Methodological preparation of a within-subject audiovisual cognition, reception and perception study

In the past decade, cognitive empirical AVT research has been on the rise. The majority of these studies are between-subject studies, focused on subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH). The few experimental studies that are aimed at other audiences tend to have small sample sizes. Within-subject studies are rarely used in experimental AVT cognition, reception and perception research, although they can increase statistical power due to the repeated testing and shed light on the idiosyncratic nature of the matter. This paper pleads for the introduction of complementary within-subject designs by illustrating the contrasts between the within-subject and between-subject research design. Drawing from the broader spectrum of Translation Studies and the case of the Subtitles for Access to Education (S4AE) research project, this paper highlights obstacles in the preparation of a within-subject AVT cognition, reception and perception experiment and proposes a possible approach to prepare similar within-subject AVT studies.