Cognitive Overload Phenomenon In Consecutive Interpreting And Cultivation Of Interpreter’s Relevant Quality

Interpretation, as a means of communication, plays an increasingly important rolenowadays. Generally speaking, western studies on interpretation have formed a relativelymature and multi-perspective system during their development in the past half a century,while in China studies on interpretation theories and tactics prevail. The author of thisthesis has recognized during interpreting study for one year and a half that poorperformance and errors in interpreting process are closely related to cognitive factors.Although with the development of cognitive science, many scholars open up theinterdisciplinary studies on interpreting in cognitive field, few studies have been made oncognitive overload phenomenon in interpreting, and that is why this issue is chosen as myresearch priority.The thesis ventures to explore cognitive overload in consecutive interpreting with thecombination of theoretical and empirical researches. In the light of John Sweller’sCognitive Load Theory and Daniel Gile’s Efforts Model for CI, together with the study ofcognitive process of consecutive interpreting, this thesis provides a clear definition forcognitive overload phenomenon in interpreting, that is, the phenomenon which occurswhen efforts required to undertake certain tasks in the dynamic process of interpreting gobeyond the limited processing capabilities of the interpreter and lead to the deterioration ofinterpreting quality. Such phenomenon quite often occurs in forms of pauses (both vocaland silent), information loss, errors and redundant information, and cognitive environmentin consecutive interpreting and interpreter’s competence exert direct influence on theoccurrence of cognitive overload.In terms of empirical study, the thesis integrates experimental method withconversational method. The frequency and distribution of pauses, information loss, errorsand redundant information are used as indicators for the analysis of cognitive overload.Participants’ oral explanations for their poor performance are recorded for further analysisof reasons for the occurrence of cognitive overload. Experimental results show thatcognitive overload is prevalent in both E→C and C→E interpreting; when it comes to C→E interpreting, frequency of information loss and grammatical errors is much higher;completeness and order of note-taking influences interpreting quality; the tactic of additionis frequently used while other tactics are rarely used. Based on previous study and analysis,high degree of complexity of SL, high information density of SL speech and insufficientinterpreting competency of the interpreter are believed to be the ringleaders of cognitiveoverload in consecutive interpreting.Finally, suggestions are offered on cultivation of interpreter’s corresponding quality indealing with cognitive overload. In one aspect, interpreters should be trained to masterinterpreting tactics such as addition, omission, repetition, self-monitoring and repair. Inanother aspect, interpreters should cultivate their ability in flexibly applying cognitivestrategies, including analysis, explanation, inference, note-taking, information retrieval andproduction, etc. Besides, interpreters should learn to construct knowledge schemata for theconstruction of knowledge schemata plays a crucial part in the whole dynamic process ofconsecutive interpreting.