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In:Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training: Third edition
Daniel Gile
[Benjamins Translation Library 173] 2026
► pp. 186–243

Chapter 7
The Effort Models

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Article outline
  • Aims and overview of the chapter
  • 1.Introduction: ‘Interpreting is difficult’
  • 2.The Effort Model for simultaneous interpreting:
    An introspective-intuitive first step
  • 3.The ‘Efforts’ as controlled operations
    • 3.1Does the idea of limited ‘mental energy’ as applied to ‘interpreting Efforts’ make sense? Controlled vs. automatic processes
    • 3.2The Reception Effort
      • 3.2.1Listening comprehension is efforful
      • 3.2.2Difficulty-enhancing factors during interpreting
    • 3.3The Production Effort
      • 3.3.1The challenges of speech production
      • 3.3.2Speech production when interpreting: Difficulty-enhancing factors
      • 3.3.3Speech production when interpreting: Facilitating factors
      • 3.3.4Beyond linguistic formulation of information: Decision-making under pressure
    • 3.4The Memory Effort
      • 3.4.1The effortful nature of short-term memory operations
      • 3.4.2Working memory
      • 3.4.3What distinguishes the Memory Effort construct
        from the working memory construct
    • 3.5The Coordination/attention management Effort
    • 3.6Explaining interpreting challenges with the Effort Models: A first glimpse
      • 3.6.1The additivity of individual Efforts’ attentional requirements
      • 3.6.2Cognitive saturation
      • 3.6.3The Tightrope Hypothesis
    • 3.7How does insufficient processing capacity lead to Errors,
      Omissions and Infelicities? ‘Failure sequences’
    • 3.8The good news: Automation of controlled tasks
  • 4.Other Effort Models
    • 4.1A Model of simultaneous with text
    • 4.2An Effort Model for simultaneous with highly embedded technology
    • 4.3An Effort Model for simultaneous interpreting
      from spoken languages into signed languages
      • 4.3.1Self-management in space
      • 4.3.2Interaction with the Deaf audience
        • Spatial memory during production into signed languages
    • 4.4An Effort Model for feed interpreting (in signed language interpreting)
    • 4.5An Effort Model for simultaneous from a signed language
      into a spoken language
    • 4.6An Effort Model for sight translation
    • 4.7An Effort Model for consecutive interpreting
      • 4.7.1The comprehension phase
      • 4.7.2The reformulation phase
    • 4.8An Effort Model for written translation?
  • 5.More Efforts?
    • 5.1Distinct Efforts or cognitive components of existing Efforts?
    • 5.2HSC: The Human and Social Consideration Effort
  • 6.Analyzing cognitive challenges in interpreting with the Effort Models (‘cognitive economics’)
    • 6.1Cognitive problem triggers
      • 6.1.1High information density
      • 6.1.2Poor signal quality
      • 6.1.3Unexpectedness
      • 6.1.4Short speech segments with little redundancy
      • 6.1.5Speech segments requiring much switching of attention and retention
        in working memory: Composite names
      • 6.1.6Speech segments requiring much switching of attention and retention
        in working memory: Numbers with several different digits
      • 6.1.7Speech segments requiring retention in working memory and calculations: Calendar differences
      • 6.1.8Lexical gaps
    • 6.2Cognitive pressure, cognitive effort and cognitive load
      • 6.2.1Cognitive pressure
      • 6.2.2Cognitive effort and disengagement
      • 6.2.3Cognitive load
        • a.From Cognitive load theory to a conceptual definition
          of cognitive load for interpreting
        • b.In interpreting tasks, cognitive load is a variable, not a constant
        • c.Cognitive load varies during interpreting
        • d.Informational cognitive load
        • e.Making a distinction between cognitive load and cognitive effort is meaningful
      • 6.2.4Cognitive effort and interpreting quality
      • 6.2.5Anxiety as a cognitive problem trigger
    • 6.3Local and imported cognitive load
  • 7.Testing the Effort Models?
    • 7.1The Effort Models are a didactic construct
    • 7.2Testing the Tightrope Hypothesis?
  • 8.The ‘processing capacity’ construct in interpreting
    • 8.1Processing capacity: A neuroscientific view
    • 8.2Performance improvement in students
  • 9.The Effort Models and quantification
  • 10.Teaching the Effort Models
  • 11.What students need to remember
  • Appendix
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