Translation has long played a role in linguistic and literary studies research. More recently, the theoretical and methodological concerns of process research have given translation an additional role in cognitive science. The interest in the cognitive aspects of translation has led scholars to turn to disciplines such as cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics or even neurology in search of innovative approaches and research methods. This paper reviews current issues in translation studies, and a variety of empirical studies that may contribute to enlarging our knowledge of translation. The intention is to show that the combined work of disciplines from cognitive science may be influential, not only in defining the factors that underpin the translation process and the translator's work, but also in describing the potential impact that translation research has on communication and language processing.