Abstract
AbstractThe adaptive control hypothesis predicts adaptation of control mechanisms as a response to intensive language use in bilinguals. The present study aims to investigate this hypothesis in two memory experiments with professional and student interpreters. In experiment 1, we compared a group of interpreting students to translation students using a reading span task to test working memory (WM) and a digit span task to test short-term memory (STM). In experiment 2, we added a group of professional interpreters and compared them with the participants in experiment 1. Training-related improvement was found for WM but not for STM, with no differences between both student groups. Professional interpreters with over 20 years of interpreting experience showed better performance than translation students but not than interpreting students both on WM and STM. The results are discussed in light of the framework of interpreting as a type of extreme bilingualism.
Highlights
Simultaneous interpreting and working memorySimultaneous interpreting is known to be a highly demanding cognitive task in which language comprehension and language production happen in approximately the same time in two different languages
The results showed a main effect of Time, F(1,25) = 39.67, p < .001, ηp2 = .61, with higher scores on the reading span test in post training for interpreters (Pre: M = 36.1, SD = 1.75; Post: M = 41.63, SD = 1.8) as well as for translators (Pre: M = 32.91, SD = 1.95, Post: M = 37.12, SD = 2.00)
Training-related improvement was selectively seen on Working memory (WM) but not on short-term memory (STM), but there were no differences between interpreting and translation trainees in this respect
Summary
Simultaneous interpreting and working memorySimultaneous interpreting is known to be a highly demanding cognitive task in which language comprehension and language production happen in approximately the same time in two different languages. Considering the differences between memory components, researchers have used different span tasks to measure these skills such as simple span tasks (e.g., digit span and word span) for passive storage of information (short-term memory, STM) and complex span tasks (e.g., reading and listening span) for controlling this information (WM). These two memory components are used to a large extent in simultaneous interpreters while they listen to one language and interpret it into another language almost simultaneously. This extensive use of WM during simultaneous interpreting may raise questions such as how interpreting may influence WM in simultaneous interpreters, whether simultaneous interpreting practice could enhance WM, or if having a good WM is a prerequisite to be a good simultaneous interpreter?
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