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Article published In: Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 3:2 (2020) ► pp.287–309

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The interpreter’s aging

A unique story of multilingual cognitive decline?

ORCiD logo with link | Hong Kong Baptist University
 | University of Vienna
ORCiD logo with link | University of Geneva
 | Bar-Ilan University
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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.

Published online: 10 November 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00045.liu
Abstract
This article reports part of the first phase of the AIIC Lifespan Study, for which ten conference interpreters over 70 years old were interviewed to learn how interpreters’ professional language experiences interact with their cognitive functions and, specifically, if they demonstrate different patterns of cognitive decline regarding language use. The interview transcripts were coded to identify examples that matched the items in the research-informed interview guide or any emerging patterns that informed the theme of cognitive changes. The interview­ees experienced some aging-induced cognitive challenges, such as comprehension difficulties in less than optimal environments, concentration and memory issues, and slowness in lexical retrieval. Some of these challenges had an impact on some interview­ees’ decision to quit interpreting.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Bilingualism, cognitive aging and cognitive reserve
    • 2.1Cognitive reserve
  • 3.The AIIC Lifespan Study: Methodology
    • 3.1The interview­ees
    • 3.2Interview guide
    • 3.3Procedure, data preparation and analysis
  • 4.The AIIC Lifespan Study: Results and discussion
    • 4.1Difficulty in comprehension
    • 4.2Distractibility and noise
    • 4.3Concentration and memory
    • 4.4Output production and word retrieval
    • 4.5Compensatory strategies
    • 4.6Decision to quit
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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2023. Nouns, Verbs and Other Parts of Speech in Translation and Interpreting: Evidence from English Speeches Made in the European Parliament and Their German Translations and Interpretations. Languages 8:1 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
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