Relatore: Professor Bruno OSIMO - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni ...

7. CONCLUSION
The purpose of the present research was to portray think-aloud protocols
as the best suited method for collecting data and investigating the human
mind processes, particularly the translation process. At the same time, it
presents the problems this verbalizing procedure entails and the limits
researchers meet, when trying to compare different TAP experiments.
According to cognitive psychological literature, verbal reports yield valid
and reliable data on human thought processes. However, cognitive psychology
has always dealt mainly with well-defined problem-solving tasks, for which it
is possible to determine a priori correct solutions and problem-solving
strategies. Translating, in turn, as a creative and subjective process, represents
an fuzzy form of problem-solving. Furthermore, translating and thinking
aloud are both verbal tasks, which means that they may draw on the same
memory resources, and thus interfere with each other.
To avoid these kinds of problems, researchers tried to use joint
translating as a method of data elicitation. Although the studies comparing
think-aloud protocols and joint translation have offered interesting results,
particularly with regard to didactic applications, these experiments contain
other variables, which makes it impossible to state that joint translating would
be a better method for studying translating than thinking aloud.
In both cases, it is important to remember that subjects are asked to
verbalize their thoughts; this is not a simple task, because it requires them to
reorganize their mental discourse into an oral one. And even if experimenters
recommend them to say things just as they come to mind, they’ll probably try
to communicate their mental ideas in a way other people would understand.
Moreover, many other elements, such as the subjects’ personal history,
emotional factors, the effect of the experimental situation, fear of failure etc.
(cf. section 7), may alter the results of TAP experiments.
More attention should be paid to identifying and isolating these variables
by, for example, using pre-experimental testing; then, they should be carefully
taken into account when examining the results of verbal reports. The
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