Cognitive processing of subtitles: Charting the future by mapping the past

The rapid growth in the production and global dissemination of audiovisual products has resulted in an increasing need for translation practices that allow for accessibility of these products to wider audiences who have no, or limited, access to media content due to hearing or sight impairments, or language proficiency. Research on the cognitive processing of subtitled products can be traced back to as early as the 1980s. Audiovisual products such as subtitled videos are a composite of rich information presented in different modalities and codes. Eye tracking is a well-established experimental method in reading research as eye movements provide reliable and detailed information about the moment-to-moment cognitive processing during reading. An important characteristic that distinguishes subtitle reading from normal reading is that the reading of subtitles needs to be done together with the processing of background video.