The relation between the working memory skills of sign language interpreters and the quality of their interpretations

Bilingualism

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 340-350

  Van Dijk, Rick ^a,b   Christoffels, Ingrid ^c   Postma, Albert ^a   Hermans, Daan ^d  

^a UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^b UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES UTRECHT   (Netherlands)

^c LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^d RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

quality of interpretations; sign language interpreters; working memory skills

Indexed keywords

EID: 84858818734     PISSN: 13667289     EISSN: 14691841     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1366728911000198     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-423.
2. Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 829-839.
3. Bajo, M. T., Padilla, F., & Padilla, M. (2000). Comprehension processes in simultaneous interpreting. In A. Chesterman, N. GallardoSan Salvador & Y. Gambier (eds.), Translation in context, pp. 127-142. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
4. Barik, H. C. (1975). Simultaneous interpretation: Qualitative and linguistic data. Language and Speech, 18, 272-297.
5. Bavelier, D., Newport, E. L., Hall, M. L., Supalla, T., & Boutla, M. (2006). Persistent difference in short-termmemory span between sign and speech: Implications for cross-linguistic comparisons. Psychological Science, 17, 1090-1092.
6. Bellugi, U.,&Fischer, S. (1972). A comparison of sign language and spoken language. Cognition, 1, 173-200.
7. Billies, P., Buchkoski, D., Kolvitz, M., Sanderson, G., & Walter, J. (2003). Postsecondary Education Programs Network: Needs assessment, 2002 (Report of OSERS grant H078A60004). Rochester, NY: National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Northeast Technical Assistance Center.
8. Boutla, M., Supalla, T., Newport, E. L., & Bavelier, D. (2004). Short-term memory span: Insights from sign language. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 997-1002.
9. Christoffels, I. K. (2006). Listening while talking: The retention of prose under oral articulatory suppression in relation to simultaneous interpreting. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 18, 206-220.
10. Christoffels, I. K., & de Groot, A. M. B. (2005). Simultaneous interpreting: A cognitive perspective. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches, pp. 454-479. New York: Oxford University Press.
11. Christoffels, I. K., de Groot, A. M. B., & Kroll, J. F. (2006). Memory and language skills in simultaneous interpreters: The role of expertise and language proficiency. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 324-345.
12. Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M. F., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user's guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 769-786.
13. Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J. & Engle, R. W. (2003). Working memory capacity and its relation to general intelligence. Trends in cognitive sciences, 7, 547-552.
14. Cowan,N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-termmemory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87-114.
15. Dobbs, A. R., & Rule, B. G. (1989). Adult age differences in working memory. Psychology and Aging, 4, 500-503.
16. Gerver, D. (1976). Empirical studies of simultaneous interpretation: A review and a model. In R. W. Brislin (ed.), Translation: Applications and research, pp. 165-207. New York: Gardner Press.
17. Gile, D. (1997). Conference interpreting as a cognitive management problem. In J. Danks, G. M. Shreve, S. B. Fountain & M. K. McBeath (eds.), Cognitive processes in translation and interpreting, pp. 196-214. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
18. Hall, M., & Bavelier, D. (2010).Working memory, deafness and sign language. In M. Marschark and P. E. Spencer (eds.), The handbook of deaf studies, language and education, pp. 458-472. New York: Oxford University Press.
19. Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R. A., Miura, T. K., & Colflesh, G. J. (2007). Working memory, attention control, and the N-back task: A question of construct validity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 615-622.
20. Köpke, B., & Nespoulous, J.-L. (2006). Working memory performance in expert and novice interpreters. Interpreting, 8, 1-23.
21. La Pointe, L. B., & Engle, R. W. (1990). Simple and complex word spans as measures of working memory capacity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 1118-1133.
22. Liu, M., Schallert, D. L., & Carroll, P. J. (2004). Working memory and expertise in simultaneous interpreting. Interpreting, 6, 19-42.
23. Miller, K.M., Price, C. C., Okun, M. S.,Montijo, H., & Bowers, D. (2009). Is the N-back task a valid neuropsychological measure for assessing working memory? Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 24, 711-717.
24. Moser, B. (1978). Simultaneous interpretation: A hypothetical model and its practical application. In D. Gerver & H. W. Sinaiko (eds.), Language, communication and interpretation, pp. 353-368. New York/London: Plenum Press.
25. Owen, A. M., McMillan, K. M., Laird, A. R., & Bullmore, E. (2005). N-back working memory paradigm: A metaanalysis of normative functional neuroimaging studies. Human Brain Mapping, 25, 46-59.
26. Padilla, F., Bajo, M. T., & Macizo, P. (2005). Oral articulatory suppression in language interpretation: Working memory capacity, dual tasking and word knowledge. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 8, 207-219.
27. Padilla, P., Bajo, M. T., Cañas, J. J., & Padilla, F. (1995). Cognitive processes of memory in simultaneous interpretation. In J. Tommola (ed.), Topics in interpreting research, pp. 61-71. Turku: University of Turku Press.
28. Power, D., & Hyde, M. (2002). The characteristics and extent of participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular classes in Australian schools. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7, 302-311.
29. Powers, S. (2002). From concepts to practice in deaf education. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7, 230-243.
30. Roberts, R., & Gibson, E. (2002). Individual differences in sentence memory. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 31, 573-598.
31. Schermer, G. M. (1991). In search of a language. Influences from spoken Dutch on Sign Language of the Netherlands. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam.
32. Schermer, G.M. (2001). The role of mouthing in Sign Language of the Netherlands: Some implications for the production of sign language dictionaries. In P. Boyes Braem & R. Sutton-Spence (eds.), TheHands are the head of themouth: The mouth as articulator in sign languages, pp. 273-284. Hamburg: Signum Press.
33. Schick, B.,Williams, K., & Kupermintz, H. (2006). Look who's being left behind: Educational interpreters and access to education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11, 3-20.
34. Schmiedek, F., Hildebrandt, A., Lövdén, M., Wilhelm, O., & Lindenberger, U. (2009). Complex span versus updating tasks of working memory: The gap is not that deep. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 1089-1096.
35. Timarova, S. (2008). Working memory and simultaneous interpreting. In P. Boulogne (ed.), Translation and its others. Selected papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2007, pp. 1-28. Leuven: KU Leuven.
36. Tzou, Y.-Z. (2008). The roles of working memory, language proficiency, and training in simultaneous interpretation performance: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, TexasA&MUniversity, United States.
37. Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2007). On the division of shortterm and working memory: An examination of simple and complex span and their relation to higher order abilities. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1038-1066.
38. van Dijk, R., Boers, E., Christoffels, I. K., & Hermans, D. (2011). Directionality effects in simultaneous language interpreting: The case of sign language interpreters in the Netherlands. American Annals of the Deaf, 156 (1), 47-55.
39. Vinson, D. P., Thompson, R. L., Vigliocco, G., Skinner, R., Fox, N., & Vigliocco, G. (2010). The hands and mouth do not always slip together in British Sign Language: Dissociating articulatory channels in the lexicon. Psychological Science, 21, 1158-1167.
40. Wechsler, D. (1955). Manual for theWechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. New York: Psychological Corporation.
41. Wilson, M., & Emmorey, K. (1997a). A visuospatial "phonological loop" in working memory: Evidence from American Sign Language. Memory & Cognition, 25, 313-320.
42. Wilson, M., & Emmorey, K. (1997b). Working memory for sign language: A window into the architecture of the workingmemory system. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2, 121-130.
43. Wilson, M., & Emmorey, K. (2000) When does modality matter? Evidence from ASL on the nature of working memory. In K. Emmorey & H. Lane (eds.), The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima, pp. 135-142. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
44. Wilson, M., & Emmorey, K. (2006a). Comparing sign language and speech reveals a universal limit on short-term memory capacity. Psychological Science, 17, 682-683.
45. Wilson, M., & Emmorey, K. (2006b). No difference in shorttermmemory span between sign and speech. Psychological Science, 17, 1093-1094.