Technical Translation: Usability Strategies for Translating Technical Documentation

Cocktail-Party Effect 
The cocktail-party effect allows us to filter out information which is impor-
tant or relevant and separate it from the deluge of sensory information we 
constantly receive. The effect allows us to focus in on important informa-
tion while ignoring irrelevant information. The analogy comes from the 
notion of a cocktail-party where many different conversations are taking 
place. Amidst this bustle of information and conversation, we will hear 
someone mention our name over the noise in the room. Similarly, we can 
generally choose to listen to one particular conversation and effectively 
“fade out” the other conversations and “turn up” the conversation we want 
to listen to (Preece 1994:100; Coe 1996:12). 
Sensory Adaptation 
Sensory adaptation describes the phenomenon whereby we become accus-
tomed to a set of sensory inputs. For instance, if a person is working in an 
office and the air conditioning is turned on, the person may be distracted 
by the noise of the fan. However, after a while the person becomes accus-
tomed to the new stimulus and no longer notices it. It is not until the fan is 
turned off and the noise stops that the person becomes aware of it again. 
Thresholds, the cocktail-party effect and sensory adaptation are all 
mechanisms by which we select which information to process. They allow 
us to optimise
processing resources and concentrate on what is actually 
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Perception
portant, relevant or of interest. (These mechanisms
are also important fac-
tors in attention and cognitive processing which will be discussed later). 
Now we have separated the information to be processed, we can look at 
how this information is interpreted and prepared for cognitive processing. 
Ecological and Constructivist Approaches to Perception 
There are a number of different theories which seek to explain how we 
turn basic sensory data into meaningful interpretations. These theories can 
be broadly categorised into the following groups: 
ecological theories 
and 
constructivist theories
. 
The fundamental difference between these two groups is that ecological 
theorists maintain that perception involves a process of gathering informa-
tion from our environment to help us understand our surroundings. Con-
structivists, on the other hand, believe that visual perception is an active 
process based on what we actually see as well as our own previously ac-
quired knowledge (Preece 1994:76). Using both of these elements we then 
construct an interpretation of the information we receive.