Information processing and a computational approach to the study of simultaneous interpretation

Interpreting ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic W. Massaro ◽  
Miriam Shlesinger
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
General Information ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Simultaneous Interpretation ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Psychological Inquiry ◽  
Hypothesis Testing Approach ◽  
Experimental And Theoretical Studies

We begin by describing some challenges to psychological inquiry and to the understanding of simultaneous interpretation. We then articulate the computational and hypothesis-testing approach to inquiry, and illustrate a general information-processing model. We discuss some experimental and theoretical studies of language processing carried out within the information-processing approach. We analyze not only behavioral measures of language processing but also its phenomenal experience. We close with a review of two current hypotheses about simultaneous interpreting and consider some methodological hurdles in the study of this fascinating skill.

Language processing is not a race against time

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giosuè Baggio ◽  
Carmelo M. Vicario
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Language System ◽  
Moderating Factors

AbstractWe agree with Christiansen & Chater (C&C) that language processing and acquisition are tightly constrained by the limits of sensory and memory systems. However, the human brain supports a range of cognitive functions that mitigate the effects of information processing bottlenecks. The language system is partly organised around these moderating factors, not just around restrictions on storage and computation.

scholarly journals Predictive processes during simultaneous interpreting from German into English

Interpreting ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Hodzik ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Transitional Probability ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Predictive Processes

We report a study on prediction in shadowing and simultaneous interpreting (SI), both considered as forms of real-time, ‘online’ spoken language processing. The study comprised two experiments, focusing on: (i) shadowing of German head-final sentences by 20 advanced students of German, all native speakers of English; (ii) SI of the same sentences into English head-initial sentences by 22 advanced students of German, again native English speakers, and also by 11 trainee and practising interpreters. Latency times for input and production of the target verbs were measured. Drawing on studies of prediction in English-language reading production, we examined two cues to prediction in both experiments: contextual constraints (semantic cues in the context) and transitional probability (the statistical likelihood of words occurring together in the language concerned). While context affected prediction during both shadowing and SI, transitional probability appeared to favour prediction during shadowing but not during SI. This suggests that the two cues operate on different levels of language processing in SI.

scholarly journals What People Look at in Multimodal Online Dating Profiles: How Pictorial and Textual Cues Affect Impression Formation

2021 ◽  
pp. 009365022199531
Author(s):  
Tess van der Zanden ◽  
Maria B. J. Mos ◽  
Alexander P. Schouten ◽  
Emiel J. Krahmer
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
Online Dating ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Secondary Role ◽  
Multimodal Information ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Multimodal Information Processing ◽  
Textual Cues

This study investigates how online dating profiles, consisting of both pictures and texts, are visually processed, and how both components affect impression formation. The attractiveness of the profile picture was varied systematically, and texts either included language errors or not. By collecting eye tracking and perception data, we investigated whether picture attractiveness determines attention to the profile text and if the text plays a secondary role. Eye tracking results revealed that pictures are more likely to attract initial attention and that more attractive pictures receive more attention. Texts received attention regardless of the picture’s attractiveness. Moreover, perception data showed that both the pictorial and textual cues affect impression formation, but that they affect different dimensions of perceived attraction differently. Based on our results, a new multimodal information processing model is proposed, which suggests that pictures and texts are processed independently and lead to separate assessments of cue attractiveness before impression formation.

scholarly journals The development of a model for geodesic learning: The geodesic information processing model

1997 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Leaf ◽  
Brenda Louw ◽  
Isabel Uys
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Life Skills ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
The People ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Alternative Service ◽  
Learning Institutions

The current article suggests that alternatives to the current traditional learning methods are essentials if learning institutions are to provide people with effective life skills that enable them to be autonomous learners. This suggestion is based on a body of literature on alternative learning which stresses the need for fundamental change and hence, a paradigm shift in perception of learning in order to cope with the world-wide information explosion. The alternative non-traditional approach proposed in geodesic learning which stresses learning how to learn and self-directed inquiry as essential life skills which enable systems as well as the people in the systems to bring about their own transformation in response to changing situations and requirements. The current article discusses an alternative service delivery model, the geodesic information processing model, which falls within the realms of the geodesic philosophy. The implications of this alternative approach for the speech-language therapist are discussed.

Biologically Inspired Design: A Macrocognitive Account

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swaroop S. Vattam ◽  
Michael Helms ◽  
Ashok K. Goel
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Patterns ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Biologically Inspired ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Biologically Inspired Design

Biologically inspired engineering design is an approach to design that espouses the adaptation of functions and mechanisms in biological sciences to solve engineering design problems. We have conducted an in situ study of designers engaged in biologically inspired design. Based on this study we develop here a macrocognitive information-processing model of biologically inspired design. We also compare and contrast the model with other information-processing models of analogical design such as TRIZ, case-based design, and design patterns.

Listening comprehension, shadowing and simultaneous interpretation of two ‘non-standard’ English speeches

Interpreting ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Sabatini
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Simultaneous Interpretation ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Low Performance ◽  
Working Hypotheses ◽  
Very High

Ten final-year interpreting students, all native speakers of Italian, were asked to perform three tasks using two ‘non-standard’ English speeches, one by an Indian speaking English as a second language (speaker A), and one by an American speaking English as a native language with a strong accent (speaker B). The duration of each speech was about 11 minutes, of which a different section was used for each task. First, subjects listened to the initial part of each speech (about 3 minutes) and were tested for listening comprehension. They then shadowed part of the speeches (about 2 minutes), after which they simultaneously interpreted the remainder from English into Italian. The working hypotheses were that: (i) the three tasks involve an increasing level of complexity: listening comprehension being the simplest and simultaneous interpretation the most difficult; (ii) ‘non-standard’ language in the source speech is a potential problem trigger for the interpreter. Performance in the three tasks was evaluated by examining the subjects’ answers to questions in the listening comprehension task (the highest score possible being 12), and by transcribing the shadowing and the simultaneous interpretation (both scored on a 12 point scale). In addition, subjects’ handling of previously identified problem areas in each simultaneous interpreting task was evaluated, again on a 12 point scale. Scores for each task were divided into bands, to distinguish between ‘very high’, ‘high’, ‘low’, and ‘very low’. Performance in the three exercises partly reflected their growing complexity, listening comprehension being the simplest and simultaneous interpretation the most difficult. The non standard characteristics of the two speeches were indeed difficult for some of the subjects to interpret. Taking Gile’s Effort Model as a theoretical basis, the study also provides some insight as to which phase of simultaneous interpretation caused most difficulties.

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