A atribuição de estados mentais em atividades de tradução: um estudo conduzido por meio de rastreamento ocular e ressonância magnética funcional

Abstract

Drawing on Gutt’s (2000, p. 205) observation that “human beings have the remarkable ability of telling in one language what was first told in another language” and on the assumption that this ability is guided by the interpretive use of mental representations (GUTT, 1991), this thesis, lying at the interface between Neuroscience and Translation Studies, aims at investigating the impact of the ability to attribute mental states to oneself, and to others -- known as Theory of Mind -- on translation processing. More specifically, this thesis sets out to observe some physiological and neurophysiological evidence associated with either the production or the interpretation of direct and indirect replies. First, by reviewing the literature on influential accounts of Relevance Theory (SPERBER; WILSON, 1986/95), the thesis considers translation as an instance of interlingual interpretive use (GUTT, 1991; 2004) and looks into the attribution of mental states in inferential communication (WILSON, 1999). Building on the literature review, it examines differences and similarities between the ability to attribute mental states (Theory of Mind) and the ability to represent such representations (metarepresentation). In short, we argue that metarepresentation, as a specialized ability, should not be treated as synonymous with Theory of Mind. Nevertheless, we suggest that there is a potential synergy between these abilities that should be taken into consideration for the study of inferential processes in interlingual communication, including reading and translation tasks. In order to address this issue experimentally, we introduce a new locus of research, in which translation students and professional translators silently read and translate short scenarios in both eye-tracking and fMRI environments. Initially, information about the two lead characters in each scenario and any necessary background is presented to subjects participating in the experiment. The characters hold a brief four-turn dialogue culminating in a question-answer pair. The target answer (indirect reply) recruits the interpretive use of mental representations together with the ability to attribute mental states (A: Do you like my new hairstyle? B: It’s hard to find a good hair stylist.). The control answer (direct reply) recruits the descriptive use of mental representation only (A: Where can I find a good hair stylist? B: It’s hard to find a good hair stylist.). The factorial analysis revealed a significant effect of the task (translation vs reading) and of the condition (direct reply vs indirect reply) not only in terms of cognitive effort, but also in terms of cognitive process.