An empirical take on the dubbing vs. subtitling debate:an eye movement study

Abstract

The empirical study of the processing of dubbed and subtitled audiovisual content still lacks attention in academic circles and the discussion commonly draws on anecdotal and speculative assumptions. To address this issue, we carried out two studies to explore the cognitive, evaluative and visual reception of dubbed and subtitled content using behavioural data and eye tracking, and different audiovisual materials with varying levels of complexity. The results support the value of both dubbing and subtitling as effective translation methods. Our findings suggest that both techniques are cognitively effective and positively received and assessed by viewers. However, the eye-tracking data suggest that in spite of these results, the processing of complex subtitled films might require more effort from viewers and require them to accelerate their reading process. Apart from highlighting the relevance of complexity, the experimental design also hints at the possible influence of stimulus length as a factor affecting performance.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1285/i22390359v19p255
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences & Humanities
Additional Information: © 2016 Università del Salento. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License
Uncontrolled Keywords: eye tracking,reception,complexity,subtitling,dubbing
Publication ISSN: 2239-0359
Last Modified: 25 Mar 2024 08:21
Date Deposited: 16 May 2017 11:30
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2016-12-31
Accepted Date: 2016-12-01
Authors: Perego, Elisa
Orrego-Carmona, David (ORCID Profile 0000-0001-6459-1813)
Bottiroli, Sara

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