Is a picture worth a thousand words? The role of memory in audio description

Nazaret Fresno

doi:10.1556/Acr.15.2014.1.6

Jump to Content

Across Languages and Cultures

Volume/Issue:: Volume 15: Issue 1

Is a picture worth a thousand words? The role of memory in audio description

Author:

Nazaret Fresno

Nazaret Fresno Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Departament de Traducció i d’Interpretació Barcelona Spain

Search for other papers by Nazaret Fresno in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

View More View Less

Pages:: 111–129

Online Publication Date:: 05 Jun 2014

Publication Date:: 01 Jun 2014

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/Acr.15.2014.1.6

Keywords:: audio description; accessibility; memory; cognition

Restricted access

Purchase article

USD $25.00

1 year subscription

USD $360.00

USD $25.00

Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

USD $360.00

Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

In recent decades, audio description has been approached from a number of different perspectives. However, its cognitive dimension has not yet been explored. Reception studies are still scarce and little is known about users’ understanding of scripts, their preferences or their needs. This paper constitutes an attempt to shed light on the former by investigating the mental processing that leads blind and visually impaired recipients to understand audio described products. Memory, which dominates the cognitive processes that enhance comprehension, is the focus of this paper. Through an initial description of its components and basic operation, the role of sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory are analysed in the context of the phases of reception, processing and comprehension of new data. This general framework is then applied to the viewing of films in order to explore how spectators turn images and sound into meaningful information. Finally, the case of audio described products (where there is no image available to users) is investigated. Taking into account the nature of audio description, whereby visual information is conveyed to visually impaired users via complex auditory information, some relevant findings from cognitive psychology, media studies and education are presented. Specifically, attention is paid to research dealing with auditory as opposed to visual information processing in terms of cognitive effort and data recall. In addition, the common belief that blind listeners have a better memory for auditorily presented materials than their sighted counterparts is examined. The implications that these prior findings could have for audio description is then discussed with the objective of highlighting the potential contribution that an interdisciplinary approach which combines both translation studies and cognition could provide.

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share Link

Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://akjournals.com/abstract/journals/084/15/1/article-p111.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Across Languages and Cultures

Print ISSN:: 1585-1923

Online ISSN:: 1588-2519

Submit Your Manuscript

Author Guidelines are available in PDF format. Please, download the file from HERE.

Editor-in-Chief: Kinga KLAUDY (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)

Consulting Editor: Pál HELTAI (Kodolányi János University, Hungary)

Managing Editor: Krisztina KÁROLY (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)

EDITORIAL BOARD

Andrew CHESTERMAN (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Kirsten MALMKJÆR (University of Leicester, UK)
Christiane NORD (University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa)
Anthony PYM (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain, University of Melbourne, Australia)
Mary SNELL-HORNBY (University of Vienna, Austria)
Sonja TIRKKONEN-CONDIT (University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland)

ADVISORY BOARD

Mona BAKER (Shanghai International Studies University, China, University of Oslo, Norway)
Łucja BIEL (University of Warsaw, Poland)
Gloria CORPAS PASTOR (University of Malaga, Spain; University of Wolverhampton, UK)
Rodica DIMITRIU (Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Iasi, Romania)
Birgitta Englund DIMITROVA (Stockholm University, Sweden)
Sylvia KALINA (Cologne Technical University, Germany)
Haidee KOTZE (Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
Sara LAVIOSA (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy)
Brian MOSSOP (York University, Toronto, Canada)
Orero PILAR (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Gábor PRÓSZÉKY (Hungarian Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungary)
Alessandra RICCARDI (University of Trieste, Italy)
Edina ROBIN (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)
Myriam SALAMA-CARR (University of Manchester, UK)
Mohammad Saleh SANATIFAR (independent researcher, Iran)
Sanjun SUN (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China)
Anikó SOHÁR (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary)
Sonia VANDEPITTE (University of Gent, Belgium)
Albert VERMES (Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary)
Yifan ZHU (Shanghai Jiao Tong Univeristy, China)

Prof. Kinga Klaudy
Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Translation and Interpreting
Múzeum krt. 4. Bldg. F, I/9-11, H-1088 Budapest, Hungary
Phone: (+36 1) 411 6500/5894
Fax: (+36 1) 485 5217
E-mail:

WoS Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Wos Social Sciences Citation Index
WoS Essential Science Indicators
Scopus
Linguistics Abstracts
Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts
Translation Studies Abstractst
CABELLS Journalytics

2023
Web of Science
Journal Impact Factor	1.0
Rank by Impact Factor	Q2 (Linguistics)
Journal Citation Indicator	0.76
Scopus
CiteScore	1.7
CiteScore rank	Q1 (Language and Linguistics)
SNIP	1.223
Scimago
SJR index	0.671
SJR Q rank	Q1

Across Languages and Cultures
Publication Model	Hybrid
Submission Fee	none
Article Processing Charge	900 EUR/article
Printed Color Illustrations	40 EUR (or 10 000 HUF) + VAT / piece
Regional discounts on country of the funding agency	World Bank Lower-middle-income economies: 50% World Bank Low-income economies: 100%
Further Discounts	Editorial Board / Advisory Board members: 50% Corresponding authors, affiliated to an EISZ member institution subscribing to the journal package of Akadémiai Kiadó: 100%
Subscription fee 2025	Online subsscription: 362 EUR / 398 USD Print + online subscription: 420 EUR / 462 USD
Subscription Information	Online subscribers are entitled access to all back issues published by Akadémiai Kiadó for each title for the duration of the subscription, as well as Online First content for the subscribed content.
Purchase per Title	Individual articles are sold on the displayed price.

Across Languages and Cultures
Language	English
Size	B5
Year of Foundation	1999
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	2
Founder	Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	1585-1923 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2519 (Online)