Nowadays, a cognitive approach to translation is ever more frequently used in order to understand how meaning is encoded, transmitted and interpreted in the process of professional communication. Within this approach, translation is analysed as a cognitive activity considering a range of mental processes, such as critical and associative thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. Wilss (1996, 32) views translation as an entirely mental process, which should be investigated within the framework of the cognitive science. He maintains that associative way of thinking is required in the process of translation as it implies a specific form of linguistic information processing. In the present paper, the authors analyse a cognitive process-oriented approach to popular science text translation with the special focus on the aspects of pragmatic adaptation that translators employ to ensure that the target text performs the intended communicative purpose and has the potential to become part of the cognitive environment of the target reader (cf. Sperber and Wilson, 1986).