A Study On Chunk’s Role In Cognitive Alleviation In Simultaneous Interpreting

Simultaneous interpreting(SI)is an extremely complex process where interpreters resort to a wide range of cognitive and linguistic approaches to facilitate communication between speakers and listeners.SI is notoriously high-energy-demanding since human interpreters are required to decode the meaning of a source-language message and then reencode it into the target language within a very short ear-voice span by employing strategies such as compression,paraphrasing,anticipation,etc.Consequently an extensive amount of research has been conducted to uncover the innate mechanism of SI,endeavoring to unload the cognitive pressure of interpreters.Based on the theory of working memory and chunkbased approach of language acquisition this paper intends to address this cognitive problem from an interdisciplinary perspective.A new FoA-TBRS model will be introduced and used to explain the internal relationship between processing delay and cognitive overload.This new model is based on Cowan’s Embedded-Process Model and the Time-Based ResourceSharing Model from Barrouillet and Camos.This paper will involve two simultaneous interpreting experiments.The first experiment is conducted to validate the FoA-TBRS model and to prove that processing delay can induce cognitive overload and may impact the overall SI performance negatively.This model will be employed to analyze the SI performance of the chunk-based interpreters and word-based interpreters respectively in the second experiment with the aim of elucidating how chunks stored in memory as automatic units can help interpreters reduce processing delay,alleviate the cognitive overload and enhance the overall performance.