The Study Of Translators’ Controlled And Automatic Processing From The Perspective Of Translation Cognitive Process

Since1980s, scholars turn attention to the study of the cognitive processes in translation. The theories and concepts of cognitive psychology are adopted to analyze translators’ translation behaviors to make assumptions about the regular patterns of activities in translators’ brain, and great achievements have been achieved. Among them, in terms of the information processing mode, top-down and bottom-up processing and parallel and serial processing are more often used to explain translators’ mental activities in translation process. But the two pairs of processing mode can not generalize the whole cognitive process in translation. Controlled processing and automatic processing also are the main information processing modes in cognitive psychology and translation is essentially information processing. So there is necessity to study translators’ controlled and automatic processing in translation. Based on the researches on translation process and cognitive psychology, the present paper explores translators’ controlled and automatic processing and tentatively proposes a mental model of the two processing modes, which can deepen the understanding of the "black box" of brain in translation.Firstly, this paper deduces the definition of translators’ controlled and automatic processing and their existence in translation process. Secondly, the study tries to explore the mental mechanism of the two processing modes and the factors affecting them respectively. Then, the relation between translators’ controlled and automatic processing is analyzed, followed by a proposal of a mode for translators’ controlled and automatic processing. Finally, the development of student translators’ controlled and automatic processing is also investigated.Seen from the research purpose aspect, this study belongs to explanatory study, and from application aspect, theoretical study. The main results of the study are:(1) Inferring from the literature review, the paper proves that translators’ controlled processing and automatic processing do exist in translation process. And translators’ controlled processing is a problem-defining and-solving process; the automatic processing is a non-problem process in which translators can comprehend and express quickly.(2) The mental mechanism of translators’ controlled and automatic processing underlines the interaction between long-term memory and working memory. The source information received first activates the related information in long-term memory, and then, enters into working memory when the activation fails. Therefore, the factors affecting translators’controlled and automatic processing are mainly the magnitude of the capacity of working memory, the quantity and quality of the knowledge in long-term memory and the difficulty and familiarity of the source information.(3) Automatic processing mainly processes the frequently-used vocabulary and simple sentences, so as to facilitate the controlled processing of difficult long sentences and discourses, with the former as the basis of the latter; controlled processing can compensate for the automatic processing. They are parallel and complementary to each other. The development of translators’controlled processing and automatic processing and the conversion from controlled processing to automatic processing can be achieved through a long period of real-life or real-life-like practices.This study tentatively explores the mental mechanism of translators’controlled and automatic processing and uncovers the regularity of translators’cognitive activities which improves people’s comprehensive understanding of translators’ processing modes and enriches the theory of translation process. The development of translators’controlled and automatic processing has some implications for MTI translation education.