Translatorial and non-translatorial automaticity

Abstract

The paper examines empirically a subset of cognitive processes in trainee translators with the objective of gaining an insight into their decision-making. Specifically, we are interested in the nature and role of automated processing – above all, how pronounced it can be and how it influences the quality of decisions. The paper’s objective is then to come up with an integrative view of the relationship between translatorial automaticity and cognitive automaticity in general, viz. that not associated with translation. This could help us better capture some of the characteristics of translator behaviour and supplement our understanding of translation competence. Results from experiments with trainees reported in the paper show no correlation between the two dimensions of automated processing, and indicate that translatorial automaticity could be harder to override than its more general counterpart.