A cognitive perspective on equivalent effect: using eye tracking to measure equivalence in source text and target text cognitive effects on readers

Eye-tracking methods have long been used to explore cognitive processing in reading, but the recent burgeoning of such methods in the field of translation studies has focused almost entirely on the translation process or audiovisual translation, neglecting the effects of the translation product itself. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study using eye tracking to compare fixation data between native readers of a French literary source text and native readers of its English translation at specific, corresponding points in the texts. The preliminary data are consistent with previous findings on the relationship between the features of the fixated word and fixation durations. These findings are also consistent with stylistic analyses and indicate that this method can be used to compare the levels of cognitive effort between two readership groups in order to investigate whether their experience is similar – whether an ‘equivalent effect’ has been achieved – thus contributing to the ongoing discourse surrounding equivalence in translation studies

Chapter Two – Connecting the Green and Brown Worlds: Allometric and Stoichiometric Predictability of Above- and Below-Ground Networks

We examine the potential of trait-based parameters for linking above-ground and below-ground ecological networks (hereafter ‘green’ and ‘brown’ worlds) to forecast community dynamics. We examine whether the brown and green worlds can be linked into a general model by combining classic allometric scaling and elemental stoichiometry. This synthesis considers carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus-related traits, numerical abundance of component species and size distribution across trophic levels. To realize this synthesis, we have re-analyzed plant, microbial and invertebrate databases that combine physico-chemical and biological information from terrestrial ecosystems spanning the globe. We found (1) indirect evidence to suggest that the traits from above-ground and below-ground systems can be integrated in the same model and (2) strong evidence for a much greater than expected stoichiometrical plasticity of plants and microbes that has implications for the entire food web. Nitrogen and phosphorus are primary basal resource drivers and more retranslocation of P than of N from leaves will lead to higher N:P in the litter. Under nutrient-rich conditions, higher foliar concentrations of N and P are mostly accompanied by lower N:P in the litter, suggesting that less P was retranslocated. This apparent stoichiometric dichotomy could result in shifts in threshold elemental ratios critical for ecosystem functioning and has important implications for a general food-web model, given that resource C:N:P ratios reflect environmental C:N:P ratios. We discuss insights that can be gained from integrating carbon and nitrogen isotope data into trait-based predictions, and address the origin of changes in Δ13C and Δ15N fractionation values as related to consumer–resource body-mass ratios.JRC.H.5-Land Resources Managemen