1. Introduction

Emphasis was placed on the creative cognitive process in translation, particularly the challenge of translating new words to the translator's abilities. Due to the lack of precedent, the translation of new words is essentially a creative process. The differences in the Chinese English language system increase cognitive load, but also provide creative space. There are shortcomings in academic research on translation creativity, such as a lack of consideration for the translated text and integration of translation product and process data. This study will combine science fiction neologisms and apply computational translation theory to explore the creative characteristics of translators in the translation process and output through multiple cross validation of eye movement keystroke data, subjective cognitive data, and translation product data. This helps to analyze the translator's creative cognitive process, strengthen creative cultivation, and provide guidance for translation practice.

2. Related research

Explored in depth the creative cognitive activities in the translation process. Firstly, cognitive translation studies is introduced as a new discipline that studies the intrinsic cognitive behavior of translators, with theoretical foundations including cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. Next, the development of translation process research was reviewed, from the first generation of cognitive science in the 1950s to the behavioral cognitive experimental methodological paradigm since the 1990s, as well as the widely used eye movement keystroke recording method. Secondly, the study of translation creativity was discussed, including the translator's creative performance in the translation process, the threshold limitations of cognitive effort, and the translator's tendency to choose the translation plan with the least cognitive effort. Finally, the current status of research on the translation of science fiction neologisms was analyzed, and it was pointed out that the current research mainly focuses on textual regularity analysis, lacking in-depth description of the translator's translation process. The importance of using science fiction neologisms as research objects to explore the creative cognitive process in translation was emphasized.

3. Research Design

Elaborate on the research design of creative cognitive processes in translation. Firstly, two research hypotheses were proposed: firstly, there are significant differences in the cognitive effort consumed by different forms of science fiction neologisms during the translation process, with simpler forms requiring less cognitive effort; Secondly, new words with complex forms provide translators with greater creative space and require more cognitive effort. Next, the criteria and process for selecting participants were introduced, and a total of nine English related graduate students were recruited, ranging in age from 22 to 28 years old, with certain blind typing abilities. The experimental design is an intra subject design, which controls for the variables of the subjects and ensures the homogeneity of the data. In terms of text selection and processing, three representative science fiction new words were selected based on their classification, and consistency adjustments were made to the text length and difficulty. The experimental setup includes two computers and one eye tracker, using five point calibration and focusing on right eye tracking. The subjects performed translation tasks in front of the test machine, and the translation process was recorded using an eye tracker and Translog II. The order in which three science fiction texts appear in the experiment is random and has no time limit. Participants can independently control the translation time and rhythm. Finally, participants need to fill out a translation difficulty survey to understand their subjective understanding of the text and their own translation. Each participant needs approximately half an hour to complete the experiment.

4. Experimental results and analysis

This chapter investigates the creative cognitive mechanism in the translation process through experiments, and analyzes the cognitive effort and creative performance of translators when translating different forms of science fiction new words. The experimental data includes task duration, fixation frequency, pause frequency, etc., and one-way ANOVA is used for comparative analysis. The results show that there are significant differences in the translation process of different new words, but formal complexity is not the only influencing factor. The difficulty of translating old words with new meanings is comparable to that of semantic new words, while the cognitive effort for formal new words is the greatest. A questionnaire survey found that there are differences between the subjective perception of translation difficulty and satisfaction by translators and the cognitive efforts actually put in. The calculation of translation entropy shows that there is no absolute correlation between translation difficulty and translation entropy, and translation entropy is more suitable for reflecting the translator's creative space. The greater the creative space, the more cognitive effort the translator perceives. The translation tasks of translators can be divided into basic translation tasks and advanced translation tasks. The former involves conveying the meaning of the original words, while the latter is based on subjective initiative and creative processing. Creative processing can improve translator satisfaction, but it may also increase cognitive load.

5. Conclusion

Summarized the cognitive mechanisms of translators in translating science fiction neologisms, including cognitive effort, subjective perception, and creative expression. The experimental results indicate that there are significant differences in the translation of science fiction new words in different forms, and the new meanings of old words may limit the translator's thinking, requiring more cognitive effort. The creative space is not directly proportional to the complexity of word forms, and translators may no longer engage in creative processing after completing basic translation tasks. The cognitive effort in the creative processing stage significantly affects the translator's subjective perception and satisfaction.