The impact of working memory on interpreting

白云安 张国梅

【Abstract】This paper investigates the roles of working memory in interpreting process. First of all， it gives a brief introduction to interpreting. Secondly， the paper exemplifies the role of working memory in interpreting. The result reveals that the working memory capacity of interpreters is not adsolutely proportional to the quality of interpreting in the real interpreting conditions. The performance of an interpreter with well-equipped working memory capacity will comprehensively influenced by various elements.

【Key words】working memory； interpreting； impact

Ⅰ. Introduction

1.1 Interpreting

Interpreting is a instaneous， dynamic， and complex cross-cultural activity. Different from the criteria of translation： faithfulness， expressiveness and elegance， interpreting expresses the feature of accuracy， fluency and swiftness. Therefore， the requirement of interpreting remain more demanding than translation.

1.2 Working memory

Working memory is a memory system with limited capacity. It has been defined as referring to the “the temporary storage of information that is been processed in any range of cognitive tasks” （Baddeley， 1986， p.34）. Working memory can store the information temperorily and meanwhile process the information. The working memory can be changed at any time and be erased easily. Thus， working memory is regarded as a system for storing and processing information temporarily.

II. The brief analysis of the impact of working memory on interpreting

As with other aspects of language， individual experiences and abilities vary. Because the process we have been describing deals with the operation of working memory， it would be reasonable to expect that individual differences in working memory might influence how we interpreting.

2.1 Experiment （a）

Undoubtedly， working memory remains a key factor during interpreting. The quality of interpreting， to some extent， depends on working memory. Besides， during the process of interpreting， interpreters take notes as a complementary way to cover the shortage of working memory， which demonstrates that the working memory of interpreters is limited. For example， the following paragraph is extracted from EU-China relationship：

Now the 25 member states are Austria， Belgium， Denmark， Finland， France， Germany， Greece， Ireland， Italy， Luxembourg， the Netherlands， Portugal， Spain， Sweden， the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland， Cyprus， the Czech Republic， Estonia， Hungary， Latvia， Lithuania， Malta， Poland， Slovakia and Slovenia.

The twenty MTI students from SWUST are divided into two groups to interprete the paragraph. Their interpreting skill is almost the same. For the first group， taking notes is not allowed. Few interpreters can transform the prargraph into target language without any mistakes. Another interesting phenomenon is that the interpreters omit the middle part of the 25 countries， and just interpreted the beginning and end part， which prove， on one hand， the limitation of working memory， on the other hand， the recovery of the working memory. Furthermore， students who interpreted more accurately are of higher working memory capacity. In the second test， taking notes is allowed. Among the ten students， six of them correctly interpreted the paragraph， which show， with the note-taking， the quality of interpreting improved a lot. However， because of the short and limited time， interpreters are incapable to jot down every details they heard. Thus， interpreters must rely on their working memory more instead of note taking.

2.2 Experiment （b）

Improving the capacity of working memory through training is the basic requirement for all the interpreters. The accuracy of interpreting is relatively higher for the interpreters with a well-equipped working memory capacity. A case in point is the figure interpreting. The following two paragraphs concern figure interpreting.

Recently， I came across a group of figures from a western newspaper. Lets take a look at them together to see whether the “China threat theory” makes sense or is nothing but ridiculous nonsense. In 2004， the defense expenditure of the US was US$455.9billion， accounting for 3.9% of its GDP， while that of China in the same year was only RMB 211.7billion， making up 1.6% of Chinas GDP. The US defense expenditure was 17.8 times that of China.

It is impossible for interpreters to finish the paragraph only through working memory， no matter good or not. Figure-interpreting may be the biggest difficulty for interpreters. Because the misinterpretation of figures is impermissible. If an interpreter transform US$455.9billion into 455.9亿美元， this will be a terrifying mistake. During this figure test， the first group only get separate phrase and some incorrect transformation of figures. The other group， which note-taking is allowed， interprete most of the figures without error.

III. Conclusion

Judging from above-mentioned two examples， working memory really act a crucial role in interpreting. However， the quality of interpreting not wholly depend on working memory. Note-taking skills， encyclopedic knowledge， sound physical and psychological quality， etc. also jointly influence the quality of interpreting.

References：

[1]Baddeley，A.（1986）.Working memory.New York：Oxford University Press.

[2]Daniel Gile.Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training.2011.

作者简介：

白云安（1989-），男，汉族，山西忻州人，四川省成都市电子科技大学外国语学院硕士研究生，从事翻译研究。

张国梅（1990-），女，汉族，山西忻州人，四川省绵阳市西南科技大学文学与艺术学院本科生，从事汉语话语特征研究。