Levels of Explanation and Translation Expertise

The observable activity of translation, the series of text comprehension and text production bursts we identify as translation, is the result of the activation of complex underlying cognitive systems. In the conduct of research it is often useful to approach such complex systems using a ‘levels of explanation’ framework. This paper considers David Marr’s (1982) three levels of explanation as they might apply to understanding translation and translation expertise more robustly. In cognitive translation studies to date, we have not really extended our understanding of expertise much past the second (algorithmic/representational) level in Marr’s scheme; we have failed to grapple as effectively as we might with the problem of how the second generation computationalist expertise constructs we adopted almost twenty years ago could be integrated with, for instance, connectionist neural network models of the mind, creating a third generation of expertise models. This paper offers some frameworks laying out how that end might be achieved using, for instance, symbolic connectionism and implementational connectivism. Further, it argues that given the overtly symbolic nature of translation language processing, cognitively-oriented translation scholars are uniquely suited to benefit from approaches that bridge the divide between symbol processing models and connectionist ones

Efficacy of screen recording in the other-revision of translations: episodic memory and event models

In a 2011 study, Angelone compared the self-revision results of graduate German translation students. Participants documented their original translations using Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting (IPDR) logs (Gile 2004), think-aloud protocols and screen recordings. They then used this documentation to assist self-revision of their translations. Angelone found a significant improvement in error detection overall and in each of six discrete error categories when participants used screen recordings to assist their self-revision. We sought to partially replicate Angelone’s findings concerning the efficacy of screen recording in translation revision. Instead of focusing on self-revision, we studied other-revision and broadened our scope to examine the behavior of graduate students in both Spanish and German translation. We hypothesized that error analysis overall would show that screen recording would again prove to be a more efficacious process protocol in support of revision than IPDR logs, as was the case in Angelone’s study. We also hypothesized that we would replicate his findings for each of the six error categories. The results partially confirmed Angelone’s results: screen recordings were significantly more efficacious than IPDR logs in overall error mitigation.En un estudio de 2011, Angelone comparó los resultados de auto-revisión de estudiantes graduados de traducción alemán-inglés. Los participantes documentaron sus traducciones originales mediante registros integrados de problemas y decisiones (IPDR, por sus siglas en inglés; Gile 2004), protocolos de pensamiento en voz alta, y grabaciones de pantalla. Después utilizaron esta documentación para facilitar la autorevisión de sus traducciones. Angelone encontró una mejora significativa general en la detección de errores y, en particular, en seis categorías específicas de errores cuando los participantes utilizaron las grabaciones de pantalla para sustentar su auto-revisión. En este estudio intentamos replicar parcialmente los resultados de Angelone con respecto a la eficacia de las grabaciones de pantalla para revisar traducciones. En lugar de centrarnos en la auto-revisión, estudiamos la revisión de traducciones ajenas. Según nuestra hipótesis de partida, el análisis de errores en general mostraría que las grabaciones de pantalla resultarían ser de nuevo un protocolo de proceso más eficaz en apoyo de la revisión que los registros IPDR, como en el estudio de Angelone. Otra hipótesis consistía en que replicaríamos sus resultados en cada una de las seis categorías de errores. Los resultados confirmaron parcialmente los obtenidos por Angelone: las grabaciones de pantalla fueron significativamente más eficaces que los registros IPDR en la mitigación general de errores

Informatics and Society: The Challenge of Improving IT Accessibility

ABSTRACT Information technology (IT) is an important part of society and has assumed an increasing role in education, medicine, commercial, leisure, and sociopolitical applications. However, while progress in developing IT hardware and software has advanced, our understanding of user needs and how these needs can be translated into more accessible and effective system design lags behind. The challenge that we face is rooted in the fact that many individuals across this planet who are differently-abled due to aging, developmental or neurologic conditions or to individual differences in learning, face obstacles in using and accessing IT. The central thesis of this paper is that the effective delivery of IT to the differently-abled is contingent on deriving enough information about user populations to allow for the development and use of personalized interfaces and customized content. To this end, it is proposed that a combination of adaptive hypermedia and cognitive adaptive strategies integrating metadata architecture for representing the results of cognitive and functional assessments be designed and implemented

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead