Recognition of Neologisms During Translation: An Eye-Tracking and Key-Logging Study

This study explores whether neologisms are recognized as unfamiliar words or treated as standard words during translation by examining the cognitive effort they require. Previous research has highlighted the challenges of recognizing, comprehending, and translating newly coined terms. Focusing specifically on recognition, this study hypothesizes that translating neologisms requires greater cognitive effort than translating standard words. To test this, an experiment was conducted with six participants using three short source texts, each containing a single neologism. Eye-tracking and keystroke logging were used to measure fixation and pause durations. A Linear Mixed Model was applied to determine whether neologisms required significantly more cognitive effort. The eye-tracking results showed a statistically significant difference, suggesting that neologisms were recognized as unfamiliar words during translation. In contrast, keylogging data revealed no significant difference, indicating that participants did not spend additional time typing neologisms. Methodological factors—such as the merging of pause types (PDB and PDW) and participants’ unfamiliarity with physical keyboards—likely influenced the keylogging results. These findings highlight the need to refine pause-type analysis and account for typing behavior to better distinguish cognitive from non-cognitive influences in translation.