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Article published In: Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 4:1 (2021) ► pp.26–46

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The role of working memory capacity in interpreting performance

An exploratory study with student interpreters

 | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
 | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Published online: 7 June 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00050.bae
Abstract
This study aims to examine the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and the performance of student interpreters defined as the quality of their interpreting output. To measure WM capacity, we administered Korean and English reading span tasks, and an operation span task. The WM scores were analysed for correlation with simultaneous interpreting (SI) and consecutive interpreting (CI) scores. The results were mixed: (1) the CI score showed no correlation with any of the WM span tasks and (2) the SI score correlated with only one WM span task, the operation span task. Given that the participants received shorter training in SI than in CI, we can tentatively conclude that interpreting performance is influenced more by WM capacity when the interpreter performs a less familiar type of interpreting. Further research is needed to find out why the reading span tasks and the operation span task showed different relationships with SI.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The present study
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Procedure
      • 3.2.1Digit span task
      • 3.2.2Working memory span tasks
      • 3.3.3Interpreting tasks
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Difference between reading span and operation span tasks
    • 4.2Analysis on why CI and SI showed different relations with WM
    • 4.3Will WM training be conducive to improving interpreting performance?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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