A Minimal Cognitive Model for Translating and Post-editing

This study investigates the coordination of reading (input) and writing (output) activities in from-scratch translation and post-editing. We segment logged eye movements and keylogging data into minimal units of reading and writing activity and model the process of post-editing and from-scratch translation as a Markov model. We show that the time translators and post-editors spend on source or target text reading predicts with a high degree of accuracy how likely it is that they engage in successive typing. We further show that the typing probability is also conditioned by the degree to which source and target text share semantic and syntactic properties. The minimal cognitive Markov model describes very basic factors which play a role in the processes occurring between input (reading) and output (writing) during translation.