Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

The Locus of Attention 
We have a certain degree of control over which information we process in 
STM. In other words, we can, to a certain extent, control which informa-
tion is the subject of our attention. For instance, we can be driving home 
and performing all of the processing necessary in order to do this task and 
we can then start thinking about what we would like for dinner. In this 
way we can make unconscious information conscious. 
Raskin (2000:17) urges caution with regard to using the word “focus” in 
relation to attention primarily because 
focus
can be used as a verb, and as 
such it implies some aspect of volition or choice on our part. This, he 
maintains, can lead to misunderstandings as to the true nature of attention. 
Instead he uses the expression 
locus of attention 
to refer to the current ob-
ject of our attention regardless of how it came to be such. In other words, 
the locus of attention refers to information that is currently being processed 
in STM. He justifies this shift in terminology from the widely used “focus” 
on the basis that while we can deliberately shift our attention to another 
task, issue or subject (e.g. the cocktail party effect), our attention can be fo-
cussed for us by means of other stimuli, e.g. people, events or objects. 
However, in keeping with common usage in the relevant literature, we will 
continue to use focus as a verb in the following paragraphs. The preceding 
caveat regarding volition should, however, be remembered. 
This lack of complete control is evident from the following examples: if 
you are told not to think of ice-cream, the likelihood is that you will think 
of it. Similarly, if you are thinking about ice-cream, you cannot make 
yourself stop thinking about it and make the information unconscious 
unless, of course, you shift your locus of attention to something else. 
A key feature of the locus of attention is that we have only one (Raskin 
2000:24).We have often heard people say that they can do only one thing 
at a time, particularly when they are busy. Apart from the obvious physio-
logical constraints preventing us from performing tasks (e.g. we cannot 
make a cup of tea while at the same time vacuuming the carpet) the reason 
for this is because in general terms we can focus on and process only one 
thing at a time. This fact is explained by Card 
et al.
(1983:42) who explain 
that the cognitive system is parallel in terms of recognition but serial in 
terms of its actions or responses. This means that we can be aware of several 
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Understanding Users 
things at the same time but we can only do one deliberate thing at a time. 
An example of this would be trying to hold an in-depth conversation while 
listening to the radio. So as a general rule, our attention is focussed on a