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Article published In: Interpreting
Vol. 27:1 (2025) ► pp.52–86

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The role of expertise in coping with accents during simultaneous interpreting

A pupillometric study

 | University of Warsaw
 | University of Warsaw
 | University of Warsaw
 | University of Warsaw
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

This article was made Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license through payment of an APC by or on behalf of the authors.

Published online: 11 March 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00117.bro
Abstract
Foreign-accented speech is one of the factors that add to the cognitive load exerted during conference interpreting. In the present study, we investigated the effect of different accents on speech processing during this task in addition to the respective roles played by language proficiency and expertise. We therefore designed a pupillometric study in which we tested both students and professional interpreters. The results show that, throughout the trial, the cognitive effort associated with accented speech processing, as measured by proportional pupil size relative to baseline, was greater in the case of the students. Furthermore, only the students seemed to be sensitive to the type of accented speech applied. At the same time, all the participants demonstrated a similar pupil activation pattern in each trial, which suggests the presence of a generalized ‘cognitive rhythm’ that pertains to the interpreting task. Finally, the results point to expertise rather than language proficiency as a major factor in mitigating cognitive effort in simultaneous conference interpreting.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Foreign accent and speech comprehension
    • 1.2Measuring cognitive effort
    • 1.3The current study
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Overview of the data
    • 3.2Statistical models based on growth curve analysis
      • 3.2.1Global effects — analysis of the whole trial
      • 3.2.2Local effects — analysis of the first 60 seconds
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Differences between professionals and students
    • 4.2Responses to different accented speeches
    • 4.3Language proficiency, language use and expertise
    • 4.4Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Supplementary material
  • Notes
  • References
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