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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2011

RICK VAN DIJK ,
INGRID CHRISTOFFELS ,
ALBERT POSTMA  and
DAAN HERMANS
RICK VAN DIJK*
Affiliation:
Helmholtz Institute, Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands and University of Applied Sciences, Utrechtthe Netherlands
INGRID CHRISTOFFELS
Affiliation:
Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition Department of Psychology, Leiden University
ALBERT POSTMA
Affiliation:
Helmholtz Institute, Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
DAAN HERMANS
Affiliation:
Royal Dutch Kentalis, Sint Michielsgestel and Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen
*
Address for correspondence: Rick van Dijk, Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands[email protected]
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Abstract

In two experiments we investigated the relationship between the working memory skills of sign language interpreters and the quality of their interpretations. In Experiment 1, we found that scores on 3-back tasks with signs and words were not related to the quality of interpreted narratives. In Experiment 2, we found that memory span scores for words and signs under oral articulatory suppression were related to the quality of interpreted narratives. We argue that the insensitivity to articulatory suppression in memory span tasks reflects the interpreters' ability to bind information from multiple sources in episodic memory. This enhanced ability leads to less reliance on the retention of information from the source language in memory during interpreting, and will positively affect the quality of interpretations (Padilla, Bajo & Macizo, 2005). Finally, in contrast to previous studies on the memory spans for signs and words (Hall & Bavelier, 2010), we found that the memory spans scores for spoken words and signs were equally large. We argue that the use of a large set of phonologically complex stimuli in the present study may have stimulated participants to use a speech-based code to store and retain the signs in short-term memory.

Keywords

sign language interpretersworking memory skillsquality of interpretations
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 340 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

The authors thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.

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