The contributions of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics to conference interpreting
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Daniel Gile
Abstract
Research in conference interpreting started with exploratory experiments by psychologists, but interpreting practitioners soon took over, excluding their theories and methods and replacing them with intuition and introspection-based inferences from observation. In the 1990s, cognitive science became a major reference for concepts and theories again. It has remained in that position ever since. The experimental paradigm which prevails in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics is difficult to apply in interpreting research where inter-individual variability is high, recruiting multiple large samples for controlled experiments is problematic, and so is the selection and measurement of quantifiable indicators as dependent variables. Cognitive theory-based explanations of interpreting, including several popular models, were developed by interpreting practitioners, but have not been tested to a sufficient extent to corroborate or falsify them. Advances in the understanding of interpreting cognition have been mostly based on theory rather than on empirical hypothesis testing. As more interpreting practitioners seek systematic training in cognitive science and more tools and technology become available, gaze and pupil analyzers being a case in point, psychology and psycholinguistics may become more effective in providing direct answers to questions about interpreting.
Abstract
Research in conference interpreting started with exploratory experiments by psychologists, but interpreting practitioners soon took over, excluding their theories and methods and replacing them with intuition and introspection-based inferences from observation. In the 1990s, cognitive science became a major reference for concepts and theories again. It has remained in that position ever since. The experimental paradigm which prevails in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics is difficult to apply in interpreting research where inter-individual variability is high, recruiting multiple large samples for controlled experiments is problematic, and so is the selection and measurement of quantifiable indicators as dependent variables. Cognitive theory-based explanations of interpreting, including several popular models, were developed by interpreting practitioners, but have not been tested to a sufficient extent to corroborate or falsify them. Advances in the understanding of interpreting cognition have been mostly based on theory rather than on empirical hypothesis testing. As more interpreting practitioners seek systematic training in cognitive science and more tools and technology become available, gaze and pupil analyzers being a case in point, psychology and psycholinguistics may become more effective in providing direct answers to questions about interpreting.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
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Part I: Psycholinguistic and cognitive intersections in translation and interpreting
- The position of psycholinguistic and cognitive science in translation and interpreting 3
- Translation process research at the interface 17
- The contributions of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics to conference interpreting 41
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Part II: Studies from psycholinguistic and cognitive perspectives
- Discourse comprehension in simultaneous interpreting 67
- Simultaneous interpreting and working memory capacity 101
- Process and text studies of a translation problem 127
- Post-editing machine translation 145
- On a more robust approach to triangulating retrospective protocols 175
- About the contributors 203
- Index 205
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
-
Part I: Psycholinguistic and cognitive intersections in translation and interpreting
- The position of psycholinguistic and cognitive science in translation and interpreting 3
- Translation process research at the interface 17
- The contributions of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics to conference interpreting 41
-
Part II: Studies from psycholinguistic and cognitive perspectives
- Discourse comprehension in simultaneous interpreting 67
- Simultaneous interpreting and working memory capacity 101
- Process and text studies of a translation problem 127
- Post-editing machine translation 145
- On a more robust approach to triangulating retrospective protocols 175
- About the contributors 203
- Index 205
