The Monitor Model and its Misconceptions: A Clarification
This work addresses theoretical issues in translation studies for researchers, but it is incremental as it updates an existing model without introducing new empirical results.
The paper clarifies and updates the Monitor Model, which integrates automatic and control processes in translation production, by addressing accumulated misconceptions and arguing for its compatibility with an enactivist approach to cognition.
Horizontal (automatic) and vertical (control) processes have been observed and reported for a long time in translation production. Schaeffer and Carl's Monitor Model integrates these two processes into one framework, assuming that priming mechanisms underlie horizontal/automatic processes, while vertical/monitoring processes implement consciously accessible control mechanisms. The Monitor Model has been criticized in various ways and several misconceptions have accumulated over the past years. In this chapter, I update the Monitor Model with additional evidence and argue that it is compatible with an enactivist approach to cognition. I address several misconceptions related to the Monitor Model.