Guest talk on cognitive neuroscience inquiries into translation process

Dr Binghan Zheng, Associate Professor from Durham University, will give a guest talk on cognitive neuroscience inquiries into translation process as part of the Research Seminar Series.

The series is supported by the Leeds LCS Strategic Research Development Fund.

Abstract
Translation process research (TPR) can be traced back to the empirical school emerged in the 1980s in European countries.

Aiming to uncover the mysterious “Black Box” of human translation process, TPR scholars have borrowed various methods from neighbouring disciplines, such as psychology and cognitive science, and gained TPR great attention and recognition in translation studies by following rigorous research design and data analysis approach.

Some scholars have advocated to name it as Translation Psychology or Cognitive Translatology, thus to make it a leaping development in the digital age.

First half 
This talk will start with an introductory discussion on the input of cognitive and behavior investigations into translation studies with reference to James Holmes’ (1972/2000) seminal paper. The current TPR model which triangulates eye-tracking, key-logging and cued-retrospection data will be revisited, and the essential of including neuro-imaging data will be put forward.

Final half
During the second half of the talk, the speaker will introduce his current interdisciplinary project on cognitive neuroscience of translation, which applies functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the state-of-the-art technology in neuroscience, into the study of translators’ translating brain.