The impact of working memory on interpreting

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇The impact of working memory on interpreting范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

【Abstract】This paper investigates the roles of working memory in interpreting process. First of all， it gives a brief introduction to interpreting. Secondly， the paper exemplifies the role of working memory in interpreting. The result reveals that the working memory capacity of interpreters is not adsolutely proportional to the quality of interpreting in the real interpreting conditions. The performance of an interpreter with well-equipped working memory capacity will comprehensively influenced by various elements.

【Key words】working memory； interpreting； impact

Ⅰ. Introduction

1.1 Interpreting

Interpreting is a instaneous， dynamic， and complex cross-cultural activity. Different from the criteria of translation： faithfulness， expressiveness and elegance， interpreting expresses the feature of accuracy， fluency and swiftness. Therefore， the requirement of interpreting remain more demanding than translation.

1.2 working memory

Working memory is a memory system with limited capacity. It has been defined as referring to the “the temporary storage of information that is been processed in any range of cognitive tasks” （Baddeley， 1986， p.34）. Working memory can store the information temperorily and meanwhile process the information. The working memory can be changed at any time and be erased easily. Thus， working memory is regarded as a system for storing and processing information temporarily.

II. The brief analysis of the impact of working memory on interpreting

As with other aspects of language， individual experiences and abilities vary. Because the process we have been describing deals with the operation of working memory， it would be reasonable to expect that individual differences in working memory might influence how we interpreting.

2.1 Experiment （a）

Undoubtedly， working memory remains a key factor during interpreting. The quality of interpreting， to some extent， depends on working memory. Besides， during the process of interpreting， interpreters take notes as a complementary way to cover the shortage of working memory， which demonstrates that the working memory of interpreters is limited. For example， the following paragraph is extracted from EU-China relationship：

Now the 25 member states are Austria， Belgium， Denmark， Finland， France， Germany， Greece， Ireland， Italy， Luxembourg， the Netherlands， Portugal， Spain， Sweden， the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland， Cyprus， the Czech Republic， Estonia， Hungary， Latvia， Lithuania， Malta， Poland， Slovakia and Slovenia.