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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 65:4 (2019) ► pp.519–537

A duet and/or a concerto?

Simultaneous interpreters’ working memory and interpreting expertise

| Beijing Foreign Studies University
| Liaoning Shihua University

Working memory and interpreting expertise are generally acknowledged as two essential factors that affect the interpreting process. With reference to the compensation model, the independent influences model, and the rich-get-richer model proposed in cognitive psychology concerning the interplay between working memory and domain expertise, this experimental study, by varying the delivery speed of the source speech, examines the interplay between working memory and interpreting expertise in the setting of simultaneous interpreting. This study finds that (1) working memory and interpreting expertise can each have a positive impact on simultaneous interpreting quality; (2) other factors being equal, interpreting expertise can have a greater impact on simultaneous interpreting than working memory, and when the interpreting task proves more challenging, interpreting expertise can help relieve the pressure triggered by inadequate working memory; (3) working memory and interpreting expertise function differently in simultaneous interpreting in different stages: for beginner interpreting students, working memory’s contribution to the quality of simultaneous interpreting is more prominent, while for advanced interpreting students, interpreting expertise plays a more direct and prominent role, and the composite influence of working memory and interpreting expertise on simultaneous interpreting performance is weakened due to the increasing impact of other factors.

Keywords: working memory, interpreting expertise, simultaneous interpreting, roles and impacts
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Experiment
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Experimental design
    • 2.3Experimental environment and materials
      • 2.3.1Experimental environment and equipment
      • 2.3.2Experimental materials
        • 2.3.2.1WM
        • 2.3.2.2IE
        • 2.3.2.3SI quality
        • 2.3.2.4Control variable
    • 2.4Procedure
      • 2.4.1Control variable measurement
      • 2.4.2Independent variable and dependent variable measurement
    • 2.5Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1WM capacity test
    • 3.2IE
    • 3.3SI quality
      • 3.3.1The correlation between WM and IE (see Table 6)
      • 3.3.2The correlation between WM / IE and SI quality
      • 3.3.3Main effect of WM and IE on SI quality
        • 3.3.3.1In the case of slow source language delivery
        • 3.3.3.2In the case of fast source language delivery
      • 3.3.4Linear regression analysis of the effect of WM and IE on SI quality
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The relationship between WM and IE
    • 4.2The roles of WM and IE in SI
    • 4.3WM’s and IE’s effect in different stages
    • 4.4Complex factors behind interpreting quality
    • 4.5Three models about WM and domain expertise
    • 4.6Implications
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 August 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00107.yu
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