In this paper the author first defines what interpretation is from contemporary cognitive psychology’s point of view. Secondly he reports on some remarks made by interpreters about the kind of research that has developed in and around the task of interpretation. Thirdly, he presents the methodology used by cognitive psychologists for task analysis and finally he introduces a cognitive model which could be used to study the task of hearing and understanding a speech in order to deliver a corresponding speech in another language. It is clearly stated that the model takes neither the characteristics of the languages into account, nor their SL-TL conversion and the production of acceptable sentences for an audience. The model addresses one aspect of the cognitive processes underlying the task of interpretation from a source language to a target language.