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• adjudication
• analytically
• interpretable
• interpretive
• interpretively
• investigate
• investigation
• reinvestigation
• risk assessment
• run over/through something
• run through something

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to discover why something does not work effectively and help to improve it

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Defining Critical Thinking

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critical thinking

Definition of critical thinking

Examples of critical thinking in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'critical thinking.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1815, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near critical thinking

critical temperature

critical value

Cite this Entry

“Critical thinking.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/critical%20thinking. Accessed 16 May. 2024.

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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for thinking carefully, and the thinking components on which they focus. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the basis of respect for students’ autonomy and preparing students for success in life and for democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities that lead them to think critically when appropriate. The abilities can be identified directly; the dispositions indirectly, by considering what factors contribute to or impede exercise of the abilities. Standardized tests have been developed to assess the degree to which a person possesses such dispositions and abilities. Educational intervention has been shown experimentally to improve them, particularly when it includes dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. Controversies have arisen over the generalizability of critical thinking across domains, over alleged bias in critical thinking theories and instruction, and over the relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking.

2.1 Dewey’s Three Main Examples

2.2 dewey’s other examples, 2.3 further examples, 2.4 non-examples, 3. the definition of critical thinking, 4. its value, 5. the process of thinking critically, 6. components of the process, 7. contributory dispositions and abilities, 8.1 initiating dispositions, 8.2 internal dispositions, 9. critical thinking abilities, 10. required knowledge, 11. educational methods, 12.1 the generalizability of critical thinking, 12.2 bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, 12.3 relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking, other internet resources, related entries.

Use of the term ‘critical thinking’ to describe an educational goal goes back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who more commonly called it ‘reflective thinking’. He defined it as

active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Dewey 1910: 6; 1933: 9)

and identified a habit of such consideration with a scientific attitude of mind. His lengthy quotations of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill indicate that he was not the first person to propose development of a scientific attitude of mind as an educational goal.

In the 1930s, many of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association (Aikin 1942) adopted critical thinking as an educational goal, for whose achievement the study’s Evaluation Staff developed tests (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942). Glaser (1941) showed experimentally that it was possible to improve the critical thinking of high school students. Bloom’s influential taxonomy of cognitive educational objectives (Bloom et al. 1956) incorporated critical thinking abilities. Ennis (1962) proposed 12 aspects of critical thinking as a basis for research on the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability.

Since 1980, an annual international conference in California on critical thinking and educational reform has attracted tens of thousands of educators from all levels of education and from many parts of the world. Also since 1980, the state university system in California has required all undergraduate students to take a critical thinking course. Since 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions in conjunction with the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). In 1987, the APA’s Committee on Pre-College Philosophy commissioned a consensus statement on critical thinking for purposes of educational assessment and instruction (Facione 1990a). Researchers have developed standardized tests of critical thinking abilities and dispositions; for details, see the Supplement on Assessment . Educational jurisdictions around the world now include critical thinking in guidelines for curriculum and assessment.

For details on this history, see the Supplement on History .

2. Examples and Non-Examples

Before considering the definition of critical thinking, it will be helpful to have in mind some examples of critical thinking, as well as some examples of kinds of thinking that would apparently not count as critical thinking.

Dewey (1910: 68–71; 1933: 91–94) takes as paradigms of reflective thinking three class papers of students in which they describe their thinking. The examples range from the everyday to the scientific.

Transit : “The other day, when I was down town on 16th Street, a clock caught my eye. I saw that the hands pointed to 12:20. This suggested that I had an engagement at 124th Street, at one o’clock. I reasoned that as it had taken me an hour to come down on a surface car, I should probably be twenty minutes late if I returned the same way. I might save twenty minutes by a subway express. But was there a station near? If not, I might lose more than twenty minutes in looking for one. Then I thought of the elevated, and I saw there was such a line within two blocks. But where was the station? If it were several blocks above or below the street I was on, I should lose time instead of gaining it. My mind went back to the subway express as quicker than the elevated; furthermore, I remembered that it went nearer than the elevated to the part of 124th Street I wished to reach, so that time would be saved at the end of the journey. I concluded in favor of the subway, and reached my destination by one o’clock.” (Dewey 1910: 68–69; 1933: 91–92)

Ferryboat : “Projecting nearly horizontally from the upper deck of the ferryboat on which I daily cross the river is a long white pole, having a gilded ball at its tip. It suggested a flagpole when I first saw it; its color, shape, and gilded ball agreed with this idea, and these reasons seemed to justify me in this belief. But soon difficulties presented themselves. The pole was nearly horizontal, an unusual position for a flagpole; in the next place, there was no pulley, ring, or cord by which to attach a flag; finally, there were elsewhere on the boat two vertical staffs from which flags were occasionally flown. It seemed probable that the pole was not there for flag-flying.

“I then tried to imagine all possible purposes of the pole, and to consider for which of these it was best suited: (a) Possibly it was an ornament. But as all the ferryboats and even the tugboats carried poles, this hypothesis was rejected. (b) Possibly it was the terminal of a wireless telegraph. But the same considerations made this improbable. Besides, the more natural place for such a terminal would be the highest part of the boat, on top of the pilot house. (c) Its purpose might be to point out the direction in which the boat is moving.

“In support of this conclusion, I discovered that the pole was lower than the pilot house, so that the steersman could easily see it. Moreover, the tip was enough higher than the base, so that, from the pilot’s position, it must appear to project far out in front of the boat. Moreover, the pilot being near the front of the boat, he would need some such guide as to its direction. Tugboats would also need poles for such a purpose. This hypothesis was so much more probable than the others that I accepted it. I formed the conclusion that the pole was set up for the purpose of showing the pilot the direction in which the boat pointed, to enable him to steer correctly.” (Dewey 1910: 69–70; 1933: 92–93)

Bubbles : “In washing tumblers in hot soapsuds and placing them mouth downward on a plate, bubbles appeared on the outside of the mouth of the tumblers and then went inside. Why? The presence of bubbles suggests air, which I note must come from inside the tumbler. I see that the soapy water on the plate prevents escape of the air save as it may be caught in bubbles. But why should air leave the tumbler? There was no substance entering to force it out. It must have expanded. It expands by increase of heat, or by decrease of pressure, or both. Could the air have become heated after the tumbler was taken from the hot suds? Clearly not the air that was already entangled in the water. If heated air was the cause, cold air must have entered in transferring the tumblers from the suds to the plate. I test to see if this supposition is true by taking several more tumblers out. Some I shake so as to make sure of entrapping cold air in them. Some I take out holding mouth downward in order to prevent cold air from entering. Bubbles appear on the outside of every one of the former and on none of the latter. I must be right in my inference. Air from the outside must have been expanded by the heat of the tumbler, which explains the appearance of the bubbles on the outside. But why do they then go inside? Cold contracts. The tumbler cooled and also the air inside it. Tension was removed, and hence bubbles appeared inside. To be sure of this, I test by placing a cup of ice on the tumbler while the bubbles are still forming outside. They soon reverse” (Dewey 1910: 70–71; 1933: 93–94).

Dewey (1910, 1933) sprinkles his book with other examples of critical thinking. We will refer to the following.

Weather : A man on a walk notices that it has suddenly become cool, thinks that it is probably going to rain, looks up and sees a dark cloud obscuring the sun, and quickens his steps (1910: 6–10; 1933: 9–13).

Disorder : A man finds his rooms on his return to them in disorder with his belongings thrown about, thinks at first of burglary as an explanation, then thinks of mischievous children as being an alternative explanation, then looks to see whether valuables are missing, and discovers that they are (1910: 82–83; 1933: 166–168).

Typhoid : A physician diagnosing a patient whose conspicuous symptoms suggest typhoid avoids drawing a conclusion until more data are gathered by questioning the patient and by making tests (1910: 85–86; 1933: 170).

Blur : A moving blur catches our eye in the distance, we ask ourselves whether it is a cloud of whirling dust or a tree moving its branches or a man signaling to us, we think of other traits that should be found on each of those possibilities, and we look and see if those traits are found (1910: 102, 108; 1933: 121, 133).

Suction pump : In thinking about the suction pump, the scientist first notes that it will draw water only to a maximum height of 33 feet at sea level and to a lesser maximum height at higher elevations, selects for attention the differing atmospheric pressure at these elevations, sets up experiments in which the air is removed from a vessel containing water (when suction no longer works) and in which the weight of air at various levels is calculated, compares the results of reasoning about the height to which a given weight of air will allow a suction pump to raise water with the observed maximum height at different elevations, and finally assimilates the suction pump to such apparently different phenomena as the siphon and the rising of a balloon (1910: 150–153; 1933: 195–198).

Diamond : A passenger in a car driving in a diamond lane reserved for vehicles with at least one passenger notices that the diamond marks on the pavement are far apart in some places and close together in others. Why? The driver suggests that the reason may be that the diamond marks are not needed where there is a solid double line separating the diamond lane from the adjoining lane, but are needed when there is a dotted single line permitting crossing into the diamond lane. Further observation confirms that the diamonds are close together when a dotted line separates the diamond lane from its neighbour, but otherwise far apart.

Rash : A woman suddenly develops a very itchy red rash on her throat and upper chest. She recently noticed a mark on the back of her right hand, but was not sure whether the mark was a rash or a scrape. She lies down in bed and thinks about what might be causing the rash and what to do about it. About two weeks before, she began taking blood pressure medication that contained a sulfa drug, and the pharmacist had warned her, in view of a previous allergic reaction to a medication containing a sulfa drug, to be on the alert for an allergic reaction; however, she had been taking the medication for two weeks with no such effect. The day before, she began using a new cream on her neck and upper chest; against the new cream as the cause was mark on the back of her hand, which had not been exposed to the cream. She began taking probiotics about a month before. She also recently started new eye drops, but she supposed that manufacturers of eye drops would be careful not to include allergy-causing components in the medication. The rash might be a heat rash, since she recently was sweating profusely from her upper body. Since she is about to go away on a short vacation, where she would not have access to her usual physician, she decides to keep taking the probiotics and using the new eye drops but to discontinue the blood pressure medication and to switch back to the old cream for her neck and upper chest. She forms a plan to consult her regular physician on her return about the blood pressure medication.

Candidate : Although Dewey included no examples of thinking directed at appraising the arguments of others, such thinking has come to be considered a kind of critical thinking. We find an example of such thinking in the performance task on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+), which its sponsoring organization describes as

a performance-based assessment that provides a measure of an institution’s contribution to the development of critical-thinking and written communication skills of its students. (Council for Aid to Education 2017)

A sample task posted on its website requires the test-taker to write a report for public distribution evaluating a fictional candidate’s policy proposals and their supporting arguments, using supplied background documents, with a recommendation on whether to endorse the candidate.

Immediate acceptance of an idea that suggests itself as a solution to a problem (e.g., a possible explanation of an event or phenomenon, an action that seems likely to produce a desired result) is “uncritical thinking, the minimum of reflection” (Dewey 1910: 13). On-going suspension of judgment in the light of doubt about a possible solution is not critical thinking (Dewey 1910: 108). Critique driven by a dogmatically held political or religious ideology is not critical thinking; thus Paulo Freire (1968 [1970]) is using the term (e.g., at 1970: 71, 81, 100, 146) in a more politically freighted sense that includes not only reflection but also revolutionary action against oppression. Derivation of a conclusion from given data using an algorithm is not critical thinking.

What is critical thinking? There are many definitions. Ennis (2016) lists 14 philosophically oriented scholarly definitions and three dictionary definitions. Following Rawls (1971), who distinguished his conception of justice from a utilitarian conception but regarded them as rival conceptions of the same concept, Ennis maintains that the 17 definitions are different conceptions of the same concept. Rawls articulated the shared concept of justice as

a characteristic set of principles for assigning basic rights and duties and for determining… the proper distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation. (Rawls 1971: 5)

Bailin et al. (1999b) claim that, if one considers what sorts of thinking an educator would take not to be critical thinking and what sorts to be critical thinking, one can conclude that educators typically understand critical thinking to have at least three features.

• It is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do.
• The person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking.
• The thinking fulfills the relevant standards to some threshold level.

One could sum up the core concept that involves these three features by saying that critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking. This core concept seems to apply to all the examples of critical thinking described in the previous section. As for the non-examples, their exclusion depends on construing careful thinking as excluding jumping immediately to conclusions, suspending judgment no matter how strong the evidence, reasoning from an unquestioned ideological or religious perspective, and routinely using an algorithm to answer a question.

If the core of critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking, conceptions of it can vary according to its presumed scope, its presumed goal, one’s criteria and threshold for being careful, and the thinking component on which one focuses. As to its scope, some conceptions (e.g., Dewey 1910, 1933) restrict it to constructive thinking on the basis of one’s own observations and experiments, others (e.g., Ennis 1962; Fisher & Scriven 1997; Johnson 1992) to appraisal of the products of such thinking. Ennis (1991) and Bailin et al. (1999b) take it to cover both construction and appraisal. As to its goal, some conceptions restrict it to forming a judgment (Dewey 1910, 1933; Lipman 1987; Facione 1990a). Others allow for actions as well as beliefs as the end point of a process of critical thinking (Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b). As to the criteria and threshold for being careful, definitions vary in the term used to indicate that critical thinking satisfies certain norms: “intellectually disciplined” (Scriven & Paul 1987), “reasonable” (Ennis 1991), “skillful” (Lipman 1987), “skilled” (Fisher & Scriven 1997), “careful” (Bailin & Battersby 2009). Some definitions specify these norms, referring variously to “consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1910, 1933); “the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning” (Glaser 1941); “conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication” (Scriven & Paul 1987); the requirement that “it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting” (Lipman 1987); “evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations” (Facione 1990a); and “plus-minus considerations of the product in terms of appropriate standards (or criteria)” (Johnson 1992). Stanovich and Stanovich (2010) propose to ground the concept of critical thinking in the concept of rationality, which they understand as combining epistemic rationality (fitting one’s beliefs to the world) and instrumental rationality (optimizing goal fulfillment); a critical thinker, in their view, is someone with “a propensity to override suboptimal responses from the autonomous mind” (2010: 227). These variant specifications of norms for critical thinking are not necessarily incompatible with one another, and in any case presuppose the core notion of thinking carefully. As to the thinking component singled out, some definitions focus on suspension of judgment during the thinking (Dewey 1910; McPeck 1981), others on inquiry while judgment is suspended (Bailin & Battersby 2009, 2021), others on the resulting judgment (Facione 1990a), and still others on responsiveness to reasons (Siegel 1988). Kuhn (2019) takes critical thinking to be more a dialogic practice of advancing and responding to arguments than an individual ability.

In educational contexts, a definition of critical thinking is a “programmatic definition” (Scheffler 1960: 19). It expresses a practical program for achieving an educational goal. For this purpose, a one-sentence formulaic definition is much less useful than articulation of a critical thinking process, with criteria and standards for the kinds of thinking that the process may involve. The real educational goal is recognition, adoption and implementation by students of those criteria and standards. That adoption and implementation in turn consists in acquiring the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker.

Conceptions of critical thinking generally do not include moral integrity as part of the concept. Dewey, for example, took critical thinking to be the ultimate intellectual goal of education, but distinguished it from the development of social cooperation among school children, which he took to be the central moral goal. Ennis (1996, 2011) added to his previous list of critical thinking dispositions a group of dispositions to care about the dignity and worth of every person, which he described as a “correlative” (1996) disposition without which critical thinking would be less valuable and perhaps harmful. An educational program that aimed at developing critical thinking but not the correlative disposition to care about the dignity and worth of every person, he asserted, “would be deficient and perhaps dangerous” (Ennis 1996: 172).

Dewey thought that education for reflective thinking would be of value to both the individual and society; recognition in educational practice of the kinship to the scientific attitude of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (Dewey 1910: iii). Schools participating in the Eight-Year Study took development of the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems as a means to leading young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18, 81). Harvey Siegel (1988: 55–61) has offered four considerations in support of adopting critical thinking as an educational ideal. (1) Respect for persons requires that schools and teachers honour students’ demands for reasons and explanations, deal with students honestly, and recognize the need to confront students’ independent judgment; these requirements concern the manner in which teachers treat students. (2) Education has the task of preparing children to be successful adults, a task that requires development of their self-sufficiency. (3) Education should initiate children into the rational traditions in such fields as history, science and mathematics. (4) Education should prepare children to become democratic citizens, which requires reasoned procedures and critical talents and attitudes. To supplement these considerations, Siegel (1988: 62–90) responds to two objections: the ideology objection that adoption of any educational ideal requires a prior ideological commitment and the indoctrination objection that cultivation of critical thinking cannot escape being a form of indoctrination.

Despite the diversity of our 11 examples, one can recognize a common pattern. Dewey analyzed it as consisting of five phases:

• suggestions , in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution;
• an intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity into a problem to be solved, a question for which the answer must be sought;
• the use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea, or hypothesis , to initiate and guide observation and other operations in collection of factual material;
• the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or supposition ( reasoning , in the sense on which reasoning is a part, not the whole, of inference); and
• testing the hypothesis by overt or imaginative action. (Dewey 1933: 106–107; italics in original)

The process of reflective thinking consisting of these phases would be preceded by a perplexed, troubled or confused situation and followed by a cleared-up, unified, resolved situation (Dewey 1933: 106). The term ‘phases’ replaced the term ‘steps’ (Dewey 1910: 72), thus removing the earlier suggestion of an invariant sequence. Variants of the above analysis appeared in (Dewey 1916: 177) and (Dewey 1938: 101–119).

The variant formulations indicate the difficulty of giving a single logical analysis of such a varied process. The process of critical thinking may have a spiral pattern, with the problem being redefined in the light of obstacles to solving it as originally formulated. For example, the person in Transit might have concluded that getting to the appointment at the scheduled time was impossible and have reformulated the problem as that of rescheduling the appointment for a mutually convenient time. Further, defining a problem does not always follow after or lead immediately to an idea of a suggested solution. Nor should it do so, as Dewey himself recognized in describing the physician in Typhoid as avoiding any strong preference for this or that conclusion before getting further information (Dewey 1910: 85; 1933: 170). People with a hypothesis in mind, even one to which they have a very weak commitment, have a so-called “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998): they are likely to pay attention to evidence that confirms the hypothesis and to ignore evidence that counts against it or for some competing hypothesis. Detectives, intelligence agencies, and investigators of airplane accidents are well advised to gather relevant evidence systematically and to postpone even tentative adoption of an explanatory hypothesis until the collected evidence rules out with the appropriate degree of certainty all but one explanation. Dewey’s analysis of the critical thinking process can be faulted as well for requiring acceptance or rejection of a possible solution to a defined problem, with no allowance for deciding in the light of the available evidence to suspend judgment. Further, given the great variety of kinds of problems for which reflection is appropriate, there is likely to be variation in its component events. Perhaps the best way to conceptualize the critical thinking process is as a checklist whose component events can occur in a variety of orders, selectively, and more than once. These component events might include (1) noticing a difficulty, (2) defining the problem, (3) dividing the problem into manageable sub-problems, (4) formulating a variety of possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (5) determining what evidence is relevant to deciding among possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (6) devising a plan of systematic observation or experiment that will uncover the relevant evidence, (7) carrying out the plan of systematic observation or experimentation, (8) noting the results of the systematic observation or experiment, (9) gathering relevant testimony and information from others, (10) judging the credibility of testimony and information gathered from others, (11) drawing conclusions from gathered evidence and accepted testimony, and (12) accepting a solution that the evidence adequately supports (cf. Hitchcock 2017: 485).

Checklist conceptions of the process of critical thinking are open to the objection that they are too mechanical and procedural to fit the multi-dimensional and emotionally charged issues for which critical thinking is urgently needed (Paul 1984). For such issues, a more dialectical process is advocated, in which competing relevant world views are identified, their implications explored, and some sort of creative synthesis attempted.

If one considers the critical thinking process illustrated by the 11 examples, one can identify distinct kinds of mental acts and mental states that form part of it. To distinguish, label and briefly characterize these components is a useful preliminary to identifying abilities, skills, dispositions, attitudes, habits and the like that contribute causally to thinking critically. Identifying such abilities and habits is in turn a useful preliminary to setting educational goals. Setting the goals is in its turn a useful preliminary to designing strategies for helping learners to achieve the goals and to designing ways of measuring the extent to which learners have done so. Such measures provide both feedback to learners on their achievement and a basis for experimental research on the effectiveness of various strategies for educating people to think critically. Let us begin, then, by distinguishing the kinds of mental acts and mental events that can occur in a critical thinking process.

• Observing : One notices something in one’s immediate environment (sudden cooling of temperature in Weather , bubbles forming outside a glass and then going inside in Bubbles , a moving blur in the distance in Blur , a rash in Rash ). Or one notes the results of an experiment or systematic observation (valuables missing in Disorder , no suction without air pressure in Suction pump )
• Feeling : One feels puzzled or uncertain about something (how to get to an appointment on time in Transit , why the diamonds vary in spacing in Diamond ). One wants to resolve this perplexity. One feels satisfaction once one has worked out an answer (to take the subway express in Transit , diamonds closer when needed as a warning in Diamond ).
• Wondering : One formulates a question to be addressed (why bubbles form outside a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , how suction pumps work in Suction pump , what caused the rash in Rash ).
• Imagining : One thinks of possible answers (bus or subway or elevated in Transit , flagpole or ornament or wireless communication aid or direction indicator in Ferryboat , allergic reaction or heat rash in Rash ).
• Inferring : One works out what would be the case if a possible answer were assumed (valuables missing if there has been a burglary in Disorder , earlier start to the rash if it is an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug in Rash ). Or one draws a conclusion once sufficient relevant evidence is gathered (take the subway in Transit , burglary in Disorder , discontinue blood pressure medication and new cream in Rash ).
• Knowledge : One uses stored knowledge of the subject-matter to generate possible answers or to infer what would be expected on the assumption of a particular answer (knowledge of a city’s public transit system in Transit , of the requirements for a flagpole in Ferryboat , of Boyle’s law in Bubbles , of allergic reactions in Rash ).
• Experimenting : One designs and carries out an experiment or a systematic observation to find out whether the results deduced from a possible answer will occur (looking at the location of the flagpole in relation to the pilot’s position in Ferryboat , putting an ice cube on top of a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , measuring the height to which a suction pump will draw water at different elevations in Suction pump , noticing the spacing of diamonds when movement to or from a diamond lane is allowed in Diamond ).
• Consulting : One finds a source of information, gets the information from the source, and makes a judgment on whether to accept it. None of our 11 examples include searching for sources of information. In this respect they are unrepresentative, since most people nowadays have almost instant access to information relevant to answering any question, including many of those illustrated by the examples. However, Candidate includes the activities of extracting information from sources and evaluating its credibility.
• Identifying and analyzing arguments : One notices an argument and works out its structure and content as a preliminary to evaluating its strength. This activity is central to Candidate . It is an important part of a critical thinking process in which one surveys arguments for various positions on an issue.
• Judging : One makes a judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence and reasoning, such as the judgment in Ferryboat that the purpose of the pole is to provide direction to the pilot.
• Deciding : One makes a decision on what to do or on what policy to adopt, as in the decision in Transit to take the subway.

By definition, a person who does something voluntarily is both willing and able to do that thing at that time. Both the willingness and the ability contribute causally to the person’s action, in the sense that the voluntary action would not occur if either (or both) of these were lacking. For example, suppose that one is standing with one’s arms at one’s sides and one voluntarily lifts one’s right arm to an extended horizontal position. One would not do so if one were unable to lift one’s arm, if for example one’s right side was paralyzed as the result of a stroke. Nor would one do so if one were unwilling to lift one’s arm, if for example one were participating in a street demonstration at which a white supremacist was urging the crowd to lift their right arm in a Nazi salute and one were unwilling to express support in this way for the racist Nazi ideology. The same analysis applies to a voluntary mental process of thinking critically. It requires both willingness and ability to think critically, including willingness and ability to perform each of the mental acts that compose the process and to coordinate those acts in a sequence that is directed at resolving the initiating perplexity.

Consider willingness first. We can identify causal contributors to willingness to think critically by considering factors that would cause a person who was able to think critically about an issue nevertheless not to do so (Hamby 2014). For each factor, the opposite condition thus contributes causally to willingness to think critically on a particular occasion. For example, people who habitually jump to conclusions without considering alternatives will not think critically about issues that arise, even if they have the required abilities. The contrary condition of willingness to suspend judgment is thus a causal contributor to thinking critically.

Now consider ability. In contrast to the ability to move one’s arm, which can be completely absent because a stroke has left the arm paralyzed, the ability to think critically is a developed ability, whose absence is not a complete absence of ability to think but absence of ability to think well. We can identify the ability to think well directly, in terms of the norms and standards for good thinking. In general, to be able do well the thinking activities that can be components of a critical thinking process, one needs to know the concepts and principles that characterize their good performance, to recognize in particular cases that the concepts and principles apply, and to apply them. The knowledge, recognition and application may be procedural rather than declarative. It may be domain-specific rather than widely applicable, and in either case may need subject-matter knowledge, sometimes of a deep kind.

Reflections of the sort illustrated by the previous two paragraphs have led scholars to identify the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a “critical thinker”, i.e., someone who thinks critically whenever it is appropriate to do so. We turn now to these three types of causal contributors to thinking critically. We start with dispositions, since arguably these are the most powerful contributors to being a critical thinker, can be fostered at an early stage of a child’s development, and are susceptible to general improvement (Glaser 1941: 175)

8. Critical Thinking Dispositions

Educational researchers use the term ‘dispositions’ broadly for the habits of mind and attitudes that contribute causally to being a critical thinker. Some writers (e.g., Paul & Elder 2006; Hamby 2014; Bailin & Battersby 2016a) propose to use the term ‘virtues’ for this dimension of a critical thinker. The virtues in question, although they are virtues of character, concern the person’s ways of thinking rather than the person’s ways of behaving towards others. They are not moral virtues but intellectual virtues, of the sort articulated by Zagzebski (1996) and discussed by Turri, Alfano, and Greco (2017).

On a realistic conception, thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers. They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in particular ways in particular circumstances, and can be genuinely explanatory (Siegel 1999). Sceptics argue that there is no evidence for a specific mental basis for the habits of mind that contribute to thinking critically, and that it is pedagogically misleading to posit such a basis (Bailin et al. 1999a). Whatever their status, critical thinking dispositions need motivation for their initial formation in a child—motivation that may be external or internal. As children develop, the force of habit will gradually become important in sustaining the disposition (Nieto & Valenzuela 2012). Mere force of habit, however, is unlikely to sustain critical thinking dispositions. Critical thinkers must value and enjoy using their knowledge and abilities to think things through for themselves. They must be committed to, and lovers of, inquiry.

A person may have a critical thinking disposition with respect to only some kinds of issues. For example, one could be open-minded about scientific issues but not about religious issues. Similarly, one could be confident in one’s ability to reason about the theological implications of the existence of evil in the world but not in one’s ability to reason about the best design for a guided ballistic missile.

Facione (1990a: 25) divides “affective dispositions” of critical thinking into approaches to life and living in general and approaches to specific issues, questions or problems. Adapting this distinction, one can usefully divide critical thinking dispositions into initiating dispositions (those that contribute causally to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started). The two categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, open-mindedness, in the sense of willingness to consider alternative points of view to one’s own, is both an initiating and an internal disposition.

Using the strategy of considering factors that would block people with the ability to think critically from doing so, we can identify as initiating dispositions for thinking critically attentiveness, a habit of inquiry, self-confidence, courage, open-mindedness, willingness to suspend judgment, trust in reason, wanting evidence for one’s beliefs, and seeking the truth. We consider briefly what each of these dispositions amounts to, in each case citing sources that acknowledge them.

• Attentiveness : One will not think critically if one fails to recognize an issue that needs to be thought through. For example, the pedestrian in Weather would not have looked up if he had not noticed that the air was suddenly cooler. To be a critical thinker, then, one needs to be habitually attentive to one’s surroundings, noticing not only what one senses but also sources of perplexity in messages received and in one’s own beliefs and attitudes (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Habit of inquiry : Inquiry is effortful, and one needs an internal push to engage in it. For example, the student in Bubbles could easily have stopped at idle wondering about the cause of the bubbles rather than reasoning to a hypothesis, then designing and executing an experiment to test it. Thus willingness to think critically needs mental energy and initiative. What can supply that energy? Love of inquiry, or perhaps just a habit of inquiry. Hamby (2015) has argued that willingness to inquire is the central critical thinking virtue, one that encompasses all the others. It is recognized as a critical thinking disposition by Dewey (1910: 29; 1933: 35), Glaser (1941: 5), Ennis (1987: 12; 1991: 8), Facione (1990a: 25), Bailin et al. (1999b: 294), Halpern (1998: 452), and Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo (2001).
• Self-confidence : Lack of confidence in one’s abilities can block critical thinking. For example, if the woman in Rash lacked confidence in her ability to figure things out for herself, she might just have assumed that the rash on her chest was the allergic reaction to her medication against which the pharmacist had warned her. Thus willingness to think critically requires confidence in one’s ability to inquire (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Courage : Fear of thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus willingness to think critically requires intellectual courage (Paul & Elder 2006: 16).
• Open-mindedness : A dogmatic attitude will impede thinking critically. For example, a person who adheres rigidly to a “pro-choice” position on the issue of the legal status of induced abortion is likely to be unwilling to consider seriously the issue of when in its development an unborn child acquires a moral right to life. Thus willingness to think critically requires open-mindedness, in the sense of a willingness to examine questions to which one already accepts an answer but which further evidence or reasoning might cause one to answer differently (Dewey 1933; Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b; Halpern 1998, Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). Paul (1981) emphasizes open-mindedness about alternative world-views, and recommends a dialectical approach to integrating such views as central to what he calls “strong sense” critical thinking. In three studies, Haran, Ritov, & Mellers (2013) found that actively open-minded thinking, including “the tendency to weigh new evidence against a favored belief, to spend sufficient time on a problem before giving up, and to consider carefully the opinions of others in forming one’s own”, led study participants to acquire information and thus to make accurate estimations.
• Willingness to suspend judgment : Premature closure on an initial solution will block critical thinking. Thus willingness to think critically requires a willingness to suspend judgment while alternatives are explored (Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Halpern 1998).
• Trust in reason : Since distrust in the processes of reasoned inquiry will dissuade one from engaging in it, trust in them is an initiating critical thinking disposition (Facione 1990a, 25; Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001; Paul & Elder 2006). In reaction to an allegedly exclusive emphasis on reason in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, Thayer-Bacon (2000) argues that intuition, imagination, and emotion have important roles to play in an adequate conception of critical thinking that she calls “constructive thinking”. From her point of view, critical thinking requires trust not only in reason but also in intuition, imagination, and emotion.
• Seeking the truth : If one does not care about the truth but is content to stick with one’s initial bias on an issue, then one will not think critically about it. Seeking the truth is thus an initiating critical thinking disposition (Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). A disposition to seek the truth is implicit in more specific critical thinking dispositions, such as trying to be well-informed, considering seriously points of view other than one’s own, looking for alternatives, suspending judgment when the evidence is insufficient, and adopting a position when the evidence supporting it is sufficient.

Some of the initiating dispositions, such as open-mindedness and willingness to suspend judgment, are also internal critical thinking dispositions, in the sense of mental habits or attitudes that contribute causally to doing a good job of critical thinking once one starts the process. But there are many other internal critical thinking dispositions. Some of them are parasitic on one’s conception of good thinking. For example, it is constitutive of good thinking about an issue to formulate the issue clearly and to maintain focus on it. For this purpose, one needs not only the corresponding ability but also the corresponding disposition. Ennis (1991: 8) describes it as the disposition “to determine and maintain focus on the conclusion or question”, Facione (1990a: 25) as “clarity in stating the question or concern”. Other internal dispositions are motivators to continue or adjust the critical thinking process, such as willingness to persist in a complex task and willingness to abandon nonproductive strategies in an attempt to self-correct (Halpern 1998: 452). For a list of identified internal critical thinking dispositions, see the Supplement on Internal Critical Thinking Dispositions .

Some theorists postulate skills, i.e., acquired abilities, as operative in critical thinking. It is not obvious, however, that a good mental act is the exercise of a generic acquired skill. Inferring an expected time of arrival, as in Transit , has some generic components but also uses non-generic subject-matter knowledge. Bailin et al. (1999a) argue against viewing critical thinking skills as generic and discrete, on the ground that skilled performance at a critical thinking task cannot be separated from knowledge of concepts and from domain-specific principles of good thinking. Talk of skills, they concede, is unproblematic if it means merely that a person with critical thinking skills is capable of intelligent performance.

Despite such scepticism, theorists of critical thinking have listed as general contributors to critical thinking what they variously call abilities (Glaser 1941; Ennis 1962, 1991), skills (Facione 1990a; Halpern 1998) or competencies (Fisher & Scriven 1997). Amalgamating these lists would produce a confusing and chaotic cornucopia of more than 50 possible educational objectives, with only partial overlap among them. It makes sense instead to try to understand the reasons for the multiplicity and diversity, and to make a selection according to one’s own reasons for singling out abilities to be developed in a critical thinking curriculum. Two reasons for diversity among lists of critical thinking abilities are the underlying conception of critical thinking and the envisaged educational level. Appraisal-only conceptions, for example, involve a different suite of abilities than constructive-only conceptions. Some lists, such as those in (Glaser 1941), are put forward as educational objectives for secondary school students, whereas others are proposed as objectives for college students (e.g., Facione 1990a).

The abilities described in the remaining paragraphs of this section emerge from reflection on the general abilities needed to do well the thinking activities identified in section 6 as components of the critical thinking process described in section 5 . The derivation of each collection of abilities is accompanied by citation of sources that list such abilities and of standardized tests that claim to test them.

Observational abilities : Careful and accurate observation sometimes requires specialist expertise and practice, as in the case of observing birds and observing accident scenes. However, there are general abilities of noticing what one’s senses are picking up from one’s environment and of being able to articulate clearly and accurately to oneself and others what one has observed. It helps in exercising them to be able to recognize and take into account factors that make one’s observation less trustworthy, such as prior framing of the situation, inadequate time, deficient senses, poor observation conditions, and the like. It helps as well to be skilled at taking steps to make one’s observation more trustworthy, such as moving closer to get a better look, measuring something three times and taking the average, and checking what one thinks one is observing with someone else who is in a good position to observe it. It also helps to be skilled at recognizing respects in which one’s report of one’s observation involves inference rather than direct observation, so that one can then consider whether the inference is justified. These abilities come into play as well when one thinks about whether and with what degree of confidence to accept an observation report, for example in the study of history or in a criminal investigation or in assessing news reports. Observational abilities show up in some lists of critical thinking abilities (Ennis 1962: 90; Facione 1990a: 16; Ennis 1991: 9). There are items testing a person’s ability to judge the credibility of observation reports in the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, Levels X and Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). Norris and King (1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b) is a test of ability to appraise observation reports.

Emotional abilities : The emotions that drive a critical thinking process are perplexity or puzzlement, a wish to resolve it, and satisfaction at achieving the desired resolution. Children experience these emotions at an early age, without being trained to do so. Education that takes critical thinking as a goal needs only to channel these emotions and to make sure not to stifle them. Collaborative critical thinking benefits from ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotional commitments and reactions.

Questioning abilities : A critical thinking process needs transformation of an inchoate sense of perplexity into a clear question. Formulating a question well requires not building in questionable assumptions, not prejudging the issue, and using language that in context is unambiguous and precise enough (Ennis 1962: 97; 1991: 9).

Imaginative abilities : Thinking directed at finding the correct causal explanation of a general phenomenon or particular event requires an ability to imagine possible explanations. Thinking about what policy or plan of action to adopt requires generation of options and consideration of possible consequences of each option. Domain knowledge is required for such creative activity, but a general ability to imagine alternatives is helpful and can be nurtured so as to become easier, quicker, more extensive, and deeper (Dewey 1910: 34–39; 1933: 40–47). Facione (1990a) and Halpern (1998) include the ability to imagine alternatives as a critical thinking ability.

Inferential abilities : The ability to draw conclusions from given information, and to recognize with what degree of certainty one’s own or others’ conclusions follow, is universally recognized as a general critical thinking ability. All 11 examples in section 2 of this article include inferences, some from hypotheses or options (as in Transit , Ferryboat and Disorder ), others from something observed (as in Weather and Rash ). None of these inferences is formally valid. Rather, they are licensed by general, sometimes qualified substantive rules of inference (Toulmin 1958) that rest on domain knowledge—that a bus trip takes about the same time in each direction, that the terminal of a wireless telegraph would be located on the highest possible place, that sudden cooling is often followed by rain, that an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug generally shows up soon after one starts taking it. It is a matter of controversy to what extent the specialized ability to deduce conclusions from premisses using formal rules of inference is needed for critical thinking. Dewey (1933) locates logical forms in setting out the products of reflection rather than in the process of reflection. Ennis (1981a), on the other hand, maintains that a liberally-educated person should have the following abilities: to translate natural-language statements into statements using the standard logical operators, to use appropriately the language of necessary and sufficient conditions, to deal with argument forms and arguments containing symbols, to determine whether in virtue of an argument’s form its conclusion follows necessarily from its premisses, to reason with logically complex propositions, and to apply the rules and procedures of deductive logic. Inferential abilities are recognized as critical thinking abilities by Glaser (1941: 6), Facione (1990a: 9), Ennis (1991: 9), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 99, 111), and Halpern (1998: 452). Items testing inferential abilities constitute two of the five subtests of the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), two of the four sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), three of the seven sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), 11 of the 34 items on Forms A and B of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), and a high but variable proportion of the 25 selected-response questions in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Experimenting abilities : Knowing how to design and execute an experiment is important not just in scientific research but also in everyday life, as in Rash . Dewey devoted a whole chapter of his How We Think (1910: 145–156; 1933: 190–202) to the superiority of experimentation over observation in advancing knowledge. Experimenting abilities come into play at one remove in appraising reports of scientific studies. Skill in designing and executing experiments includes the acknowledged abilities to appraise evidence (Glaser 1941: 6), to carry out experiments and to apply appropriate statistical inference techniques (Facione 1990a: 9), to judge inductions to an explanatory hypothesis (Ennis 1991: 9), and to recognize the need for an adequately large sample size (Halpern 1998). The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) includes four items (out of 52) on experimental design. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) makes room for appraisal of study design in both its performance task and its selected-response questions.

Consulting abilities : Skill at consulting sources of information comes into play when one seeks information to help resolve a problem, as in Candidate . Ability to find and appraise information includes ability to gather and marshal pertinent information (Glaser 1941: 6), to judge whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable (Ennis 1962: 84), to plan a search for desired information (Facione 1990a: 9), and to judge the credibility of a source (Ennis 1991: 9). Ability to judge the credibility of statements is tested by 24 items (out of 76) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) and by four items (out of 52) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). The College Learning Assessment’s performance task requires evaluation of whether information in documents is credible or unreliable (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Argument analysis abilities : The ability to identify and analyze arguments contributes to the process of surveying arguments on an issue in order to form one’s own reasoned judgment, as in Candidate . The ability to detect and analyze arguments is recognized as a critical thinking skill by Facione (1990a: 7–8), Ennis (1991: 9) and Halpern (1998). Five items (out of 34) on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992) test skill at argument analysis. The College Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) incorporates argument analysis in its selected-response tests of critical reading and evaluation and of critiquing an argument.

Judging skills and deciding skills : Skill at judging and deciding is skill at recognizing what judgment or decision the available evidence and argument supports, and with what degree of confidence. It is thus a component of the inferential skills already discussed.

Lists and tests of critical thinking abilities often include two more abilities: identifying assumptions and constructing and evaluating definitions.

In addition to dispositions and abilities, critical thinking needs knowledge: of critical thinking concepts, of critical thinking principles, and of the subject-matter of the thinking.

We can derive a short list of concepts whose understanding contributes to critical thinking from the critical thinking abilities described in the preceding section. Observational abilities require an understanding of the difference between observation and inference. Questioning abilities require an understanding of the concepts of ambiguity and vagueness. Inferential abilities require an understanding of the difference between conclusive and defeasible inference (traditionally, between deduction and induction), as well as of the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Experimenting abilities require an understanding of the concepts of hypothesis, null hypothesis, assumption and prediction, as well as of the concept of statistical significance and of its difference from importance. They also require an understanding of the difference between an experiment and an observational study, and in particular of the difference between a randomized controlled trial, a prospective correlational study and a retrospective (case-control) study. Argument analysis abilities require an understanding of the concepts of argument, premiss, assumption, conclusion and counter-consideration. Additional critical thinking concepts are proposed by Bailin et al. (1999b: 293), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 105–106), Black (2012), and Blair (2021).

According to Glaser (1941: 25), ability to think critically requires knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning. If we review the list of abilities in the preceding section, however, we can see that some of them can be acquired and exercised merely through practice, possibly guided in an educational setting, followed by feedback. Searching intelligently for a causal explanation of some phenomenon or event requires that one consider a full range of possible causal contributors, but it seems more important that one implements this principle in one’s practice than that one is able to articulate it. What is important is “operational knowledge” of the standards and principles of good thinking (Bailin et al. 1999b: 291–293). But the development of such critical thinking abilities as designing an experiment or constructing an operational definition can benefit from learning their underlying theory. Further, explicit knowledge of quirks of human thinking seems useful as a cautionary guide. Human memory is not just fallible about details, as people learn from their own experiences of misremembering, but is so malleable that a detailed, clear and vivid recollection of an event can be a total fabrication (Loftus 2017). People seek or interpret evidence in ways that are partial to their existing beliefs and expectations, often unconscious of their “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998). Not only are people subject to this and other cognitive biases (Kahneman 2011), of which they are typically unaware, but it may be counter-productive for one to make oneself aware of them and try consciously to counteract them or to counteract social biases such as racial or sexual stereotypes (Kenyon & Beaulac 2014). It is helpful to be aware of these facts and of the superior effectiveness of blocking the operation of biases—for example, by making an immediate record of one’s observations, refraining from forming a preliminary explanatory hypothesis, blind refereeing, double-blind randomized trials, and blind grading of students’ work. It is also helpful to be aware of the prevalence of “noise” (unwanted unsystematic variability of judgments), of how to detect noise (through a noise audit), and of how to reduce noise: make accuracy the goal, think statistically, break a process of arriving at a judgment into independent tasks, resist premature intuitions, in a group get independent judgments first, favour comparative judgments and scales (Kahneman, Sibony, & Sunstein 2021). It is helpful as well to be aware of the concept of “bounded rationality” in decision-making and of the related distinction between “satisficing” and optimizing (Simon 1956; Gigerenzer 2001).

Critical thinking about an issue requires substantive knowledge of the domain to which the issue belongs. Critical thinking abilities are not a magic elixir that can be applied to any issue whatever by somebody who has no knowledge of the facts relevant to exploring that issue. For example, the student in Bubbles needed to know that gases do not penetrate solid objects like a glass, that air expands when heated, that the volume of an enclosed gas varies directly with its temperature and inversely with its pressure, and that hot objects will spontaneously cool down to the ambient temperature of their surroundings unless kept hot by insulation or a source of heat. Critical thinkers thus need a rich fund of subject-matter knowledge relevant to the variety of situations they encounter. This fact is recognized in the inclusion among critical thinking dispositions of a concern to become and remain generally well informed.

Experimental educational interventions, with control groups, have shown that education can improve critical thinking skills and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests. For information about these tests, see the Supplement on Assessment .

What educational methods are most effective at developing the dispositions, abilities and knowledge of a critical thinker? In a comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies of strategies for teaching students to think critically, Abrami et al. (2015) found that dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring each increased the effectiveness of the educational intervention, and that they were most effective when combined. They also found that in these studies a combination of separate instruction in critical thinking with subject-matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically was more effective than either by itself. However, the difference was not statistically significant; that is, it might have arisen by chance.

Most of these studies lack the longitudinal follow-up required to determine whether the observed differential improvements in critical thinking abilities or dispositions continue over time, for example until high school or college graduation. For details on studies of methods of developing critical thinking skills and dispositions, see the Supplement on Educational Methods .

12. Controversies

Scholars have denied the generalizability of critical thinking abilities across subject domains, have alleged bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, and have investigated the relationship of critical thinking to other kinds of thinking.

McPeck (1981) attacked the thinking skills movement of the 1970s, including the critical thinking movement. He argued that there are no general thinking skills, since thinking is always thinking about some subject-matter. It is futile, he claimed, for schools and colleges to teach thinking as if it were a separate subject. Rather, teachers should lead their pupils to become autonomous thinkers by teaching school subjects in a way that brings out their cognitive structure and that encourages and rewards discussion and argument. As some of his critics (e.g., Paul 1985; Siegel 1985) pointed out, McPeck’s central argument needs elaboration, since it has obvious counter-examples in writing and speaking, for which (up to a certain level of complexity) there are teachable general abilities even though they are always about some subject-matter. To make his argument convincing, McPeck needs to explain how thinking differs from writing and speaking in a way that does not permit useful abstraction of its components from the subject-matters with which it deals. He has not done so. Nevertheless, his position that the dispositions and abilities of a critical thinker are best developed in the context of subject-matter instruction is shared by many theorists of critical thinking, including Dewey (1910, 1933), Glaser (1941), Passmore (1980), Weinstein (1990), Bailin et al. (1999b), and Willingham (2019).

McPeck’s challenge prompted reflection on the extent to which critical thinking is subject-specific. McPeck argued for a strong subject-specificity thesis, according to which it is a conceptual truth that all critical thinking abilities are specific to a subject. (He did not however extend his subject-specificity thesis to critical thinking dispositions. In particular, he took the disposition to suspend judgment in situations of cognitive dissonance to be a general disposition.) Conceptual subject-specificity is subject to obvious counter-examples, such as the general ability to recognize confusion of necessary and sufficient conditions. A more modest thesis, also endorsed by McPeck, is epistemological subject-specificity, according to which the norms of good thinking vary from one field to another. Epistemological subject-specificity clearly holds to a certain extent; for example, the principles in accordance with which one solves a differential equation are quite different from the principles in accordance with which one determines whether a painting is a genuine Picasso. But the thesis suffers, as Ennis (1989) points out, from vagueness of the concept of a field or subject and from the obvious existence of inter-field principles, however broadly the concept of a field is construed. For example, the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning hold for all the varied fields in which such reasoning occurs. A third kind of subject-specificity is empirical subject-specificity, according to which as a matter of empirically observable fact a person with the abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker in one area of investigation will not necessarily have them in another area of investigation.

The thesis of empirical subject-specificity raises the general problem of transfer. If critical thinking abilities and dispositions have to be developed independently in each school subject, how are they of any use in dealing with the problems of everyday life and the political and social issues of contemporary society, most of which do not fit into the framework of a traditional school subject? Proponents of empirical subject-specificity tend to argue that transfer is more likely to occur if there is critical thinking instruction in a variety of domains, with explicit attention to dispositions and abilities that cut across domains. But evidence for this claim is scanty. There is a need for well-designed empirical studies that investigate the conditions that make transfer more likely.

It is common ground in debates about the generality or subject-specificity of critical thinking dispositions and abilities that critical thinking about any topic requires background knowledge about the topic. For example, the most sophisticated understanding of the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning is of no help unless accompanied by some knowledge of what might be plausible explanations of some phenomenon under investigation.

Critics have objected to bias in the theory, pedagogy and practice of critical thinking. Commentators (e.g., Alston 1995; Ennis 1998) have noted that anyone who takes a position has a bias in the neutral sense of being inclined in one direction rather than others. The critics, however, are objecting to bias in the pejorative sense of an unjustified favoring of certain ways of knowing over others, frequently alleging that the unjustly favoured ways are those of a dominant sex or culture (Bailin 1995). These ways favour:

• reinforcement of egocentric and sociocentric biases over dialectical engagement with opposing world-views (Paul 1981, 1984; Warren 1998)
• distancing from the object of inquiry over closeness to it (Martin 1992; Thayer-Bacon 1992)
• indifference to the situation of others over care for them (Martin 1992)
• orientation to thought over orientation to action (Martin 1992)
• being reasonable over caring to understand people’s ideas (Thayer-Bacon 1993)
• being neutral and objective over being embodied and situated (Thayer-Bacon 1995a)
• doubting over believing (Thayer-Bacon 1995b)
• reason over emotion, imagination and intuition (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• solitary thinking over collaborative thinking (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• written and spoken assignments over other forms of expression (Alston 2001)
• attention to written and spoken communications over attention to human problems (Alston 2001)
• winning debates in the public sphere over making and understanding meaning (Alston 2001)

A common thread in this smorgasbord of accusations is dissatisfaction with focusing on the logical analysis and evaluation of reasoning and arguments. While these authors acknowledge that such analysis and evaluation is part of critical thinking and should be part of its conceptualization and pedagogy, they insist that it is only a part. Paul (1981), for example, bemoans the tendency of atomistic teaching of methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments to turn students into more able sophists, adept at finding fault with positions and arguments with which they disagree but even more entrenched in the egocentric and sociocentric biases with which they began. Martin (1992) and Thayer-Bacon (1992) cite with approval the self-reported intimacy with their subject-matter of leading researchers in biology and medicine, an intimacy that conflicts with the distancing allegedly recommended in standard conceptions and pedagogy of critical thinking. Thayer-Bacon (2000) contrasts the embodied and socially embedded learning of her elementary school students in a Montessori school, who used their imagination, intuition and emotions as well as their reason, with conceptions of critical thinking as

thinking that is used to critique arguments, offer justifications, and make judgments about what are the good reasons, or the right answers. (Thayer-Bacon 2000: 127–128)

Alston (2001) reports that her students in a women’s studies class were able to see the flaws in the Cinderella myth that pervades much romantic fiction but in their own romantic relationships still acted as if all failures were the woman’s fault and still accepted the notions of love at first sight and living happily ever after. Students, she writes, should

be able to connect their intellectual critique to a more affective, somatic, and ethical account of making risky choices that have sexist, racist, classist, familial, sexual, or other consequences for themselves and those both near and far… critical thinking that reads arguments, texts, or practices merely on the surface without connections to feeling/desiring/doing or action lacks an ethical depth that should infuse the difference between mere cognitive activity and something we want to call critical thinking. (Alston 2001: 34)

Some critics portray such biases as unfair to women. Thayer-Bacon (1992), for example, has charged modern critical thinking theory with being sexist, on the ground that it separates the self from the object and causes one to lose touch with one’s inner voice, and thus stigmatizes women, who (she asserts) link self to object and listen to their inner voice. Her charge does not imply that women as a group are on average less able than men to analyze and evaluate arguments. Facione (1990c) found no difference by sex in performance on his California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Kuhn (1991: 280–281) found no difference by sex in either the disposition or the competence to engage in argumentative thinking.

The critics propose a variety of remedies for the biases that they allege. In general, they do not propose to eliminate or downplay critical thinking as an educational goal. Rather, they propose to conceptualize critical thinking differently and to change its pedagogy accordingly. Their pedagogical proposals arise logically from their objections. They can be summarized as follows:

• Focus on argument networks with dialectical exchanges reflecting contesting points of view rather than on atomic arguments, so as to develop “strong sense” critical thinking that transcends egocentric and sociocentric biases (Paul 1981, 1984).
• Foster closeness to the subject-matter and feeling connected to others in order to inform a humane democracy (Martin 1992).
• Develop “constructive thinking” as a social activity in a community of physically embodied and socially embedded inquirers with personal voices who value not only reason but also imagination, intuition and emotion (Thayer-Bacon 2000).
• In developing critical thinking in school subjects, treat as important neither skills nor dispositions but opening worlds of meaning (Alston 2001).
• Attend to the development of critical thinking dispositions as well as skills, and adopt the “critical pedagogy” practised and advocated by Freire (1968 [1970]) and hooks (1994) (Dalgleish, Girard, & Davies 2017).

A common thread in these proposals is treatment of critical thinking as a social, interactive, personally engaged activity like that of a quilting bee or a barn-raising (Thayer-Bacon 2000) rather than as an individual, solitary, distanced activity symbolized by Rodin’s The Thinker . One can get a vivid description of education with the former type of goal from the writings of bell hooks (1994, 2010). Critical thinking for her is open-minded dialectical exchange across opposing standpoints and from multiple perspectives, a conception similar to Paul’s “strong sense” critical thinking (Paul 1981). She abandons the structure of domination in the traditional classroom. In an introductory course on black women writers, for example, she assigns students to write an autobiographical paragraph about an early racial memory, then to read it aloud as the others listen, thus affirming the uniqueness and value of each voice and creating a communal awareness of the diversity of the group’s experiences (hooks 1994: 84). Her “engaged pedagogy” is thus similar to the “freedom under guidance” implemented in John Dewey’s Laboratory School of Chicago in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It incorporates the dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring that Abrami (2015) found to be most effective in improving critical thinking skills and dispositions.

What is the relationship of critical thinking to problem solving, decision-making, higher-order thinking, creative thinking, and other recognized types of thinking? One’s answer to this question obviously depends on how one defines the terms used in the question. If critical thinking is conceived broadly to cover any careful thinking about any topic for any purpose, then problem solving and decision making will be kinds of critical thinking, if they are done carefully. Historically, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’ were two names for the same thing. If critical thinking is conceived more narrowly as consisting solely of appraisal of intellectual products, then it will be disjoint with problem solving and decision making, which are constructive.

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives used the phrase “intellectual abilities and skills” for what had been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others (Bloom et al. 1956: 38). Thus, the so-called “higher-order thinking skills” at the taxonomy’s top levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation are just critical thinking skills, although they do not come with general criteria for their assessment (Ennis 1981b). The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) likewise treats critical thinking as cutting across those types of cognitive process that involve more than remembering (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270). For details, see the Supplement on History .

As to creative thinking, it overlaps with critical thinking (Bailin 1987, 1988). Thinking about the explanation of some phenomenon or event, as in Ferryboat , requires creative imagination in constructing plausible explanatory hypotheses. Likewise, thinking about a policy question, as in Candidate , requires creativity in coming up with options. Conversely, creativity in any field needs to be balanced by critical appraisal of the draft painting or novel or mathematical theory.

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• Vincent-Lancrin, Stéphan, Carlos González-Sancho, Mathias Bouckaert, Federico de Luca, Meritxell Fernández-Barrerra, Gwénaël Jacotin, Joaquin Urgel, and Quentin Vidal, 2019, Fostering Students’ Creativity and Critical Thinking: What It Means in School. Educational Research and Innovation , Paris: OECD Publishing.
• Warren, Karen J. 1988. “Critical Thinking and Feminism”, Informal Logic , 10(1): 31–44. [ Warren 1988 available online ]
• Watson, Goodwin, and Edward M. Glaser, 1980a, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Form A , San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
• –––, 1980b, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal: Forms A and B; Manual , San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation,
• –––, 1994, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Form B , San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
• Weinstein, Mark, 1990, “Towards a Research Agenda for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking”, Informal Logic , 12(3): 121–143. [ Weinstein 1990 available online ]
• –––, 2013, Logic, Truth and Inquiry , London: College Publications.
• Willingham, Daniel T., 2019, “How to Teach Critical Thinking”, Education: Future Frontiers , 1: 1–17. [Available online at https://prod65.education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/education-for-a-changing-world/media/documents/How-to-teach-critical-thinking-Willingham.pdf.]
• Zagzebski, Linda Trinkaus, 1996, Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139174763

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• Critical Thinking Definition, Instruction, and Assessment: A Rigorous Approach
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• The Nature of Critical Thinking: An Outline of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities , by Robert H. Ennis

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Critical Thinking

Developing the right mindset and skills.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

We make hundreds of decisions every day and, whether we realize it or not, we're all critical thinkers.

We use critical thinking each time we weigh up our options, prioritize our responsibilities, or think about the likely effects of our actions. It's a crucial skill that helps us to cut out misinformation and make wise decisions. The trouble is, we're not always very good at it!

In this article, we'll explore the key skills that you need to develop your critical thinking skills, and how to adopt a critical thinking mindset, so that you can make well-informed decisions.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the discipline of rigorously and skillfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions, and beliefs. You'll need to actively question every step of your thinking process to do it well.

Collecting, analyzing and evaluating information is an important skill in life, and a highly valued asset in the workplace. People who score highly in critical thinking assessments are also rated by their managers as having good problem-solving skills, creativity, strong decision-making skills, and good overall performance. [1]

Key Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinkers possess a set of key characteristics which help them to question information and their own thinking. Focus on the following areas to develop your critical thinking skills:

Being willing and able to explore alternative approaches and experimental ideas is crucial. Can you think through "what if" scenarios, create plausible options, and test out your theories? If not, you'll tend to write off ideas and options too soon, so you may miss the best answer to your situation.

To nurture your curiosity, stay up to date with facts and trends. You'll overlook important information if you allow yourself to become "blinkered," so always be open to new information.

But don't stop there! Look for opposing views or evidence to challenge your information, and seek clarification when things are unclear. This will help you to reassess your beliefs and make a well-informed decision later. Read our article, Opening Closed Minds , for more ways to stay receptive.

Logical Thinking

You must be skilled at reasoning and extending logic to come up with plausible options or outcomes.

It's also important to emphasize logic over emotion. Emotion can be motivating but it can also lead you to take hasty and unwise action, so control your emotions and be cautious in your judgments. Know when a conclusion is "fact" and when it is not. "Could-be-true" conclusions are based on assumptions and must be tested further. Read our article, Logical Fallacies , for help with this.

Use creative problem solving to balance cold logic. By thinking outside of the box you can identify new possible outcomes by using pieces of information that you already have.

Self-Awareness

Many of the decisions we make in life are subtly informed by our values and beliefs. These influences are called cognitive biases and it can be difficult to identify them in ourselves because they're often subconscious.

Practicing self-awareness will allow you to reflect on the beliefs you have and the choices you make. You'll then be better equipped to challenge your own thinking and make improved, unbiased decisions.

One particularly useful tool for critical thinking is the Ladder of Inference . It allows you to test and validate your thinking process, rather than jumping to poorly supported conclusions.

Developing a Critical Thinking Mindset

Combine the above skills with the right mindset so that you can make better decisions and adopt more effective courses of action. You can develop your critical thinking mindset by following this process:

Gather Information

First, collect data, opinions and facts on the issue that you need to solve. Draw on what you already know, and turn to new sources of information to help inform your understanding. Consider what gaps there are in your knowledge and seek to fill them. And look for information that challenges your assumptions and beliefs.

Be sure to verify the authority and authenticity of your sources. Not everything you read is true! Use this checklist to ensure that your information is valid:

• Are your information sources trustworthy ? (For example, well-respected authors, trusted colleagues or peers, recognized industry publications, websites, blogs, etc.)
• Is the information you have gathered up to date ?
• Has the information received any direct criticism ?
• Does the information have any errors or inaccuracies ?
• Is there any evidence to support or corroborate the information you have gathered?
• Is the information you have gathered subjective or biased in any way? (For example, is it based on opinion, rather than fact? Is any of the information you have gathered designed to promote a particular service or organization?)

If any information appears to be irrelevant or invalid, don't include it in your decision making. But don't omit information just because you disagree with it, or your final decision will be flawed and bias.

Now observe the information you have gathered, and interpret it. What are the key findings and main takeaways? What does the evidence point to? Start to build one or two possible arguments based on what you have found.

You'll need to look for the details within the mass of information, so use your powers of observation to identify any patterns or similarities. You can then analyze and extend these trends to make sensible predictions about the future.

To help you to sift through the multiple ideas and theories, it can be useful to group and order items according to their characteristics. From here, you can compare and contrast the different items. And once you've determined how similar or different things are from one another, Paired Comparison Analysis can help you to analyze them.

The final step involves challenging the information and rationalizing its arguments.

Apply the laws of reason (induction, deduction, analogy) to judge an argument and determine its merits. To do this, it's essential that you can determine the significance and validity of an argument to put it in the correct perspective. Take a look at our article, Rational Thinking , for more information about how to do this.

Once you have considered all of the arguments and options rationally, you can finally make an informed decision.

Afterward, take time to reflect on what you have learned and what you found challenging. Step back from the detail of your decision or problem, and look at the bigger picture. Record what you've learned from your observations and experience.

Critical thinking involves rigorously and skilfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions and beliefs. It's a useful skill in the workplace and in life.

You'll need to be curious and creative to explore alternative possibilities, but rational to apply logic, and self-aware to identify when your beliefs could affect your decisions or actions.

You can demonstrate a high level of critical thinking by validating your information, analyzing its meaning, and finally evaluating the argument.

Critical Thinking Infographic

See Critical Thinking represented in our infographic: An Elementary Guide to Critical Thinking .

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Definition of critical thinking noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

critical thinking

• The school encourages critical thinking and problem-solving.
• Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking instead of accepting opinions without questioning them.
• The book shows you how to apply critical thinking to your studies.
• Critical thinking skills enable students to evaluate information.

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• School of Foreign Languages, Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, Zhengzhou, China

In recent years, the field of psychology has received more attention from researchers that work in the area of translation studies. This review set out to delve into the role of translation students’ critical thinking, as a construct of cognitive psychology, and emotion regulation, as a positive psychological construct, in translation performance. The positive and significant relationship between translation students’ critical thinking skill and their translation performance has been verified in the literature. Moreover, studies have revealed that emotion regulation and its regulator components, such as emotional intelligence, intuition, resilience, and professional expertise can significantly influence translation performance. This review can be beneficial for translation trainees, translation trainers, and curriculum designers to raise their awareness about the role of critical thinking and emotion regulation in translation studies.

Introduction

Psychology is a very broad subject that mainly deals with human behavior, thoughts, reasoning, and perceptions. Psychology can be used in numerous issues that constitute daily life, including the examination of internal mental processes and the improvement of higher-order thinking skills to effectively cope with different aspects of life such as education. Therefore, psychology plays a significant role in our lives, regardless of our knowledge about it ( Al-Jarf, 2022 ). It has been ordered into a few sub-branches, including clinical, cognitive, developmental, evolutionary, forensic, health, occupational, social, and neuropsychology. Centrally involved (among these branches of psychology) in translation studies is cognitive psychology. Due to the emphasis on internal mental processes, the cognitive approach caused a revolution in the science of psychology and became the dominant approach in psychology in the late 1970s ( Wang, 2020 ). According to McLeod (2007) cognition refers to the knowledge. He asserted that psychologists examine cognition which is “the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired” (p. 73). This branch of psychology inspects internal psychological developments, including the way of thinking, perceiving, communicating, remembering, and learning. Investigating the role of cognition on internal mental processes and higher order thinking skills like critical thinking skills, the important effect of these skills on all aspects of our communication from listening to writing, and the important impact of these skills on the process of translation and the quality of the final product of this process have drawn the attention of investigators.

Critical thinking is considered a major and important construct of cognitive psychology. This primary area of cognitive psychology, despite its steadily increasing importance over time and its area of study, that is, the study of internal mental processes reflects a relatively new, stimulating, and very attractive research perspective ( Wang, 2020 ). As Sternberg (1986) stated, critical thinking is “the mental processes, strategies and representations people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts” (p. 3). There have been some investigations about the association between critical thinking and different kinds of cognitive abilities from writing to reading ability (e.g., Yildirim and Soylemez, 2018 ; Mbato, 2019 ; Bean and Melzer, 2021 ; Nejad et al., 2022 ). Moreover, critical thinking as an important component of cognitive psychology can have an important role in every process that involves cognitive and metacognitive skills such as translation. According to National Network for Translation, a competent translator must have various skills as: professionalism, networking skills, attention to detail, flexibility/adaptability, organizational skills, writing skills, general knowledge, analytical skills, subject knowledge, curiosity, excellent knowledge of the foreign language, IT skills, picking up new ideas quickly, good cultural awareness, love of reading and research skills. Most of these characteristics such as flexibility/adaptability, organizational skills, attention to detail, analytical skills, research skills, and curiosity require deep understanding and thinking skills ( Azin and Heidari Tabrizi, 2016 ). Therefore critical thinking is significant in studying translation performance. This review aims to shed light on the studies of cognitive psychology to scrutinize the correlation between critical thinking skill and translation quality.

Translation students are constantly exposed to different types of texts which require them to be able to use critical thinking skills as well as translation skills simultaneously. Critical thinking skills govern the process from the beginning, from the time the translator starts reading the source text, until the end, which is the production of the end result, the target text. A translator who has the ability to think critically does indeed have the ability to examine her/his given choices and their implications. This translator makes choices pertinently and decides on how to use her/his various competencies. To achieve this, s/he should have the power of higher-order thinking, or in other words, have the ability to think critically. Critical thinking helps a translator to go further than just the surface of the text and to think deeply, have an overview of a text and find the whys and nature of the text. Therefore s/he can easily analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make decisions ( Mohseni and Satariyan, 2011 ).

Translators are constantly dealing with a complex interaction between text, reader, and the first and second languages, and they need to understand the main idea and concept of the text that should be translated. In order to comprehend the main idea of the text and facilitate this complex interaction, they require critical thinking skill which is required for solving problems, making judgments, learning new notions, and controlling one’s feelings ( Saud, 2020 ). Critical thinking skill, as a cognitive skill, is used beyond the mere understanding of the main idea of the source text. Neubert (1997) argues that “in order to achieve a satisfactory target text, the established rules of correspondence between L1 and L2 need to be criticality extended” (p. 20). Kussmaul (1995) believes that “criticality is not a talent given to the select few, but that as basic features of the human mind, anyone can be critical when they transfer source texts to target texts” (p. 52). Due to the important role of these skills in the process of translation and their high degree of contribution to the understanding of the concept of the text as an important step in the process of translation, it is important to delve into the association between critical thinking as an indispensable part of the translation process and the quality of the translated text as the final product of this process.

Another important element in translation is the translators’ emotional states. Translators’ positive emotions have crucial roles in translation. According to Derakhshan et al. (2022) , the broaden-and-build theory supported positive psychology, and it justifies that experiencing positive emotional constructs, such as enjoyment, love, happiness, engagement, resilience, grit, self-efficacy, and emotional regulation “broaden people’s momentary thought-action repertoires and build their enduring personal resources” (p. 2). Positive psychology, as a modern approach to learning of foreign language, has been expanded in recent years (e.g., Wang et al., 2021 ; 2022 ; Xie and Derakhshan, 2021 ). Emotion regulation is a related concept to positive psychology ( Derakhshan et al., 2021 ). Gross (2007) also indicated that emotion regulation refers to “shaping which emotions one has, when one has them, and how one experiences or expresses these emotions” (p. 6). Another objective of this review is to investigate translation students’ emotion regulation, the factors that regulate translator emotions, and their influence on translation performance. Studying these psychological features of translators and their effects on translation performance can pave the way for solving potential problems in translation performance and promoting its quality.

Review of literature

The concept of translation.

The English term translation is taken from Old French, and it occurs between two unlike languages which are called source language (SL) and target language (TL); also, it might be either written or oral translation ( Munday, 2016 ). In a similar vein, Pym (2014) refers to Start text “as the one we translate from, and to the target culture as the translation produced; then translating is set of the process leading from one side to the other” (p. 1). Moreover, according to Newmark (1988) translation is “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” (p. 5). House (2015) mentioned that translation results from a linguistic-textual procedure, in which the source language is re-contextualized in another language. Erton (2020) stated that translation is the process of conveying messages across cultural and linguistic barriers, and it is remarkably communicative. Additionally, Jakobson (2004) proposed some definitions of translation for three types of translation, including intra-lingual, inter-lingual, and inter-semiotic. He defined intra-lingual translation as translating the verbal signs of the same language by using the other existing signs in that language. He also mentioned that inter-lingual translation is described as the employment of verbal signs in one language by applying the verbal signs of the other language that we are supposed to translate. Moreover, they asserted that inter-semiotic translation is the employment of verbal signs of one language by using non-verbal signs.

Tymoczko (2018) asserted that translation is considered a multifaceted language-related cognitive activity. According to Lefevere (1992) , there are factors influencing the performance of translator’s in translation, such as cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, and cultural factors. Accordingly, Alves and Gonçalves (2013) mention that verbalizing for communication will cause some alterations in the cognitive situation; moreover, translation can be explored from several points of view that can be linguistic, discursive, cultural, social, political, and emotional. Lahodynskyi et al. (2019) also underscored the considerable skills for becoming a successful translator. He listed some features of good translators, including higher linguistic proficiency, extensive cultural background, analytical mind, higher proficiency in the subject matter, along with numerous significant potentials, such as outstanding memory, flexibility, and time-management skills. House (2015) stated that translation considerably depends on numerous extra-linguistic features. He mentioned that the relationship between linguistic-textual features and extra-linguistic contextual factors makes translation such a complicated process. The emergence of translation psychology during the 1990s changed the focus of investigators from the translation process to the translators and their individual cognitive and psychological differences ( Jääskeläinen, 2012 ). Therefore, translators’ cognitive and psychological constructs, as the causal factors of complexity in the translation process, have drawn the attention of many investigators ( Mahdy et al., 2020 ).

Emotions have, in general, been indicated as a noteworthy feature in information processing in translation, and negative and positive emotions result in diverse processing styles ( Rojo and Ramos, 2018 ). The emotional states of translators have also affected the creativity and quality of the translated text ( Jääskeläinen and Lacruz, 2018 ). The regulation of emotional states develops the thinking process and attention span by the enhancement of logical thinking and problem-solving skill ( López and Naranjo, 2021 ).

The concept of emotion regulation

According to Gross and John (2003) , emotion regulation refers to processes through which individuals control their feelings, such as resentment or apprehension. They mentioned that emotion regulation highlights the increasing, maintaining, or decreasing positive and negative emotional states. According to Gross (1998) , emotion regulation is “the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions” (p. 275). Gross and John (2003) described emotion regulation as a cognitive model dealing with controlling one’s own emotions (i.e., self-emotion regulation) without regard for controlling the feelings of others.

Two main emotion regulation strategies affecting individuals’ behavior are cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression ( Gross, 1998 ). According to Gross and John (2003) cognitive reappraisal refers to “a form of cognitive change that involves construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact” (p. 349). Bielak and Mystkowska-Wiertelak (2020) also mentioned that cognitive reappraisal includes the reinterpretation of the meaning of a stimulus that results in the regulating of the emotion. They mentioned that cognitive reappraisal, as a cognitive, modification strategy, is used for decreasing the response to negative emotions. On the other hand, Gross (1998) stated that expressive suppression “is a conscious inhibition of ongoing emotion expressive behavior” (p. 226). Gross (2015) noted that expressive suppression refers to not showing others what one is feeling. He asserted that it is a type of strategy that individuals employ to stop expressing negative emotions.

The relationship between emotion regulators and translation performance

Numerous translation researchers have recently approved the significance of translators’ emotions for investigating translation development and have begun to inspect the influence of emotion on translators’ performance (e.g., Hubscher-Davidson, 2018 ; Lehr, 2020 ; Hunziker Heeb et al., 2021 ). The statement that decision-making in translation is not simply the outcome of pure rational thought motivates investigators to explore the effect of psychological states on the translation process ( Hubscher-Davidson and Lehr, 2021 ). In addition to the investigation of emotional causes in the translation environment, the latest research has focused on the translator’s ability to regulate emotions when translating ( Hoffmann et al., 2020 ). Cifuentes-Férez and Fenollar-Cortés (2017) investigated the effect of student translators’ emotional management skills on translation performance. They considered three constituents of emotional management skills, including emotion regulation, emotional expressivity, and self-esteem. They underscored the significance of emotion regulation in the quality of learners’ translation performance. Their study implicated that translation students should practice hiding or inhibiting negative emotional states and responses to perform better in translation tasks. Using Gross and John (2003) Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, they showed that translators who consistently suppress their feelings outperform in translation, and the regulation of translators’ emotions regularly affects their quality of performance. Moreover, their study indicated that the interaction of emotion regulation and emotional expressivity can significantly predict translation quality. It means that translators who inhibit expressing their negative emotions and inhibit their emotional states are more likely to have a qualified translation. Hunziker Heeb et al. (2021) found the significant effect of translators’ emotion regulation on decreasing the cognitive load of translation. They argued that translators’ positive and negative emotional states have large amounts of cognitive load during task performance, and regulating translators’ emotions can inhibit them from producing translations with poor quality. Their study contributes to understanding how translators cope with the additional challenges of emotional aspects of their work and provide insights into how competencies such as emotion regulation might be included in the training.

Rojo (2017) highlighted the role of personality traits and degree of professional expertise, as two significant emotional regulators in determining the performance of translation. He asserted that only a few personality traits have been indicated as significant constructs in regulating translators’ emotions during translation performance. He also asserted that intuition, emotional intelligence, and resilience are regarded as the emotion regulators of translators in translation performance ( Rojo, 2017 ). His study also implicated that upgrading translators’ ability to regulate emotions requires the awareness of the consequences of negative and positive emotions on translation performance and of the factors that can mediate the effects. Rojo and Ramos (2016) studied the impact of personality traits, such as resiliency, on translation performance. They repeated Lehr (2013) methodology. They indicated that translators with low levels of resilience, who were accustomed to getting reproach from their customers, are likely to prevail over the consequences of negative feedback more competently than translators with higher levels of resilience. Their study verified evidence from Lehr’s work, pointing to a differential impact of emotions on different facets of translation performance and signifying that various emotions may trigger diverse processing styles. Rojo and Ramos (2018) examined the role of expertise in emotion regulation and its outcomes for translation quality. They compared the performance of translation students and professional translators through Lehr (2013) methodology, and they assessed trait variation in psychological resilience. Their study revealed that personality factors, such as resilience and expertise level, are influential in controlling emotional states and directing translational behavior, and they may enhance translation quality.

In another study, Hubscher-Davidson (2013) found that emotional intelligence, as a type of personality traits, is significant in controlling translators’ behavior and can be effective in the quality of translation. Emotional Intelligence is regarded as one of the most significant factors that seemingly regulates translators’ minds and contributes to them to be creative in translation tasks ( Ebrahimi et al., 2016 ). Hubscher-Davidson (2013) also found a difference between literary and non-literary translators regarding their emotional intelligence scores. Her study revealed that higher emotional intelligent translators are inclined to regulate their emotions and control the affective nature of texts. Their study implicated the significant role of emotional intelligence to gain a deeper understanding of translation and interpreting processes. Having used Waddington (2001) translation assessment rubric, Ghobadi et al. (2021) investigated the predictability power of individual cognitive-emotional differences, including working memory, emotional intelligence, and, tolerance of ambiguity, in translation performance. They found that the interaction of these cognitive-emotional components predicts translation performance. They also mentioned that higher emotional intelligent translators are more aware of linguistic and non-linguistic relations in a language, and they can appropriately render the source language to the target language, particularly in oral translation. Their study implicated that individual cognitive differences could have some potential effects on translation performance. Moreover, translation trainers should pay attention to students’ internal psychological traits when designing translation-training programs so that they could align the programs with the strengths, weaknesses, and personality characteristics of their trainee. Using structural equitation modeling, Ghaemi and Bayati (2022) explored the role of experienced translators’ burnout and emotional intelligence in translation competence. Their findings demonstrated that, in contrast to burnout, emotional intelligence is significantly correlated with translation competence. They argued that emotionally intelligent translators with higher levels of interpersonal, adaptability, and stress management capabilities, are likely to have more competence in translation. Their study has some implications for translator trainers. The positive relationship found between emotional intelligence and translation competence of language learners can encourage policymakers and curriculum designers to equip language teachers with appropriate training programs to foster the emotional competencies of their translators. Some helpful techniques, which can be used to increase emotional intelligence in the classroom, include discussion, listening to light music, watching emotional clips, self-disclosure, designing questionnaires, reading literature, and psychological texts. Also, Ferdowsi and Razmi (2022) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, creativity, and simultaneous translation quality. Their study indicated that simultaneous translators’ emotional intelligence significantly correlates with their self-efficacy and creativity during their translation performance.

Hubscher-Davidson (2013) highlighted the role of translators’ intuition as an emotional regulator in predicting students’ and professional translators’ translation performance. Benjamins Vottonen and Kujamäki (2021) investigated the extent of learners’ reliance on their theoretical knowledge of translation in their justifications and use of the meta-language of the field. Using transcribed retrospections, students were asked to express their opinion when translating texts. Their findings indicated that around one-third of all decision-making in translating complex sentences and unknown words is based on their intuition, and the use of meta-language is scarce. They argued that learned principles and theories can make ‘intuition’ among student translators, and it can turn into tacit, implicit knowledge that is demanding to verbalize. This implies that non-conscious and intuitive decision-making are significant features in the student translators’ translation performance. They also mentioned that student translators are inclined to use their intuition facing translation’s predominant, difficult problems.

Professional expertise is also regarded as a decisive component of emotion regulation. Rojo (2017) , in analyzing the effect of emotions on translation performance, found that personality traits and translators’ emotions can be regulated by the translator’s professional expertise. Angelone and Shreve (2011) elucidated the role of translators’ expertise in emotional regulation. They mentioned that expert translators employ metacognition to regulate their emotions. They argued that professional translators’ metacognition can inhibit the negative emotions related to ambiguity controlling translation, resulting in high-quality translation. Mellinger (2019) asserted that student translators, with higher metacognitive skills, tend to employ problem awareness and problem-solving behaviors during the translation task. Moreover, they tend to have higher levels of translation expertise. His findings contribute to the understanding of specialized translation pedagogy and illustrate how metacognitive behavior can change as a result of coursework. Whyatt (2018a) also defined a translator as an individual who uses his professional expertise to produce translations with acceptable quality. Whyatt (2018b) also indicated that expertise in translation refers to features, including “fewer external resources, shorter problem-solving pauses, fast text production, and high-quality target texts” (p. 260). His findings showed that the frequency of problem-solving pauses can differentiate professional translators from novice ones in the paraphrasing task. Moreover, his study showed that expertise in translation leads to superior performance in paraphrase and in bilingual knowledge management in the context of translation as a cross-language task. The dual nature of translation expertise can be optimized in translation training programs and in individual self-development by deliberate practice.

Critical thinking and features of critical thinkers

Many investigators have provided numerous definitions for critical thinking. Yulian (2021) regarded critical thinking skills as the main cognitive process dimension in Bloom’s taxonomy. According to this taxonomy, critical thinking includes remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Shubina and Kulakli (2020) asserted that critical thinking is the most common way of assessing thoughts, evaluating contentions, managing issues, making decisions, collecting and appraising different data, and concluding about particular principles to give the best solution. Tong et al. (2020) mentioned that critical thinkers reflect, relate, and appraise all features of circumstances or problematic issues. They maintained that this level of thinking incorporates abilities like concentrating on components of a problem or an adverse situation, gathering and coordinating data about the problem, and recalling the understood information. Itmeizeh and Hassan (2020) stated some of the features of critical thinkers, including the followings:

“Purposeful, self-regulatory, self-rectifying, habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking precise results” (p. 2).

Etemadfar et al. (2020) emphasized that good critical thinking is not an innate or natural ability for most L2 students, but it can be taught through effective pedagogical methods. Some studies have been done on the positive and significant relationship between critical thinking skills and some cognitive skills, such as writing (e.g., Putri, 2018 ; Esmaeil Nejad et al., 2022 ), reading comprehension (e.g., Din, 2020 ; Okasha, 2021 ), speaking (e.g., Setyarini et al., 2018 ; Iman and Angraini, 2019 ), and listening skill, (e.g., Ivanovska and Petkovska, 2019 ; Erkek and Batur, 2020 ). In addition, it is important to see the role of individuals’ way of thinking in fostering translation quality. Translation, as a cognitive-emotional skill, requires incorporating different skills and abilities ( Hubscher-Davidson, 2013 ). Kashirina (2014) believed that critical thinking skill is significant in the translation process. She mentioned that teaching critical thinking must be a necessary part of translator professional training because it leads students to acquisition of mature creative thinking, which is crucial for translation problem-solving. She asserted that teaching critical and creative thinking is not an end in itself but a means to improve the quality of the text analysis and, consequently, translation quality, or adequacy. Her study accentuated the role of critical thinking in raising translator’s awareness, and increasing translation quality. Her study implicated the need for students to be facilitated to acquire critical and creative thinking skills in the process of professional training that should incorporate critical and creative thinking training.

The role of critical thinking in translation performance

Criticality in translation is referred to translations with uncertain, non-institutionalized utilization of the language ( Wilss, 1988 ) or translations in which the choice of a translation alteration is not rule-governed ( Kussmaul, 1995 ). Some investigations have been done on the relationship between critical thinking and translation performance. According to Neubert (1997) , criticality is essential to remove the intervention, linguistic or textual, initiated by the source language or the source text. He also argued that “in order to achieve a satisfactory target text, the established rules of correspondence between L1 and L2 need to be criticality extended” (p. 20). Based on the study of Kussmaul (1995) , high-quality translations are those in which a translator appropriately employs criticality, and few high-quality translation procedures are represented by the lack of adaptability and reveal the utilization of old techniques in tasks that necessitate a fresh orientation. Using Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980), Parham and Fahim (2013) examined the translation trainees’ critical thinking. They scrutinized the role of critical thinking in translation quality. They found that critical thinking significantly predicted translation quality. Their study implicated that teachers should attempt to establish an atmosphere where critical thinking is exercised, and students should pick up relevant skills systematically in a fashion that encourages the application of critical thinking outside the classroom, for all real-life activities. In line with Parham and Fahim (2013) , Azin and Heidari Tabrizi (2016) found the relationship between critical thinking and translation performance. They employed California Critical Thinking Skill Test -Form B (CCTST) to assess student translators’ critical thinking skills. They found out that translators with higher levels of critical skills tend to have higher-quality translation performance. They argued that critical thinkers not only outperform in inspecting the message of source language text but also synthesize it more efficiently. Jahromi and Suzani (2016) used Ricketts Critical Thinking Ability questionnaire (2003) to elicit learners’ critical thinking skill. In order to assess learners’ translation quality, they also used Vinay and Darbelnet’s model, which presented two strategies of translation: direct and oblique. The calque, literal and borrowing translation are the constituents of direct strategy. On the other hand, adaptation, transposition, modulation, and equivalence translation are covered in oblique strategies. Their study revealed a significant positive relationship between critical thinking skills and direct strategy of translation of literary texts. Saud (2020) , in his study, indicated that student translators’ deductive and inductive reasoning skills, as indicators of critical thinking, significantly predicted their translation performance. He mentioned that translators with higher deductive and inductive cognitive skills outperform in translation performance. He also asserted that translators are required to examine various translations, make a judgment, and translate or select the best translation through inductive reasoning. Moreover, translators are required to employ critical thinking skills to ponder and interpret different translations, and come to a rational conclusion through deductive reasoning. Ghaemi and Sadoughvanini (2020) indicated that translation trainees’ higher-order thinking skills are significantly correlated with their translation quality. They justified their results based on Bloom’s taxonomy. They mentioned that all the constituents of higher-order thinking skills, such as analyzing and creating, have key roles in increasing translation ability and performance. Their study also revealed that the number of translation errors are significantly correlated with analyzing and creating. They argued that the ‘analysis’ component in Bloom’s taxonomy, including breaking information down into parts and different forms and comparing a source text and background knowledge, develops the extra-linguistic knowledge, “i.e. translation errors of translators to a great extent” (p. 21). However, they mentioned that ‘creating’, as another component of Bloom’s taxonomy, connects the new evidence with earlier knowledge or with multiple texts to support a new notion, and create a new reasoning method. They mentioned translation errors have some psycho-physiological constituents, including intellectual inquisitiveness, critical thinking, and cognitive components, highly correlated with translators ‘creating and analyzing skills.

In the field of machine translation, Li (2022) examined the effect of Chinese student translators’ critical thinking on the quality of post-editing in machine translation by estimating the error frequency for each translator. Using Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test and Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT), he found that learners, with higher levels of critical thinking, have less frequent post-editing errors. His study showed that lower-level critical thinkers tend to have frequent grammatical and, particularly, stylistic errors. They argued that the level of translators’ critical thinking influences the conformity of the meaning of the translated text to the original version, which is a substantial feature of the literary, informational, economic, legal, and technical translation quality. Therefore, it is required to keep the writer’s style and aesthetics of the work. He also argued that other components, such as professional experience and knowledge, can also affect translators’ linguistic and syntactic errors during post-editing authentic texts. He mentioned that translator’s critical thinking can significantly influence the stylistic errors and the ability to select the most standard version of machine translation. He described stylistics as “a sense of language, which is interconnected with critical thinking” (p. 25). Daems et al. (2017) also found that critical thinking is significantly correlated with translation quality, but they asserted that translator’s experience can mediate this correlation. These above-mentioned studies showed the importance of critical thinking on translators’ translation performance.

However, there is a reciprocal relationship between translation students’ critical thinking and translation tasks. Liu (2019) used Bloom’s cognitive hierarchy theory in order to explicate increasing the influence of translation tasks on translation students’ critical thinking. He believed that the integration of memorization, grasping, manipulation, analyzing, evaluation, and creation should be applied in translation courses which can improve translators’ critical thinking skills.

Implications and suggestions for further research

This conceptual review probed the role of translators’ critical thinking and emotion regulation in their translation performance. Earlier studies have shown a significant relationship between critical thinking and translation quality (e.g., Liu, 2019 ; Ghaemi and Sadoughvanini, 2020 ; Saud, 2020 ; Li, 2022 ). In other words, translators’ critical thinking facilitates the analysis of the source text and expedites the efficient translation of the message ( Azin and Heidari Tabrizi, 2016 ). Moreover, translations with higher levels of critical thinking are more likely to use deductive and inductive reasoning in the translation process ( Saud, 2020 ). In addition, studies have shown that the sub-components of Bloom’s higher-order thinking skills, including analyzing and creating, are significantly correlated with critical thinking, which fosters translation quality ( Liu, 2019 ; Li, 2022 ). The results of earlier studies have shown that translators’ use of emotion regulation strategies leads to the efficiency in translation. The studies showed that some emotion regulators, like personality traits and professional expertise, can regulate translators’ emotions, leading to higher translation quality. Translators with higher levels of emotional intelligence, resilience, and intuition, as personality traits, outperform in translation performance.

This conceptual review has some implications for translator trainers, translator trainees, and curriculum designers. Translation trainees can also improve their critical thinking skills by applying some practical ways. Translation trainees can think critically to solve problems so that they meet their objectives. Every decision they make has an objective or purpose attached to it, and identifying exactly what that is, and what they actually want out of it, gives them a starting point to work with. They should ask questions from themselves about the expectation they want to get out of doing tasks. They should also consider the consequences of their decision in tasks. They need to weigh up the possible consequences that may arise from each of their options and go for the one that benefits them most while limiting the negative effects. A good way to do this is by writing a list of pros and cons. By asking themselves to think of every possible positive outcome alongside every possible negative outcome, they can make a much more informed decision. They should spend time on doing research and focusing on learning, and they should adapt themselves to new situations to overcome new situations and improve their critical thinking. There are various techniques and exercises to use critical thinking in classrooms. Caroselli (2009) lists 50 activities. She explained them in three categories: Quick Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Analytical Thinking. Examples of Quick Thinking are brainstorming and perceptual shift. Creative thinking exercises were designed for those competent learners who lack self-confidence and think they should not be expected to come up with critical thinking answers. Analytical thinking, based on the scientific approach of defining a problem, enables learners to overcome a problem. The course should be consistent and logical and students should be aware of what they do. Moreover, theory should be always connected with practice, and there should be constant feedback in the course. In addition, it should have engaging activities in order to trigger critical thinking skills among learners. Translation trainees should engage in doing activities that promote critical thinking skills and require them to reflect, collaborate, ask questions from peers, etc. They should ask meaningful questions since asking questions enhances their critical thinking in learning. Moreover, translators’ critical thinking skills can be improved through social involvement. If they get opportunities to participate in discussions, they must go ahead with it. This will help them encounter different views, examine incoming information, and improve communication skills. They should also practice active learning through understanding and not just by reciting it. Active learning, as a component of the experiential approach, can be attained via cooperative learning, visual learning, presentations, etc. The student translators’ critical thinking skills can develop through real-life examples, tales, analogies, and factual stories. Translation students can also foster their emotional intelligence and resilience. They should consider the role of affective factors on their translation performance. It can be mentioned that learners should be assisted to control, adjust, and regulate their emotions to improve their translation quality.

This review can notify translator trainers of the prominence of enhancing translation students’ critical thinking and emotion regulation strategies. Those who teach translation particularly can employ their creativity and include appropriate tasks and classroom activities to enhance students’ critical thinking skills along with their translation ability. Translator trainers should consider students’ attitudes, interests, abilities, and skills in these kinds of tasks and classroom activities and should try to encourage the students to use their critical thinking, and this can be the first step toward enhancing of students’ critical thinking. In order to increase students’ critical thinking, translator trainers can guide the trainees through exercises, provide more opportunities for them to ask different questions, and help them study materials increasing higher-order thinking skills. To keep the students’ attention going, translator trainers can add quizzes, puzzles, and create an appealing experience for students. They should devote time to translating students to participating in active, collaborative learning activities that help them appraise, scrutinize, and synthesize materials. Moreover, they can use classroom debates and appoint learners to involve in debated issue, and help them defend their views. Translator trainers’ effective use of questions and involving students in class discussions over challenging and appealing topics could engage them in critical thinking processes. Therefore, asking appropriate higher-level questions can promote the translation students’ critical thinking. They can also use jigsaw activities by dividing the class into groups. They can have each individual in the group explore a different feature of a broader topic. During class time, trainers can ask trainees to share their findings. They are recommended to employ seminars about translation, and they can get students to participate in class discussions. Critical thinking can be explicitly taught in translation classrooms, as an accelerator of the thinking ability as well as the translation ability of the learners. The explicit instruction of critical thinking, according to the review, can develop higher order thinking in the translation process. It is the translator trainers’ responsibility to encourage learners to use their thinking ability and learn to express themselves critically and creatively. It is believed that translator trainers need to be more flexible in their teaching and try to pay more attention to translation students’ attitudes, interests, and abilities. Moreover, translator trainers should use appropriate tasks, and activities in reading courses to promote critical thinking skills, which then can result in the improvement in reading source texts.

This review has shown that personality traits are regarded as the components which regulate the translation students’ emotions. Translator trainers should be aware of students’ characters, and they should recognize translation students’ needs and help them to find their solutions for translation problems. Emotional intelligence, as a component of personality traits is considered as a regulator of translators’ emotions. The translator trainers are required to provide inspiring and enjoyable translation tasks which provoke their emotional intelligence and reduce language anxiety in their minds. Thus, the provision of enjoyable tasks can regulate translation students’ emotional intelligence to advance their translation performance. These issues dwindle students’ cognitive load and foster their translation quality. Translator trainers can also improve students’ resilience as a regulator of emotion. The role of resilience could be that of influencing the appraisal of threat and thereby the level of anxiety experienced. Higher levels of resilience-related resources might enable individuals to manage any anxiety they experience, thus limiting any adverse effects on performance. Translator trainers can foster translation students’ resilience through positive rapport, instruction of social–emotional skills, developing positive emotional constructs, and building a sense of meaning and purpose.

Moreover, this conceptual review can enlighten those who are involved in planning curriculum for translation students and can equip them with additional information regarding the complex concepts of critical thinking and emotional regulation. Those who develop the curriculum for translation students can include purposeful courses in translation. The specific focus of these courses should be on critical thinking skills and emotions, the purpose of such courses should be the training of translators with high critical thinking and emotion regulation strategies. In other words, the focus of curriculum designers should be on critical questioning, critical reading, critical and creative writing, and critical listening in all curriculum areas.

Future research should consider the potential effects on the quality of translation. Future studies could investigate the association between critical thinking and different types of translation texts. Moreover, it is necessary to investigate how translation quality is influenced by translation students’ positive emotional constructs, such as foreign language enjoyment, engagement, grit, self-efficacy, pedagogical love, and well-being. Further studies should investigate the influence of factors like academic capabilities, learner style, and negative emotional states, such as foreign language anxiety, apprehension, boredom, and burnout, on translation quality. Moreover, the relationship between translators’ critical thinking and their emotion regulators, such as resilience, emotional intelligence, intuition, and professional expertise should be investigated in the future. Finally, the effect of some variables, such as age, gender, education, intercultural communication experiences, and economic status, on student translators’ critical thinking skill and their strategy in regulating emotions can also be considered in the future.

Author contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

This study received funding from Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Reform Project of Henan Province, “Research and Practice of the Construction of Teaching Quality Assurance System for MTI with Aviation Characteristics” (Project number: 2021SJGLX246Y) and Postgraduate Education Reform and Quality Improvement Project of Henan Province, “Project of Joint Training Base for Graduate Students in Henan Province” (Project number: YJS2022JD44).

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: critical thinking, emotion regulation, translation performance, psychology, translation studies

Citation: Cheng S (2022) Exploring the role of translators’ emotion regulation and critical thinking ability in translation performance. Front. Psychol . 13:1037829. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1037829

Received: 06 September 2022; Accepted: 27 October 2022; Published: 17 November 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Shufang Cheng, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Critical Thinking and Decision-Making  - What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking and decision-making  -, what is critical thinking, critical thinking and decision-making what is critical thinking.

Critical Thinking and Decision-Making: What is Critical Thinking?

Lesson 1: what is critical thinking, what is critical thinking.

Critical thinking is a term that gets thrown around a lot. You've probably heard it used often throughout the years whether it was in school, at work, or in everyday conversation. But when you stop to think about it, what exactly is critical thinking and how do you do it ?

Watch the video below to learn more about critical thinking.

Simply put, critical thinking is the act of deliberately analyzing information so that you can make better judgements and decisions . It involves using things like logic, reasoning, and creativity, to draw conclusions and generally understand things better.

This may sound like a pretty broad definition, and that's because critical thinking is a broad skill that can be applied to so many different situations. You can use it to prepare for a job interview, manage your time better, make decisions about purchasing things, and so much more.

The process

As humans, we are constantly thinking . It's something we can't turn off. But not all of it is critical thinking. No one thinks critically 100% of the time... that would be pretty exhausting! Instead, it's an intentional process , something that we consciously use when we're presented with difficult problems or important decisions.

Improving your critical thinking

In order to become a better critical thinker, it's important to ask questions when you're presented with a problem or decision, before jumping to any conclusions. You can start with simple ones like What do I currently know? and How do I know this? These can help to give you a better idea of what you're working with and, in some cases, simplify more complex issues.  

Real-world applications

Let's take a look at how we can use critical thinking to evaluate online information . Say a friend of yours posts a news article on social media and you're drawn to its headline. If you were to use your everyday automatic thinking, you might accept it as fact and move on. But if you were thinking critically, you would first analyze the available information and ask some questions :

• What's the source of this article?
• Is the headline potentially misleading?
• What are my friend's general beliefs?
• Do their beliefs inform why they might have shared this?

After analyzing all of this information, you can draw a conclusion about whether or not you think the article is trustworthy.

Critical thinking has a wide range of real-world applications . It can help you to make better decisions, become more hireable, and generally better understand the world around you.

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The Effect of Critical Thinking on Translation Technology Competence Among College Students: The Chain Mediating Role of Academic Self-Efficacy and Cultural Intelligence

1 School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Panzhihua University, Panzhihua, 617000, People’s Republic of China

Zhaoyang Gao

Associated data.

The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available from the corresponding author upon request.

It is increasingly essential for translators to possess a high level of technological proficiency to succeed in their work, as technology is becoming an integral part and common practice of the translation industry. Several previous studies found that critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence independently influenced the translation competence of college students. However, the underlying psychological mechanism through which these salient factors affect student translators’ technology competence has not been fully explored. Therefore, this research sought to examine the systematic interactions between critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, and translation technology competence among college students.

This study adopted an empirical approach to collect data from 663 seniors from 7 colleges in China. The questionnaires of the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (CTDS), General Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (GASE), Short Form measure of Cultural Intelligence (SFCQ), and Translation Technology Competence Scale (TTCS) were used for the online survey. The quantitative data were investigated by employing descriptive statistics with SPSS 27, covariance-based structural equation modelling with AMOS 24 to test the proposed hypotheses by assessing relationships between observed and latent variables, and bootstrap method with PROCESS 3.5 to examine the mediating effects.

Critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence were significant predictors of students’ translation technology competence. Additionally, academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence acted as independent and chain mediators in the relationship between critical thinking and student translators’ technology competence.

The findings provide valuable insight into how psychological factors, including critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence, can impact students’ competence in translation technology. This study contributes to future research and practices that seek to understand how these psychological factors can be leveraged to promote students’ success in translation technologies.

Introduction

Translation plays an increasingly crucial role in the exchanges between different cultures and peoples as the world economy continues to expand and communication becomes more accessible. 1 It is critical to nurture professional and qualified translators to meet the growing demand from society and facilitate the sustainable development of the translation industry. Researchers and educators have made a large number of efforts in identifying and developing translation competences, 2–5 among which translation technology competence is receiving growing attention because the conventional manual translation is no longer able to keep up with modern demands due to its inefficiency and high cost. 6 In contrast, the constant advancements of information technology and computer science, particularly the breakthroughs in the application of artificial intelligence in natural language processing, brought machine translation into a new stage. 7 The language service industry is witnessing the indispensable use of translation technologies in its business practices. 8 The industrial transformation poses intrinsic requirements for translators to have sufficient related technology competencies. Nonetheless, there is a paucity in terms of what makes the specific translation technology competence that modern translators should be equipped with. To address such a research gap, the present study proposes practical and systematic constituents of translation technology competence of student translators, the major potential workforce in the translation businesses.

At the same time, the psychology of translators is pertinent to translation tasks because they involve social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive processes. 9 Beyond general language undertaking, scholars have investigated translation as a complicated cognitive endeavor. 10–12 The process of translating and the development of translators’ skills and career all involve cognitive psychology, which investigates the enigmatic functions of the human mind that is unable to be observed directly. 13 However, few efforts have been made in the academic community to examine the psychological factors that impact student translators’ translation technology competence. Meanwhile, the existing research mostly concentrated on the direct effects of some cognitive psychology constructs, such as critical thinking, self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, etc., on translation performance or competence, neglecting to investigate and pinpoint the underlying psychological mechanism for the specific technology competence.

A few studies confirmed that critical thinking had a positive and significant influence on translation competence. 14–16 The act of translating may be perceived as a problem-solving process in which the translator comes across issues from multiple sources and employs resources and methods to address them. 17 Translation involves the thinking of translators, while critical thinking is extremely important from this perspective. It necessitates the capacity to analyze and evaluate information, make informed judgements and draw reasoned conclusions. 18 No computer program or machine translation engine can generate perfect translation output so far. Translators must make complicated decisions in response to a variety of challenges while engaging in the sophisticated decision-making process of translation. 19 , 20 They have to critically choose the best results from the various possible translation alternatives and perform proper postediting.

Translation and interpreting academics have taken a keen interest in the concept of self-efficacy, a critical construct of cognitive psychology. 21 , 22 A person’s self-confidence, motivation, choice-making, perseverance in the face of challenges, and performance can all be influenced by this fundamental explanatory concept. 23 Self-efficacy is a key component of human agency and self-control, and it affects a person’s expectations and commitment to specific tasks. 24 Self-efficacy in translation refers to the translators’ belief in their competence to translate a certain text under a given set of contexts and conditions. 25 High degrees of self-efficacy in translation increase translators’ confidence in their capacity to carry out translation tasks. 26 When they encounter setbacks or challenges during translation endeavors, they are more likely to repeat efforts and generate satisfying translation performance. Self-efficacy is essential in the translation process as it has shown positive correlations with reading comprehension in the source language, perceptions of translation demands, and the ability to solve translation-related issues. 27 However, these prior studies showed that self-efficacy is positively related to overall translation competence, but few studies were found to explore the relationship between academic self-efficacy, a specific domain of self-efficacy in education context, and translation technology competence, a sub-competence of general translation competence.

Cultural intelligence of translators was also proved to positively affect their translation competence. 28 , 29 Translation is a cognitive process that necessitates the utilization of innovative solutions to tackle textual, social, and cultural challenges. 30 It involves the linguistic conversation between at least two languages, while culture is an essential constituent of any language. Since rendering a text into another language while preserving the intended message is the essence of translation, 31 the act of translating can be viewed as a bilateral endeavor that requires the practitioners to have sufficient cultural knowledge to fully comprehend the meaning and generate culturally-accepted translations. 32 Translation quality is maintained by the translators’ ability to draw upon their understanding of both the source and target cultures when conveying the cultural elements present in the original text. 33 Translators with strong cultural intelligence will encounter fewer cultural barriers in the translation process and facilitate the application of translation technologies in cross-cultural contexts.

The above brief literature review demonstrated that critical thinking, self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence had a positive influence on translation competence. However, limited research has been done on the interactions between these cognitive psychological factors and translation technology competence. Since student translators’ technology competence plays an increasingly critical role in their translation performance and future career prospects, a systematic investigation into the influencing factors would facilitate the effective development of translation talents, enhance their domain-specific competence and provide insights for pedagogical practices. The necessity of a structural model in this specific research area stems from the intricate interconnections of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence, as they are deemed to be independently associated with translation technology competence. However, the existing literature has yet to provide a thorough understanding of how these constructs jointly contribute to students’ competences in utilizing translation technology. The proposed structural model aims to bridge this gap and provides several theoretical, practical and methodological benefits.

In the meanwhile, the existing studies primarily focused on general translation competence. Various researchers have proposed the constituents of overall translation competence and developed multi-factor translation competence models. Some models included technology-related sub competences such as instrumental competence, 34 , 35 tools and research competence, 2 and technology. 36 Little attention has made in detecting the specific elements of translation technology competence of student translators.

To address the gaps in the existing studies and provide references for future research and practices, the current study seeks to answer the following questions:

• What are the specific elements of student translators’ translation technology competence?
• How do critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence systematically interact with the translation technology competence of student translators?
• How can higher education institutions and translation trainers improve students’ translation technology competence through the interference of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence?

To achieve these research objectives, Section 2 identifies the translation technology competence and develops a sub-scale to measure it on the basis of the prior studies. It also proposes the hypothesis to be examined in the empirical investigation through literature review. Section 3 presents the research methods, instruments and procedure with the help of SPSS 27, Amos 24, and PROCESS 3.5. Section 4 reports the results of the survey and the hypothesis. Section 5 and 6 discuss the implications of these test results and offers feasible suggestions for improving student translators’ translation technology competence based on the findings. Section 7 and 8 points out the limitations for future research and briefly concludes the research.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Translation competence.

Translation competence entails a multifaceted complexity, necessitating a range of procedures and elements. 4 , 37 , 38 It is defined as “the underlying system of knowledge, abilities, and attitudes required to be able to translate”. 3 It refers to the capabilities to effectively and accurately translate a source text from one language to another with a variety of skills, from knowledge of the source language to an understanding of the target language, expressing complex ideas clearly and faithfully and meeting specific requirements of the translation tasks. 5 From the linguistic point of view, translation competence is seen as the combination of abilities required to complete reading, writing, and conversion tasks between different languages. 9 Such competence is essential to generate high-caliber target texts that follow all the standards of the translation industry from a product viewpoint. 39

Many researchers have endeavored to identify the elements of translation competence and recommended various sets of criteria, indicating that the construct of translation competence is still evolving and not established yet. 38 , 40–44 Several multi-dimensional models of translation competence have been examined and validated by different empirical evidence regarding the actions and cognitive activities of translators and interpreters. For example, the PACTE model suggests that translation competence is composed of “bilingual, extra-linguistic, knowledge of translation, instrumental, strategic sub-competences, and psycho-physiological components”. 34 , 35 Kelly 45 identified two more components in her translation competence model than what the PACTE group did, which include

communicative and textual competence, subject area competence, professional and instrumental competence, psycho-physiological or attitudinal competence, interpersonal competence, strategic competence, and cultural and intercultural competence.

Göpferich 2 proposed a translation competence model that consists of

strategic competence and motivation, communicative competence in source and target language, domain competence, tools, and research competence, translation routine activation competence, and psycho-motor competence.

The EMT competence framework developed by an expert group of European Masters in Translation in 2009 and updated by the EMT Board includes “language and culture, translation, technology, personal and interpersonal, and service provision” that equips and enables graduates of translation studies to possess the essential expertise and competences for the future workplace. 36 It is evident that these models propose varied facets of translation competence, each with its own distinct emphasis, but possessing some common elements. 9

Translation Technology Competence

Over the past few years, tremendous strides have been made in the field of language and translation technology as a result of the accelerated progress of computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, and big data. 46 , 47 Such technological advancements have led to more sophisticated and efficient language and translation systems than ever before, which are proving to be a powerful tool for improving translation performance. 48 The capability to employ such tools has become a critical skill that associates with other competences to promote translation proficiency. 49 This transition has been a significant change in the field of translation, allowing more efficient and effective translation practices. As an integral component of translation competence, technology competence enables translators to attain better results in a shorter amount of time. Furthermore, it provides a range of options that may otherwise not be available in the traditional manual translation context, allowing translators to broaden their range of services. Drawing on the findings of the existing studies, the present research proposes a translation technology competence with six elements, ie, machine translation, post-editing, information literacy, terminology management, translation memory, and computer-aided translation.

Machine Translation

Traditionally, machine translation has been associated with the technology competence of translators. 50 The employment of machine translation as a part of the translation process has enabled translators to increase their production in a multitude of areas within the language service business. 51 In certain areas of language services, translators are expected to take advantage of machine translation as a helpful assistant in producing the target text, as it can result in more accurate translations and improve the efficiency of translators. 52 In light of the increasing prevalence of machine translation in the translation sector, higher education institutions providing translation programs have added machine translation to the curriculum so that translation students can become competitive in the job market. 53 The widespread application of machine translation in educational endeavors showed that machine translation has contributed to the growth and acquisition of students’ translation competence. 48 It increases students’ knowledge of the source and target languages and their ability to transfer information between them. 54

Post-Editing

The increasing acknowledgment of machine translation from both the providers and users of translation services has opened up the potential for post-editing machine translation results as a profitable venture for translation businesses. 55 Post-editing is a sophisticated linguistic undertaking of revising a text that has been generated by a machine translation program. 56 It involves reviewing and improving machine translation output to guarantee that it is accurate, consistent, and fit for purpose. Post-editing is the most effective approach for ensuring that the translated text meets the needs of the clients and reflects the intended meaning with the right tone and style. 57 The use of post-editing is prevalent in improving computer-assisted translation tools through the utilization of machine translation technology, with human translators making the necessary changes to machine-generated translations. 58 Researchers and businesses have found that post-editing is more efficient than traditional human translation without sacrificing the quality of the output. 59–61 As a result, the growing demand for language services has led to translation agencies relying more heavily on post-edited machine translation systems, 62 which requires translators to take on the role of post-editors. 63 , 64

Information Literacy

Practitioners, educators, and researchers have generally accepted information literacy as a crucial component of translation competence. 65 The ability to find and utilize information is acknowledged as an essential competence in a variety of translation models, such as the PACTE Model or EMT translation competence framework. Since translators need to acquire intra- and extra-linguistic knowledge by seeking information to make decisions and address issues in the process of translation, information literacy is critical to translation careers and serves as the foundation for translators’ lifelong learning. 66 When faced with ambiguities or difficulties during translation, translators can find feasible and quick solutions with the help of electronic dictionaries, online knowledge-sharing platforms, and search engines. 67 , 68 The introduction of the internet has also dramatically expanded the information sources accessible to translators, transformed the way of searching for information in translation activities, and improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the information-seeking process. 69 , 70

Terminology Management

Terminology management in translation is the process of identifying, extracting, collecting, applying, storing, and keeping term records up to date. 71 The utilization of accurate terminology and their effective management are proved to be critical components of the quality control system for translation production and multilingual services. 72 , 73 Organizing terms into the pertinent conceptual frameworks helps translators build up their expertise in the specialized field, thus facilitating faithful translation of the source text. 74 , 75 Using a bilingual corpus to access existing translations to extract domain-specific terms enables translators to rapidly and effectively obtain relevant terminology for their translation tasks. 76 Incorrect use of terminology by the translator can lead to major problems in the translation process because a single mistake in terminology can have an effect on future translations as it is used as a basis for translation programs. 53 Since terminological analysis provides the foundation for recognizing fundamental ideas in a specific field and the language resources necessary to render them, students are instructed to construct terminological databases and acquire terminology management skills in the related domain to grow the relevant competences that will empower them to reach professional-level translations. 77

Translation Memory

Translation memory is a kind of assistance to translators which retains source and target-language sentences in a database and can automatically locate the translations of those sentences in a new document if they exist in the database. 78 , 79 Translators are provided with a source-target segment pair when a pertinent match is identified between the segments of the new text to be translated and the source text segments of the database during the process of translation. 80 Translation memory tools have become popular solutions for increasing productivity and quality in translation practices since it allows users to leverage previous work and ensure consistency across multiple projects. 81 , 82 Translation memory is a useful asset for translators by referencing, reusing, and customizing existing human-translated texts when creating new translations. 53 It is especially advantageous in areas with a high frequency of specialized language and textual structures, such as legal documents and technical materials. 83

Computer-Aided Translation

A high level of translation technology competence implies the capacity to proficiently utilize computer-assisted translation software and other computer programs that help translators process computer files in various formats, search documents, and leverage databases. 84 The growing complexity of translation projects and the heightened specialization in translation businesses have made it essential for translators to utilize computer-assisted translation tools to meet the demands of their tasks 85 and efficiently fulfill translation processes. 58 These tools enable translators to build their own sets of saved translations that can be reused in their projects, shared with peers, and utilized for both business and academic applications. 86 The majority of professional translators favor computer-assisted translation for repetitive tasks, and it is possible for them to reuse existing translations efficiently. 87 , 88 At the same time, most translators employed in major organizations and corporations have adopted computer-assisted translation programs in their translation practices because these tools can create an efficient workspace for the successful management and execution of translation projects. 89 In the school context, computer-aided translation courses of a high standard are indispensable to develop translators with various capabilities because they provide students with the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to become successful professionals in the field of translation and keep them updated with the latest technologies and methods that are being used in the industry. 90 For example, Rodríguez-Castro 85 adapted the conventional translation syllabus to integrate extra translation competences that close the space between school education and current industry requirements and expedite the attainment of technical abilities through the most popular computer-aided translation tools in the translation business: SDL Trados Studio, MemoQ and WordFast. It is acknowledged that the proficiency of computer-aided translation tools forms a crucial part of the translator’s skill set, which reinforces the value of these tools in the training of translators. 91

Critical Thinking and Translation Technology Competence

The ability to think critically is the key to improving college student translators’ translation competence 14 , 92 since the assessment of the expectations of the target readers and the appropriate selection of translation strategies or methods are both closely tied to the critical examination of resources. 93 Critical thinking is proven to be crucial in today’s society since it helps individuals arrive at the optimal option by weighing the possibilities. 94 It is highly correlated with translation performance, and students’ greater critical thinking skills lead to higher performance on translation tasks and tests. 15 , 95–97 For example, empirical studies conducted at Chifeng University in China, 98 King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia, 16 and a Thai university 99 revealed that critical thinking significantly enhanced students’ translation skills from Chinese, Arabic, and Thai to English. The postgraduates pursuing degrees in the Master of Translation and Interpreting program gained a significant amount of critical thinking and problem-solving skills based on an interactive teaching and learning model, which accordingly promoted their translation competence as future professional translators. 100 Through the “data-driven learning college English translation teaching model”, students were open to discussing their answers and looking for justifications for their choices, which greatly enhanced their translation capabilities. 101 As a sub-competence of translation competences, translation technology competence is also impacted by critical thinking skills. When given the responsibility of reviewing machine translation work, students are expected to acquire critical thinking ability 102 because the performance of machine translation post-editing was affected by translator’s critical thinking through self-regulation. 62 Thus, the following hypothesis was put forward:

H1: Student translators’ critical thinking has a positive and significant impact on their translation technology competence.

Academic Self-Efficacy and Translation Technology Competence

Self-efficacy refers to a person’s ability to perform a particular activity according to their own assessments using their existing talents. 103 People’s preconceptions about their own abilities to effectively accomplish specific tasks tend to have a significant impact on the subsequent results. 104 Individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy are more likely to be motivated to hold on to a goal for a longer time and spend more effort once they have begun pursuing the goal. 23 Additionally, self-efficacy aids in quicker recovery after setbacks. 105 In the translation context, self-efficacy refers to a translator’s confidence in their ability to carry out the steps necessary to effectively generate appropriate results for a specific translation task. 21 Since perceptions of hardship in comprehending source texts and the capacity to bear cognitive burdens can be advantageous to translation, general self-efficacy and the capability to execute complicated translation tasks are closely correlated. 106 Self-efficacy can affect the way cognitive resources are allocated as well as how much work and tenacity are used to fulfill the translation. 21 It is vital for process-focused research on translation that takes into account a translator’s ability to read fluently in the original language, their level of ambiguity tolerance, and their documentation skills. 27 When it comes to utilizing problem-solving tactics to complete a translation project, the group of college students who specialized in translation studies with higher levels of self-efficacy produced more text per minute than the low-efficacy group. 107

In terms of translation technology competence, training in translation technology may produce better learning results for students who have stronger self-efficacy in their capacity to develop skills. 22 Students with higher self-efficacy may feel less anxious and more confident when completing translation tasks and acquiring translation technology competence. 108 In addition to predicting learning achievements, self-efficacy measures can also be used to predict machine translation performance after launching a statistical machine translation course for translation students for master’s degrees. 109 With increased self-efficacy, student translators gained a greater understanding and confidence in using machine translation in general and statistical machine translation in particular. 110 In the meanwhile, self-efficacy is a domain-specific indicator of efficacy rather than a general one across all domains. 25 In the educational context of the current study, academic self-efficacy refers to the belief that students can complete complex tasks and overcome obstacles in their studies. 111 Such belief can motivate students to choose effective strategies for tackling challenging situations and help them persist in their academic tasks, 112 which enhances their acquisition of translation technology competence through various pedagogical endeavors. Based on these arguments, Hypothesis 2 was proposed as follows:

H2: Student translators’ academic self-efficacy has a positive and significant impact on their translation technology competence.

Cultural Intelligence and Translation Technology Competence

Cultural intelligence is defined as “a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts” 113 from a psychological perspective. The four components of cultural intelligence are cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral elements, 114 and the construct concentrates on the distinct situation of intercultural communication where protocols and regulations for social interaction differ significantly. 115 It is also known as cultural competence or intercultural communication and involves the ability to recognize and respect cultural differences, as well as understand, appreciate, and interact effectively with different cultures. In the translation field, cultural competence refers to translators’ ability to identify, compare, and contrast cultural differences between the source and target languages to produce an appropriate result of cultural phenomenon in the target text. 66 It is essential to accurately interpret the culture-loaded text and determine the best way to communicate it to the target audience. 116

Having a strong grasp of cultural intelligence contributes to the enhancement of translation competence. 28 A thorough understanding of the close relationship between language and culture is essential for effective translation, which involves more than just linguistic and stylistic decisions. 117 With the roots firmly entrenched in the cultural environment from which the text originates, translation is a bridge between cultures, and the role of a translator is not limited to only closing linguistic gaps but also cultural ones. 29 Possessing cultural awareness can enhance translation-linked communications and capabilities. 118 Cultural intelligence is also positively linked to translation technology-related abilities. Given the vast number of cultural elements available, it appears unfeasible for translators to rely solely on their internalized cultural knowledge to address translation issues related to culture. Translators should be equipped with adequate information literacy to access external sources to ensure that translations are accurate and appropriate. 119 Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was proposed as follows:

H3: Student translators’ cultural intelligence has a positive and significant impact on their translation technology competence.

Critical Thinking and Academic Self-Efficacy

The more adept a person is at synthesizing data from a range of sources, the better he/she can form an accurate understanding of his/her own self-efficacy, as assimilating information from multiple sources is integral to the development of self-efficacy. 120 Engaging in critical thinking can lead to an increase in self-efficacy and in turn to better academic performance due to the fact that critical thinking encourages individuals to reflect on their own learning process, and in doing so, they gain confidence in their own abilities. There are several empirical studies showed that academic self-efficacy was positively influenced by critical thinking. For example, questionnaire surveys on middle school students revealed that critical thinking skills helped them feel more confident in their ability 121 to undertake a task in a creative manner 122 and utilize information technology and their expertise to comprehend problems and find solutions. 123 A strong correlation was observed between the critical thinking skills and self-efficacy of advanced English as a Foreign Language students in Iran, 124 both of these constructs had a positive effect on self-directed learning. 125 An experimental study of 71 nursing seniors at a Turkish university revealed a moderate association between critical thinking and self-efficacy in the post-test results. 126 However, the results of an empirical study on 95 nurses did not support the hypothesis that more outstanding critical thinking capabilities were associated with increased self-efficacy beliefs. 127 Therefore, Hypothesis 4 was proposed in the present study to test the relationship between critical thinking and academic self-efficacy.

H4: Student translators’ critical thinking has a positive and significant impact on their academic self-efficacy.

Academic Self-Efficacy and Cultural Intelligence

The development of cultural intelligence can be positively impacted by self-efficacy, which is pertinent to cross-cultural interactions, education, and adaptation. 128 The inner strength of self-efficacy is the driving factor that enables people to effectively deal with intercultural risks and uncertainties, as it encourages them to set ambitious objectives in the face of adversity and strive to reach their desired outcomes. 129 Having a solid belief in one’s own capabilities is the most prominent factor that encourages people to confront the challenges of intercultural experiences, as it gives them the confidence to tackle various problems. 130 Yalim et al 131 found that healthcare professionals must have a high level of self-efficacy and cultural understanding when providing mental health services for refugees, which enables them to communicate effectively with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. In the school setting, both multicultural and monocultural students with stronger self-efficacy were more successful in adapting to different cultures because people with higher self-efficacy are usually more capable of managing their emotions and dealing with challenges in an intercultural setting. 132 Students’ cultural competence also showed a strong link with their increased self-belief after participating in service-learning abroad. 133 Hence, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H5: Student translators’ academic self-efficacy has a positive and significant impact on their cultural intelligence.

Critical Thinking and Cultural Intelligence

Critical thinking is an essential skill in cross-cultural contexts as it allows individuals to consider a range of perspectives, reflect on their own opinions, and be aware of potential biases. 134 Students may face challenges when translating cultural information, or in multicultural settings due to the differences in languages, customs, and values between their own culture and the culture they are interacting with. They need to employ their powers of critical thinking to effectively interpret, analyze, and evaluate the cultural elements of a given text because, most of the time, there is no ready or single answer in the translation practices. 135 The ability to think critically helps them understand the cultural connotations of the source language and apply that knowledge to accurately render the intended meaning into the target language. Through this process, students become more aware of the nuances of language and its cultural implications and make more informed decisions when translating, 136 which enhances their cultural intelligence and provides them with the necessary skills to effectively interpret and translate texts. However, a few studies showed that cultural competence had a play in intensifying critical thinking abilities. 137–139 Therefore, the current study proposed the following hypothesis to test the positive influence of critical thinking on cultural competence:

H6: Student translators’ critical thinking has a positive and significant impact on their cultural intelligence.

Academic Self-Efficacy, Critical Thinking, and Translation Technology Competence

Academic self-efficacy is a crucial construct for students to take on challenging tasks, persist in the face of difficulty, and develop the necessary skills to succeed. By affecting the degree of determination and perseverance when confronted with challenges, self-efficacy also mediates the influence of skills on subsequent performance. 103 Students with higher levels of academic self-efficacy has greater chance of engaging in higher-level thinking and problem-solving activities, which leads to better understanding and use of translation technology to aid in their understanding and rendition of texts. Academic self-efficacy can also help to foster an environment of resilience, motivation, and confidence for college students. They can approach the challenge of mastering translation technology with the belief that they can successfully achieve the desired outcome. Their success in translation was found to be correlated with their online information searching, in part through the mediation of their self-efficacy in fulfilling translation tasks. 140 The amount of typing and computer use was also significantly predicted by the self-efficacy of translation students. 25 According to these arguments, the following hypothesis was put forward:

H7a: Student translators’ academic self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence.

Cultural Intelligence, Critical Thinking, and Translation Technology Competence

Critical thinking could help college undergraduates keep a critical outlook on cultural knowledge and contexts and be more sensitive to cultural information, which improves their performance in adopting translation technology. 141 A good understanding of cultural intelligence enables students to apply their critical thinking skills and translation technology competence more effectively. 136 Students’ ability to recognize and interpret cultural cues is essential to apply their critical thinking skills and translation technology competence in different contexts. 142 Specifically, students who demonstrate cultural competence can draw on a range of experiences and perspectives to make informed decisions, which can help them develop better translation technology skills. Moreover, culturally competent students are more likely to think critically about the material they are translating, which makes it easier for them to use translation technologies more efficiently. 143 These arguments indicated that stronger critical thinking ability positively predicted student translators’ cultural intelligence, which in turn resulted in high levels of translation technology competence. Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H7b: Student translators’ cultural intelligence plays a mediating role in the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence.

Self-Efficacy, Cultural Intelligence, Critical Thinking, and Translation Technology Competence

Academic self-efficacy has been defined as an individual’s belief in their ability to succeed in an academic setting and is believed to be a significant predictor of academic performance. 144 Cultural intelligence, on the other hand, is a set of cognitive and motivational abilities that help individuals adjust to and perform effectively in culturally diverse situations. 145 Prior studies showed that academic self-efficacy is a strong predictor of translation technology competence, as it allows students to build the necessary skills and confidence to use the technology effectively. 109 Academic self-efficacy is also related to cultural intelligence, as it improves students’ confidence in bridging cultural differences and developing an understanding of the target culture. 132 Both of these constructs have been found to have a positive effect on students’ performance, and they can work together to mediate the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence. Academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence are both associated with students’ perception of their ability to succeed in an academic setting and their ability to process diverse cultural information. 146 , 147 Students with stronger academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence tend to develop the necessary critical thinking skills to use translation technology effectively. Additionally, students who have higher academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence may also be better equipped to assess and adapt to the cultural context of the translation technology they are using. These positive relationships indicate that academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence might play chain mediators in the correlation between critical thinking and translation technology competence among student translators. Accordingly, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H8: Student translators’ self-efficacy and cultural intelligence have a chain mediating effect on the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence.

An overall research model of the present study based on the nine hypotheses is presented in Figure 1 .

Research model.

Materials and Methods

The initial questionnaire was formulated on the basis of prior studies. A pilot study was performed to ensure the reliability and validity of the questionnaire in November 2022 at the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Panzhihua University, a Chinese state-owned university. The survey employed a convenience sampling method and yielded 232 valid questionnaires. The reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and further analyzed with SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 24 through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The ultimate questionnaire was comprised of 29 items in contrast to the initial 32. The pilot test additionally led to 2 items being reworded for clarity.

Participants

Altogether, 663 senior students from 7 Chinese colleges with a comparable degree of translation proficiency participated in this investigation on a voluntary basis. All the individuals were native Chinese and specialized in English-related disciplines, including English Language and Literature, Business English, and Translation. Since most Chinese universities offer translation training courses that integrate translation technology in the third or fourth year, the present study only recruited college seniors to ensure that they have engaged in the related classes and were equipped with translation technology competence. As shown in Table 1 , among these participants, 73 were males (11%) and 590 females (89%). 25.5% of them were from urban backgrounds (n=169), and 74.5% were from rural areas (n=494). 384 participants majored in English Language and Literature (57.9%), 209 in Translation (31.5%), and 70 in Business English (10.6%).

Basic Description of the Sample

The items of the questionnaire employed in this study were adapted from established scales that had been previously validated, except for the self-developed translation technology competence sub-scale. The overall questionnaire was comprised of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, and translation technology competence to investigate the proposed hypotheses.

Critical Thinking Scale

Critical thinking was measured by the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (CTDS) developed by Sosu. 148 It had 11 items with two dimensions: critical openness (7 items) and reflective scepticism (4 items). The results of the multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the two-factor model was applicable to both undergraduate and graduate groups (n = 371). However, after running a confirmatory factor analysis in the pilot test, we decided to remove two items of the critical openness dimension from the current study based on their low factor loadings. Each item was assigned a score from 1 to 5 using the Likert system.

Academic Self-Efficacy Scale

Academic self-efficacy was evaluated by the 5-item General Academic Self-Efficacy scale (GASE) developed by Nielsen et al. 149 Akanni and Oduaran 150 found the internal consistency of the scale to be satisfactory, as indicated by a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81. Van Zyl et al 144 reported that the scale demonstrated adequate levels of internal consistency and reliability at both time points, with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.74 and 0.78.

Cultural Intelligence Scale

Cultural intelligence was assessed by the Short Form measure of Cultural Intelligence (SFCQ) developed by Thomas et al. 151 It had 10 items with three intermediate facets: cultural knowledge (2 items), cultural skills (5 items), and cultural metacognition (3 items). The scale’s reliability and validity were verified through the contributions of 3, 526 individuals from five different linguistic backgrounds worldwide 151 and by other empirical research. 152 The confirmatory factor analysis in the pilot test revealed that one item of the Cultural Skills had insufficient factor loadings and was thus excluded from the current study.

Translation Technology Competence Scale

The research team developed the sub-scale to measure the translation technology competence of student translators based on the previous literature. The scale consists of 6 items to test participants’ machine translation, post-editing, information literacy, terminology management, translation memory, and computer-aided translation. It showed great reliability and validity in the pilot study with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.917, and the factor loading of each item was greater than 0.5.

Procedure and Data Analysis

Before the research was conducted, the Ethics Committee of the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Panzhihua University granted the ethical approval under the framework of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and confirmed that this study adhered to both domestic and international protocols regarding research involving humans (Grant number: HRECA22-002). The questionnaire was subsequently sent to the senior college students in 7 Chinese universities. Prior to taking part in the survey, the students were informed of the background and aims of the research, as well as the privacy and anonymity of their answers, and provided their informed consent. They filled out the questionnaire on the Chinese website “Wenjuanxin” (also referred to as China’s Qualtrics) by a convenience sampling approach between November 29, 2022, and December 13, 2022. The data obtained from the questionnaire was investigated utilizing SPSS 27, Amos 24, and PROCESS 3.5. SPSS was utilized to process the data and perform descriptive analysis. Amos was employed to carry out a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. PROCESS was adopted to examine the mediation effects with the Bootstrap method.

Common Method Deviation Test

Harman single-factor test is the most popular approach to evaluating common method deviation. 153 , 154 The analysis extracted four principal components, with the first factor explaining 41.136% of the variance, lower than the 50% threshold typically used to suggest the presence of a common method bias, 155 which suggests no major issues with common method bias in this research.

Validity and Reliability

AMOS 24.0 was utilized to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis. Items with a loading factor higher than 0.5 were deemed to have a substantial contribution to the related construct. 156 Table 2 shows that the factor loadings of all items were within a reasonable range between 0.60 and 0.95.

Factor Loadings of the Items

Note : ***p < 0.001.

Cronbach’s α was commonly employed to measure the internal consistency of scales. The overall scale in the current study has a Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.946. Table 3 reveals that the Cronbach α values of each subscale were all above 0.8, ranging from 0.881 to 0.93, suggesting that the scales had satisfactory reliability. 157 The validity of the construct was evaluated by assessing convergent and discriminant validity. The results of the AVE and CR showed that all values were higher than 0.5 and 0.7, respectively, indicating that the scale had good convergent validity. 158 , 159 There were greater square roots of the AVE values for each variable than the correlation between them, demonstrating that the scale had good discriminant validity (see Table 4 ). The evidence as a whole indicates that the scales are reliable and valid for further investigation.

Reliability and Convergent Validity Analysis of the Scale

Note : **p < 0.01.

Abbreviations : CT, critical thinking; ASE, academic self-efficacy; CI, cultural intelligence; TTC, translation technology competence.

Discriminant Validity of the Scale

Model Estimates and Hypothesis Testing

Direct effect on translation technology competence.

The findings from the assessment of the research model’s fitting index demonstrated that the model of the current study has a good overall fit (χ2/df=2.538, SRMR=0.0365, RMSEA=0.048, GFI=0.907, NFI=0.927, IFI=0.954, TLI=0.950, CFI=0.954). AMOS 24.0 was adopted for structural equation modeling and path analysis to test the proposed hypothesis (see Figure 2 ). A summary of the results of hypothesis testing for direct effects is provided in Table 5 . The path coefficient of CT to TTC was 0.167 (p<0.01), ASE to TTC 0.149 (p<0.01), CI to TTC 0.188 (p<0.01), CT to ASE 0.617 (p<0.001), ASE to CI 0.381 (p<0.001), and CT to CI 0.413 (p<0.001). Thus, Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 were all supported. The study showed that critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence have positive and significant impacts on translation technology competence among college students.

Results of the Proposed Hypothesis Testing for Direct Effects

Result of the path analysis.

Mediating Effect of Academic Self-Efficacy and Cultural Intelligence

This study used PROCESS 3.5, an IBM SPSS macro, to analyze the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence on the relationship between college students’ critical thinking and translation technology competence. Model 6 was chosen from a Bootstrap sample of 5000 in the PROCESS. The Bootstrap CI method was selected, and all intervals of confidence were set to 95%.

Table 6 shows that the total indirect effect of critical thinking on translation technology competence of college students was 0.195 (BootLLCI= 0.284, BootULCI= 0.120). If the range between BootLLCI and BootULCI does not encompass 0, the corresponding variable plays a significant mediator in the proposed relationship. 160 Critical thinking and translation technology competence were mediated by academic self-efficacy by 0.088 (BootLLCI= 0.032, BootULCI= 0.149). Hence, H7a was supported. Critical thinking was found to impact students’ translation technology competence through academic self-efficacy. The indirect effect of cultural intelligence on the prediction of critical thinking on translation technology competence was 0.07 (BootLLCI= 0.030, BootULCI= 0.125). Therefore, H7b was supported. It was found that cultural intelligence played a mediation role in the relation between critical thinking and translation technology competence among college students. The indirect effect of academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence on the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence was 0.036 (BootLLCI= 0.013, BootULCI= 0.068). As a result, H8 was supported in this study. Critical thinking and translation technology competence were correlated through a chain mediating effect of academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence.

Results of the Proposed Hypothesis Testing for Indirect Effects

This paper endeavored to explore the relationship between critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, and translation technology competence among college students and how academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence serve as mediators in this relationship. The results indicated that critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence are significant predictors of students’ translation technology competence. Furthermore, academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence appear to act as independent and sequential mediators in the relationship between critical thinking and students’ translation technology competence.

Direct Relationships

Critical thinking -->translation technology competence.

The present study echoed the findings of several prior studies in terms of the direct influence of critical thinking on the translation technology competence of college students. 62 , 102 Student translators are often presented with assorted documents that necessitate the ability to apply both critical thinking and translating skills at the same time. 161 When facing a specific translation task, students might be bewildered by the multiple choices of feasible strategies or techniques. They need to mobilize their professional knowledge, linguistic competence, and psychological resources to make the best choice in choosing the translation technologies and achieving the translation Skopos. 48 The effectiveness of unseen processes and activities in the translator’s mind is largely dependent on critical thinking. By engaging in this cognitive process, students are better able to identify and solve problems and make decisions that are based on reasoned arguments and evidence. 16 Having a strong critical thinking skill set enables students to better comprehend the differences between machine translation and human translation, or understand the implications of using language-specific translation technologies in different cultural settings. They could evaluate translation technology’s effectiveness, explore its potential applications, and develop strategies to ensure its successful use. Additionally, students with strong critical thinking skills can better identify and avoid potential pitfalls when using translation technology, such as translating the wrong content or misinterpreting a text due to language-specific nuances. The ability to identify patterns, draw connections between texts, and accurately predict future outcomes 162 enables them to make better-informed decisions that lead to successful translation technology projects. Finally, strong critical thinking skills can help students to develop new approaches to translation technology and propose innovative solutions to existing translation problems. This could include developing new tools or techniques to improve the accuracy of machine translation or creating more efficient workflows for human translation.

Academic Self-Efficacy -->Translation Technology Competence

College students’ academic self-efficacy directly impacts their translation technology competence. It often requires considerable commitment and patience to become proficient in the technical aspects of translation, which can be quite daunting for student beginners. They need strong self-efficacy in their abilities to acquire translation technologies and persist in learning and practicing when confronted with setbacks. Academic self-efficacy has the potential to boost students’ motivation to learn over the long run 163 , 164 and lead to higher levels of engagement with the task and a greater likelihood of successful completion. When they have strong belief in their ability to complete an academic task successfully, they are more likely to be motivated to put in the effort to learn translation technology and apply it to the translation tasks. Students with insufficient self-efficacy tend to give up on a translation task before completing it because self-efficacy has a significant influence on the commitment and effort domains. 165 Students with higher self-efficacy have a greater sense of control over their learning environment, which leads to an increased willingness to take on the challenges of learning and using translation technology. Additionally, having a higher level of academic self-efficacy is beneficial for students as it reduces the stress associated with acquiring translation technology competence.

Cultural Intelligence -->Translation Technology Competence

Culturally intelligent students tend to have more substantial translation technology competence in the present study, which confirms the previous studies in the result that cultural intelligence is positively linked with general translation competence. 28 Students with higher cultural intelligence are more familiar with the cultural conventions and nuances of the language they are translating, allowing them to make more informed decisions when using translation technologies. Without the ability to accurately interpret and evaluate the cultural aspects of a text, translation technology may lead to misinterpretation and miscommunication of the intended message. 166 Taking machine translation for example, even the most advanced neural machine translation has an inherent defect in processing cultural-loaded information. Consequently, students need to utilize their cultural competence to post-edit the translation texts to make them culturally right. They may draw upon their cultural understanding acquired through experience or research to resolve cultural issues in translation by utilizing a combination of both their personal insight and information-seeking strategies. 119 Students with higher cultural intelligence can better recognize the cultural aspects of the text they translate and select the more appropriate technology for their task. Cultural intelligence helps to ensure that the translation technology is used in a culturally appropriate manner and that the user can interpret and use the output of the technology in a meaningful way.

Mediated Relations

Critical thinking --> academic self-efficacy -->translation technology competence.

Self-efficacy is an essential factor in understanding the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence among college students. As a prominent construct in social cognitive theory, self-efficacy interprets human behavior through self-regulation, and it is linked to numerous psychological processes such as motivation and performance. 167 , 168 It can influence how individuals approach the translation task, as it can shape how they perceive their own ability to use translation technology. 169 When students have higher academic self-efficacy, a specific domain of general self-efficacy, they are more likely to take on challenging tasks in the process of learning and using translation technology. They would persist in the face of difficulty and have greater motivation to seek out and use resources that can help them master the technology. 170 By having a positive attitude and feeling confident in their ability to use translation technology, students can develop the capacity to effectively process and translate text, as well as to gain a better understanding of the underlying principles of translation technology. Academic self-efficacy can also lead to higher performance in translation technology, as students are more likely to use the technology in creative ways and explore different strategies to complete a task successfully. The findings of the current study demonstrated that academic self-efficacy not only directly and positively influences the translation technology competence of college students, but also enhances the effect of critical thinking on such competence. It can serve as a bridge in helping individuals understand how to apply their critical thinking skills in order to gain proficiency in translation technology. Critical thinking is a cognitive process that encourages students to consider evidence, question assumptions, and reflect on the validity of conclusions. It helps them develop a better understanding of the connections between their own thoughts and beliefs and those of others. This encourages students to be more open-minded and consider alternative perspectives. Engaging in critical thinking also allows students to understand the implications of their decisions and recognize and challenge their own biases and preconceptions, which can lead to increased self-efficacy among college students.

Critical Thinking --> Cultural Intelligence -->Translation Technology Competence

The results showed that students who are more culturally intelligent would be more capable of applying their critical thinking skills to different cultural contexts, which in turn leads to better translation technology competence. Cultural intelligence provides students with the necessary knowledge and understanding of cultural differences to translate information effectively. It involves understanding the customs, norms, and values of different cultures. 29 This includes being able to recognize and adjust to cultural differences, as well as being able to apply critical thinking skills to analyze and evaluate different cultural contexts. It is an essential factor in helping students gain the essential skills to successfully use translation technology. Cultural intelligence can help students to better understand the implications of the translated text by machine translation and how to postedit the results accordingly. This allows students to create translations that are more accurate and effective in different contexts, 145 further enhancing their performance in translation technology. Critical thinking was found to have a direct effect on cultural intelligence, as it encourages individuals to be more open-minded and less biased in their judgments. 136 It also helps students to understand and assess information and the cultural differences between them and others more accurately and efficiently. Through cultural intelligence, students can better understand how to use their critical thinking skills to effectively translate texts across different cultures and use translation technology tools to bridge the language barrier and cultural gaps.

Chain Mediating Relation

This study revealed that academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence played chain mediators in the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence. It has been shown that academic self-efficacy, which is the belief in one’s capability to complete academic tasks successfully, 111 and cultural intelligence, which is the ability to recognize and interpret cultural connotations, 171 can work together to boost translation technology competence. Individuals with a strong belief in their own capabilities are better able to manage stress, adapt to new cultural surroundings, and show openness to other cultures and ideas, thus enhancing their cultural awareness. 172 On the one hand, academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence serve as important psychological resources, helping individuals to better comprehend the complexities of translation technology and to understand the implications of their decisions. On the other hand, these two factors also provide the necessary motivation to pursue and practice the skills required to use translation technology effectively. Cultural intelligence is an important factor in developing the skills necessary to interact with people and interpret texts from different backgrounds, which can in turn increase the understanding of different cultures. 142 Through increased critical thinking ability, students can understand the implications of different cultures and translation technologies. In addition, thinking critically helps students to explore new ideas and develop new ways of accomplishing translation tasks and applying translation technologies in different contexts. Through the process of academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence, students are able to intensify the association between their critical thinking skills and their proficiency in translation technology.

Implications

Theoretical implications.

The current study provides valuable insight into how psychological factors such as critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence can impact students’ competence in translation technology. The results revealed that cognitive processes are linked to the acquisition of translation technology competence among college students. Specifically, higher levels of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence are associated with more outstanding achievements in translation technologies. The use of cognitive strategies can enable students to evaluate their own understanding and performance and adjust their strategies as necessary to achieve better outcomes in terms of translation technology competence. By combining psychological and translation theories, this study can help researchers gain a deeper comprehension of the relationships between these two disciplines. It allows for a more comprehensive approach to the study of translation technology competence, as well as a better understanding of the underlying psychological factors that contribute to its development. The findings could lay an essential foundation for future research that seeks to understand how psychological factors can be leveraged to promote students’ success in translation technologies.

Practical Implications

The direct effect of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence on translation technology competence and the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence in the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence among college student translators have important implications for educators and practitioners. How to enhance college students’ technology competence has emerged as one of the major issues in translation education since translation technology is becoming a vital part of translation practice. 173 By understanding the underlying interacting mechanism between these variables, educators can better design curricula and activities that promote the development of these psychological constructs to enhance students’ translation technology competence.

In addition to developing students’ traditional translation competences, higher education institutions and translator trainers have to realize the significance of improving students’ critical thinking skills. Incorporating critical thinking into the curriculum can be an effective way to help students develop their professional skills related to translation technology. By teaching students how to think critically, educators can help them to understand the intricacies of translation technology and ensure that they can make the best use of the tools available to their fullest potential. Additionally, students should be encouraged to explore and experiment with different methods of using translation technology in order to develop their critical thinking skills. Instructors should provide students with opportunities to reflect on the use of translation technology and the implications of the translation process for their own learning and development. By having students work on projects that require translation technology, instructors can offer students the chance to practice their problem-solving skills by identifying and addressing potential problems or obstacles in their translations.

The findings highlight the need for educational institutions to create programs and initiatives that encourage students to develop their academic self-efficacy. It is of great possibility for students to meet various challenges during the translation tasks due to deficiency in language knowledge, translation techniques, technology competence, or cultural barriers. If students are equipped with strong beliefs that they can achieve the prescribed goals through consistent efforts, they will rise up to these challenges and persevere in the frustrations of learning and using translation technologies. Educators should strive to create a supportive environment that encourages students to develop and maintain a high level of self-efficacy by providing constructive feedback, establishing clear learning objectives and expectations, and designing tasks that are both challenging and achievable. They can provide students with guidance on how to effectively use translation technology, as well as how to develop strategies for dealing with any challenges they may face. 174 Furthermore, they can provide students with opportunities to work on authentic translation tasks, which can help them develop their confidence in their own capabilities. Finally, it is important to emphasize the importance of developing a positive attitude towards translation technologies to enable students to develop a sense of self-efficacy and be motivated to continue learning. This can be done by introducing students to the various aspects of translation technology, such as machine translation, post-editing, information literacy, terminology management, translation memory, and computer-aided translation identified in the current study, and then offering them chances to practice and apply these skills.

Cultural intelligence should also be integrated into translation teaching, as it will help students better understand the cultural context of their translations and become more proficient in using translation technology. Cultural intelligence can be developed through a variety of activities, such as translating cross-cultural texts, taking part in cultural exchange programs, and participating in intercultural dialogues. It is also important to incorporate discussions about the implications of cultural differences for translation technology use. By engaging in such conversations, students can gain a better comprehension of how cultural context affects their adoption of translation technologies. Through purposeful practice in class activities and active participation in translation tasks, translation students can pick up cultural information. 175 Educators can also create an atmosphere conducive to cross-cultural learning by incorporating culturally diverse perspectives into course material and engaging in activities that allow students to practice their cultural intelligence skills.

Research Limitations and Future Research Directions

Despite the fact that this study has made valuable contributions to the understanding of translation technology competence of university students from both a theoretical and practical standpoint, there are still certain restrictions that should be taken into account for future research. First, the sample size is relatively small for the population of college students in China, which might limit the generalizability of the findings. Second, this research only adopts a quantitative method by questionnaire survey. This approach can provide useful data, but may not capture the full range of perspectives and experiences of the participants. Qualitative research methods such as interviews, focus groups, and observation can also provide valuable insights into this research topic. Thus, it may be beneficial for future research to include qualitative methods to gain a more comprehensive understanding.

This study empirically investigated the correlations between critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, and translation technology competence of college students. The results showed that these psychological constructs all have significant and positive impact on students’ translation technology competence. At the same time, academic self-efficacy and cultural intelligence have independent and chain mediating effects on the relationship between critical thinking and translation technology competence. Specifically, academic self-efficacy is the first link in the chain and plays a role in promoting the development of cultural intelligence, which then facilitates college students’ proficiency in translation technology. Additionally, the higher levels of cultural intelligence further enhance students’ translation technology competence. This study revealed the underlying psychological mechanism through which these factors interact with translation technology competence. It has important implications for researchers, educators, and practitioners, who should be more aware of the importance of critical thinking, academic self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence in promoting college students’ translation technology competence.

Acknowledgments

We are immensely grateful to the teachers who helped us distribute the questionnaire and to the participants who voluntarily filled out the questionnaires for this study.

Funding Statement

This research was funded by the Sichuan Federation of Social Science Associations (SC22WY030) and the Panzhihua University Research Project (2021PY013).

Data Sharing Statement

Ethics approval.

The Institutional Ethics Committee of the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures at Panzhihua University reviewed and granted the ethical approval for the research (Code No.: HRECA22-002). The questionnaire started with a section that introduced the objectives of the survey and assured participants that their responses would be kept anonymous and confidential.

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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• What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

Published on 25 September 2022 by Eoghan Ryan .

Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyse information and form a judgement.

To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources .

Critical thinking skills help you to:

• Identify credible sources
• Evaluate and respond to arguments
• Assess alternative viewpoints
• Test hypotheses against relevant criteria

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Table of contents

Why is critical thinking important, critical thinking examples, how to think critically, frequently asked questions.

Critical thinking is important for making judgements about sources of information and forming your own arguments. It emphasises a rational, objective, and self-aware approach that can help you to identify credible sources and strengthen your conclusions.

Critical thinking is important in all disciplines and throughout all stages of the research process . The types of evidence used in the sciences and in the humanities may differ, but critical thinking skills are relevant to both.

In an academic context, critical thinking can help you to determine whether a source:

• Is free from research bias
• Provides evidence to support its findings
• Considers alternative viewpoints

Outside of academia, critical thinking goes hand in hand with information literacy to help you form opinions rationally and engage independently and critically with popular media.

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Critical thinking can help you to identify reliable sources of information that you can cite in your research paper . It can also guide your own research methods and inform your own arguments.

Outside of academia, critical thinking can help you to be aware of both your own and others’ biases and assumptions.

Academic examples

However, when you compare the findings of the study with other current research, you determine that the results seem improbable. You analyse the paper again, consulting the sources it cites.

You notice that the research was funded by the pharmaceutical company that created the treatment. Because of this, you view its results skeptically and determine that more independent research is necessary to confirm or refute them. Example: Poor critical thinking in an academic context You’re researching a paper on the impact wireless technology has had on developing countries that previously did not have large-scale communications infrastructure. You read an article that seems to confirm your hypothesis: the impact is mainly positive. Rather than evaluating the research methodology, you accept the findings uncritically.

Nonacademic examples

However, you decide to compare this review article with consumer reviews on a different site. You find that these reviews are not as positive. Some customers have had problems installing the alarm, and some have noted that it activates for no apparent reason.

You revisit the original review article. You notice that the words ‘sponsored content’ appear in small print under the article title. Based on this, you conclude that the review is advertising and is therefore not an unbiased source. Example: Poor critical thinking in a nonacademic context You support a candidate in an upcoming election. You visit an online news site affiliated with their political party and read an article that criticizes their opponent. The article claims that the opponent is inexperienced in politics. You accept this without evidence, because it fits your preconceptions about the opponent.

There is no single way to think critically. How you engage with information will depend on the type of source you’re using and the information you need.

However, you can engage with sources in a systematic and critical way by asking certain questions when you encounter information. Like the CRAAP test , these questions focus on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

When encountering information, ask:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert in their field?
• What do they say? Is their argument clear? Can you summarise it?
• When did they say this? Is the source current?
• Where is the information published? Is it an academic article? Is it a blog? A newspaper article?
• Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence? Does it rely on opinion, speculation, or appeals to emotion ? Do they address alternative arguments?

Critical thinking also involves being aware of your own biases, not only those of others. When you make an argument or draw your own conclusions, you can ask similar questions about your own writing:

• Am I only considering evidence that supports my preconceptions?
• Is my argument expressed clearly and backed up with credible sources?
• Would I be convinced by this argument coming from someone else?

Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

Critical thinking skills include the ability to:

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A credible source should pass the CRAAP test  and follow these guidelines:

• The information should be up to date and current.
• The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
• The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
• For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Information literacy refers to a broad range of skills, including the ability to find, evaluate, and use sources of information effectively.

Being information literate means that you:

• Know how to find credible sources
• Use relevant sources to inform your research
• Understand what constitutes plagiarism
• Know how to cite your sources correctly

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Ryan, E. (2022, September 25). What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 14 May 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/critical-thinking-meaning/

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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.

Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.

However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.

People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:

• Developing technical and problem-solving skills
• Engaging in more active listening
• Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
• Seeking out more diversity of thought
• Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.

Is critical thinking useful in writing?

Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:

• What information should be included?
• Which information resources should the author look to?
• What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
• What is the most effective way to show information?
• How should the report be organized?
• How should it be designed?
• What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?

Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?

Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.

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