An Analysis Of Information Storage And Retrieval Process In Consecutive Interpretation From The Perspective Of Long Term Working Memory

The traditionally defined working memory based on short term memory with a capacity of seven plus or minus two items and the duration of storage usually no more than 30 seconds is not enough to explain the greatly expanded working memory capacity of consecutive interpreters. Besides, it fails to explain why interpreters can still remember the information of the source speech even after the end of interpretation. This paper makes an attempt to adapt a long term memory based working memory theory to the study of memory in consecutive interpretation. It is proposed in this paper that interpreters accomplish successful information recalling by storing most of what they hear in long-term memory, and linking them together through retrieval structures. Then they need to hold only a few concepts in working memory, which serve as cues to retrieve everything associated to them by the retrieval structures. This set of information storage and retrieval process was put forward by Anders Ericsson and Walter Kintsch in 1995 as "long-term working memory" (LT-WM).As long term working memory theory has not been applied to interpretation research before, initiatives must be taken to find the best bonding point between interpretation study and the model. This study tries to take information storage and retrieval as the breakthrough point to adapt the LT-WM model to the study of memory in consecutive interpretation. In the analysis of the information storage process in consecutive interpretation, first, two requirements of successful selective storage are discussed, that is, large amounts of related information and familiarity with the activity. Then, the significance of building retrieval structure during storage is also discussed in this part. In the analysis of information retrieval, first, an empirical study is made to give a vivid account of the retrieval process and the influence of LT-WM on the quality of information recall . A professional interpreter with an understanding of LT-WM and an interpretation beginner participated in the experiment. Through the comparative study, the influence of LT-WM on the quality of information retrieval is demonstrated. Then the issue of overcoming proactive and retroactive inference in retrieval is also discussed. After that, the factors influencing the quality of information retrieval are concluded and another chapter is devoted to pedagogic suggestions on the training of consecutive interpretation skills. It is suggested that students be trained in terms of preparation skills, anticipating future retrieval needs, building retrieval structures, and making helpful retrieval cues.The study also has some limitations. First, in order to accurately reflect the situation in consecutive interpretation, it is best to collect the data from real consecutive interpreting occasions. However, in the experimental part of the study, due to limited research resources, it is not possible to provide the real condition of international conferences. In psychological experiments, experiments are usually conducted in large scales, while the limitation of resources in this study doesn't allow for it. Second, the author believes that the pedagogic considerations need to be put into real practice to be examined and improved, which can make it more convincing and feasible. Due to the time limit on this study, this idea is not realized. It is hoped that these aspects will be improved in future researches.