on the P1, N1, and P3 components. The controversy regarding if attention can affect the earliest stage of cortical visual processing (indexed by the C1 component) is highlighted. Neuroimaging evidence for attention effects in striate and extrastriate cortex (e.g., area V3 and the fusiform gyrus) are presented. The controversy about whether attention effects in the thalamus, observed in some fMRI research, represent modulation of feedforward or feedback processing is discussed. Evidence is presented from single-unit recordings that supports the view that spatial attention affects early stages of cortical processing. An intriguing new theory of attention – the rhythmic theory of attention – is presented, along with supporting evidence from human and non-human studies. New evidence for suppressive mechanisms that contribute to selective attention are introduced, and the effects of visual-spatial attention are compared to the effects of feature attention, object attention, and cross-modal attention.

This chapter provides examples of how attention plays an important role in our everyday lives. Real-world examples are used to explain the motivations behind cutting-edge attention research being done in neuroscience labs. These include distracted driving, airport security screening, and radar and sonar monitoring. Vigilance and the ability to sustain attention are introduced as critical mental processes for success at certain jobs. The influence of attention on reading and memory, and the choice of whether to study in silence or with music are discussed. Lapses of attention are described, including how these can have a range of consequences, from the brief embarrassment of not knowing what someone just said to us to the potentially fatal effect of not attending to our driving. Theories of joint attention and social-gaze orienting are introduced to explain how our attention is linked to those around us. The purposeful misdirection of a person’s attention, at multiple levels, by skilled magicians is linked to core processes of attention and perception. This chapter also introduces the idea of training attention, including the effects of playing video games, and explains how proper training protocols require detailed knowledge of the mechanisms of attention.

The chapter begins by exploring ways of working with machine-generated or machine-stored texts. Texts produced with the aid of machine translation (MT) or with the aid of translation memories (TM) can enhance productivity, but almost without exception require significant editing. In the case of MT this usually takes place at the end of the process, in the case of TM typically during the process itself. The distinction between editing and revision is reinforced through an exercise illustrating and inviting practice of the two activities using newspaper articles. Next, the chapter explores translators’ potential uses of the internet for individual or group collaborative translation, and their varying attitudes to this type of collaboration. Finally, it introduces and illustrates an approach to translation analysis known as translational stylistics

This chapter describes the processes of attentional control and contrasts the effects of attention on perceptual processing versus the control of attentional orienting. PET, fMRI, and single-unit recordings have identified a bilateral dorsal attention network (DAN) that controls the orienting of attention and a ventral attention network (VAN) that is critical for the reorienting of attention. The intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and frontal eye fields (FEF) have been found to be core elements of the DAN, and the temporal parietal junction (TPJ) and ventral frontal regions are consistently found to be part of the VAN. Internally generated attention, or willed attention, is contrasted to exogenous attention and externally triggered endogenous attention. New methods of analyzing patterns of brain connectivity that hold promise for helping understand individual and group differences in attentional control are described. Neurostimulation studies (e.g., tACS; cTBS; TMS) that are providing evidence for the causal involvement of DAN and VAN to attentional control are discussed, and ERP indices of attention control processes (such as the EDAN, ADAN, and LDAP components) and of executive monitoring (such as the ERN and FRN components) are described. Finally, this chapter discusses the plasticity of attention and brain training techniques such as meditation, neurofeedback, and video games.

The chapter opens with an account of human translation and the working conditions that human translators should be able to enjoy. A look at translators’ accounts of their métier emphasizes their enjoyment of the translating activity and the responsibility that they typically feel towards their source texts. The chapter also discusses machine translation (MT) and translation memories (TM), which are sometimes considered threats to human translation. However, it is equally possible that automation will enhance the roles of translators. The distinction between editing and revision is introduced and both post-editing and pre-editing are considered: pre-editing is undertaken to ensure that a first-written text can be rendered into another language as unproblematically as possible, using so-called controlled language, which contains rules for what must and what must not occur. The final section discusses the important issue of quality control of translators’ output. A set of stages of translation are identified, along with the practical measures that can be taken at each stage to ensure that the translation reaches the quality agreed between client and translation provider.

The chapter examines the notion of genre in order to distinguish different kinds of translation that are made for different purposes. Genres examined include brochures, tourism texts, community information materials, instructions for use, legal texts, medical texts, official documents, scientific writing and news texts. Next, the chapter discusses the relationships between translators and those who pay translators for their services, and the merits of self-employment and full-time employment in organizations or translation bureaus. Finally, the need for translators to understand their projected readership’s culture and their likely background understanding of the matters related to a given text is highlighted.

The chapter begins with a discussion of the societal conditions that surround translations, and notes that it is more common for economically secure cultures to translate between one another than it is for poor economies to translate into the languages of other poor economies or into the languages of rich economies. The networks and associations that translators may form are introduced, and an example of a code of conduct of the kind that these may adhere to is provided. The second part of the chapter addresses the issue of whether translated language differs in identifiable ways from non-translated language. A third section addresses different types of translators and their working conditions, and the gatekeeping roles that translators play in terms of what they decide to translate, who they admit to societies that they form, and providing access to other cultures.

This chapter contrasts the voluntary, endogenous influences on attention to the involuntary, exogenous influences on attention. The neural effects of top-down versus bottom-up attention are presented, including how these effects are observed at multiple levels of processing in the brain. Evidence from fMRI and ERP studies show the separate and interacting effects of endogenous and exogenous attention in multiple visual processing regions and on the C1, P1, N1, and P3 components. Inhibition of return (IOR), an attention process unique to reflexive attention is described, along with corresponding ERP evidence. The debate concerning reflexive orienting and contingent capture is discussed, and the effects of special classes of stimuli (e.g., new objects; faces; emotion-inducing stimuli) on the involuntary allocation of attention are introduced. ERP indices of attentional orienting in visual search (e.g., the N2pc component) versus the suppression of distractors (e.g., the PD components) are discussed. This chapter also describes how memory affects attentional allocation, both in the initial capture and the subsequent holding of attention. Finally, theories are introduced that propose that selection history and reward learning play significant roles in the involuntary biasing and allocation of attention.