Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting: Measures and methods

The mental effort required to perform a simultaneous interpreting task or the cognitive load generated by it has attracted the interest of many a researcher in the field. To date, however, there is little agreement on the most suitable method to measure this phenomenon. In this contribution, I set out to discuss four of the most common methods of measuring cognitive load and the way in which they have been applied in interpreting research, providing examples for each and highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages. The main focus of the contribution will be on pupillometry, a psycho-physiological method I deem to be among the most promising approaches to objectively measure cognitive load during simultaneous interpreting in real time.

[1]  W. S. Peavler,et al.  Pupil size, information overload, and performance differences. , 1974, Psychophysiology.

[2]  F. Paas,et al.  Memory load and the cognitive pupillary response in aging. , 2004, Psychophysiology.

[3]  Miriam Shlesinger.  Interpreting as a Cognitive Process: How can we know what really happens? , 2000 .

[4]  C. Buss,et al.  Children's Brain Development Benefits from Longer Gestation , 2011, Front. Psychology.

[5]  G. Fullerton.  Psychology and physiology. , 1896 .

[6]  Daniel Gile,et al.  Local Cognitive Load in Simultaneous Interpreting and its Implications for Empirical Research , 2008 .

[7]  E. Granholm,et al.  Pupillary responses index cognitive resource limitations. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[8]  Fred G. W. C. Paas,et al.  The Efficiency of Instructional Conditions: An Approach to Combine Mental Effort and Performance Measures , 1992 .

[9]  Kilian G. Seeber,et al.  Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting: Model meets data , 2012 .

[10]  F. Paas,et al.  Cognitive Load Measurement as a Means to Advance Cognitive Load Theory , 2003 .

[11]  Michael Schluroff.  Pupil responses to grammatical complexity of sentences , 1982, Brain and Language.

[12]  J Hyönä,et al.  Pupil Dilation as a Measure of Processing Load in Simultaneous Interpretation and Other Language Tasks , 1995, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[13]  Dominic W. Massaro,et al.  Information processing and a computational approach to the study of simultaneous interpretation , 1997 .

[14]  Paul D. Gamlin,et al.  Characteristics of the pupillary light reflex in the alert rhesus monkey. , 2003, Journal of neurophysiology.

[15]  J. Beatty.  Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources. , 1982 .

[16]  G K Poock,et al.  Information processing vs pupil diameter. , 1973, Perceptual and motor skills.

[17]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  Multiple resources and performance prediction , 2002 .

[18]  Silvia Bernardini,et al.  Think-aloud protocols in translation research: Achievements, limits, future prospects , 2001 .

[19]  D Kahneman,et al.  Pupil Diameter and Load on Memory , 1966, Science.

[20]  Anthony Jameson,et al.  Assessing Cognitive Load in Adaptive Hypermedia Systems: Physiological and Behavioral Methods , 2004, AH.

[21]  W. Levelt,et al.  Pupillary dilation as a measure of attention: a quantitative system analysis , 1993 .

[22]  H Petsche,et al.  Brain electrical mechanisms of bilingual speech management: an initial investigation. , 1993, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[23]  Alexis Hervais-Adelman,et al.  Executive Control of Language in the Bilingual Brain: Integrating the Evidence from Neuroimaging to Neuropsychology , 2011, Front. Psychology.

[24]  Jonathan Ross.  Hansen, Gyde, Chesterman, andrew, and Gerzymisch-Arbogast, Heidrun, eds (2008): Efforts and Models in Interpreting and Translation Research: A Tribute to Daniel Gile. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 302 p. , 2011 .

[25]  P. Oléron,et al.  [RESEARCH ON SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION]. , 1965, Journal de psychologie normale et pathologique.

[26]  M Laine,et al.  The translating brain: cerebral activation patterns during simultaneous interpreting , 2000, Neuroscience Letters.

[27]  Kilian G. Seeber.  Cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting: Existing theories — new models , 2011 .

[28]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Pupillary, heart rate, and skin resistance changes during a mental task. , 1969, Journal of experimental psychology.

[29]  J. Bradshaw,et al.  Load and pupillary changes in continuous processing tasks. , 1968, British journal of psychology.

[30]  C. Price,et al.  A functional imaging study of translation and language switching. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[31]  R. Stelmack,et al.  Extraversion and pupillary response to affective and taboo words. , 1975, Psychophysiology.

[32]  D. Gopher,et al.  On the Psychophysics of Workload: Why Bother with Subjective Measures? , 1984 .