Inhibition Efficiency in Highly Proficient Bilinguals and Simultaneous Interpreters: Evidence from Language Switching and Stroop Tasks

Expertise differences in cognitive interpreting: A meta-analysis of eye tracking studies across four decades

This meta-analytic research delves into the influence of expertise on cognitive interpreting, emphasizing time efficiency, accuracy, and cognitive effort, in alignment with prevailing expertise theories that link professional development and cognitive efficiency. The study assimilates empirical data from 18 eye-tracking studies conducted over the past four decades, encompassing a sample of 1581 interpreters. The objective is to elucidate the role of expertise in interpretative performance while tracing the evolution of these dynamics over time. Findings suggest that expert interpreters outperform novices in time efficiency and accuracy and exhibit lower cognitive effort, especially in sight and consecutive interpreting. This effect is particularly pronounced in the English-Chinese language pair and with the use of E-prime and Tobii eye-tracking systems. Further, fixation count and pupil size are essential metrics impacting cognitive effort. These findings have vital implications for interpreter training programs, suggesting a focus on expertise development to enhance efficiency and accuracy, reduce cognitive load, and emphasize the importance of sight interpreting as a foundational skill. The selection of technology and understanding of specific ocular metrics also emerged as essential for future research and practical applications in the interpreting industry. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Theory and Methods Linguistics > Cognitive.

Influence of Bilingualism on Behavioral and Electrophysiological Parameters of Cognitive Control

Abstract. Bilingualism has been associated with better cognitive control as compared to monolingualism. However, the robustness of the respective findings is subject to a recent debate, and moderators should be taken into consideration. We reasoned that groups immersed in their second language should show a greater bilingual advantage in cognitive control as compared to non-immersed participants. Further, stimulus language (first or second language), word similarity in the two languages (similar or dissimilar), as well as congruency between ink and word were varied. Forty-five participants from three different language groups (Romance, Slavic, and German) conducted a Stroop task while EEG was recorded. Higher cognitive control demand was operationalized as (1) longer reaction times, (2) higher error rates, (3) stronger N400, (4) increased Late Positive Complex (LPC), and (5) stronger Frontal Midline Theta activity. The classical Stroop interference effect was replicated for all dependent variables. Contrary to expectation, participants immersed in their second language did not exhibit any inhibition advantage in the Stroop task. Moreover, higher script similarity between first and second languages led to faster response times in general. Results are discussed in light of the current debate on the existence of a bilingual advantage in cognitive control.

Tracking Lexical Access and Code-Switching in Multilingual Participants with Different Degrees of Simultaneous Interpretation Expertise

With the worldwide increase in people speaking more than one language, a better understanding of the behavioural and neural mechanisms governing lexical selection, lexical access in multiple languages and code switching has attracted widespread interest from several disciplines. Previous studies documented higher costs when processing a non‐native (L2) than a native (L1) language or when switching from L2 to L1. However, studies on auditory language reception are still scarce and did not take into account the degree of switching experience. Accordingly, in the present study, we combined behavioural and electrophysiological measurements to assess lexical access in L1 and L2 as well as code switching in professional simultaneous interpreters, trainee interpreters, foreign language teachers and Anglistics students, while the participants performed a bilingual auditory lexical decision task. The purpose of this study was to expand the knowledge on code switching in auditory language processing and examine whether the degree of simultaneous interpretation experience might reduce switching costs. As a main result, we revealed that L2 compared to L1 trials, as well as switch compared to non‐switch trials, generally resulted in lower accuracies, longer reaction times and increased N400 amplitudes in all groups of participants. Otherwise, we did not reveal any influence of switching direction and interpretation expertise on N400 parameters. Taken together, these results suggest that a late age of L2 acquisition leads to switching costs, irrespective of proficiency level. Furthermore, we provided first evidence that simultaneous interpretation training does not diminish switching costs, at least when focusing on lexical access.

Differentiating Interpreting Types: Connecting Complex Networks to Cognitive Complexity

Prominent interpreting models have illustrated different processing mechanisms of simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting. Although great efforts have been made, a macroscopic examination into interpreting outputs is sparse. Since complex network is a powerful and feasible tool to capture the holistic features of language, the present study adopts this novel approach to investigate different properties of syntactic dependency networks based on simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting outputs. Our results show that consecutive interpreting networks demonstrate higher degrees, higher clustering coefficients, and a more important role of function words among the central vertices than simultaneous interpreting networks. These findings suggest a better connectivity, better transitivity, and a lower degree of vocabulary richness in consecutive interpreting outputs. Our research provides an integrative framework for the understanding of underlying mechanisms in diverse interpreting types.

Neural differences in the temporal cascade of reactive and proactive control for bilinguals and monolinguals

This study explored differences in sustained top-down attentional control (i.e., proactive control) and spontaneous types of control (i.e., reactive control) in bilingual and monolingual speakers. We modified a Color-Word Stroop task to varying levels of conflict and included switching trials in addition to more "traditional" inhibition Stroop conditions. The task was administered during scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to evaluate the temporal course of cognitive control during trials. The behavioral Stroop effect was observed across the whole sample; however, there were no differences in accuracy or response time between the bilingual and monolingual groups. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated for the N200, N450, and conflict Sustained Potential (SP). On the pure-blocked incongruent trials, the bilingual group displayed reduced signal during interference suppression (N450) and increased later signal, as indexed by the conflict SP. On the mixed-block incongruent trials, both the bilinguals and monolinguals displayed increased later signal at the conflict SP. This suggests that proactive control may be a default mode for bilinguals on tasks requiring inhibition. In the switching trials, that place high demands on the executive control component of shifting, the language groups did not differ. Overall, these results suggest processing differences between bilinguals and monolinguals extend beyond early response inhibition processes. Greater integration of proactive and reactive control may be needed to sort conflicting language environments for bilinguals, which may be transferring to domain-general mechanisms.

Task-specific signatures in the expert brain: Differential correlates of translation and reading in professional interpreters

Insights on the neurocognitive particularities of expert individuals have benefited from language studies on professional simultaneous interpreters (PSIs). Accruing research indicates that behavioral advantages in this population are restricted to those skills that are directly taxed during professional practice (e.g., translation as opposed to reading), but little is known about the neural signatures of such selective effects. To illuminate the issue, we recruited 17 PSIs and 15 non-interpreter bilinguals and compared behavioral and electrophysiological markers of word reading and translation from and into their native and non-native languages (L1 and L2, respectively). PSIs exhibited greater delta-theta (1-8 ​Hz) power across all tasks over varying topographies, but these were accompanied by faster performance only in the case of translation conditions. Moreover, neural differences in PSIs were most marked for L2-L1 translation (the dominant interpreting direction in their market), which exhibited maximally widespread modulations that selectively correlated with behavioral outcomes. Taken together, our results suggest that interpreting experience involves distinct neural signatures across reading and translation mechanisms, but that these are systematically related with processing efficiency only in domains that face elevated demands during everyday practice (i.e., L2-L1 translation). These findings can inform models of simultaneous interpreting, in particular, and expert cognitive processing, in general.

Tracking the microstructural properties of the main white matter pathways underlying speech processing in simultaneous interpreters

Due to the high linguistic and cognitive demands placed on real-time language translation, professional simultaneous interpreters (SIs) have previously been proposed to serve as a reasonable model for evaluating experience-dependent brain properties. However, currently it is still unknown whether intensive language training during adulthood might be reflected in microstructural changes in language-related white matter pathways contributing to sound-to-meaning mapping, auditory-motor integration, and verbal memory functions. Accordingly, we used a fully automated probabilistic tractography algorithm and compared the white matter microstructure of the bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and arcuate fasciculus (AF, long and anterior segments) between professional SIs and multilingual control participants. In addition, we classically re-evaluated the three constitutional elements of the AF (long, anterior, and posterior segments) using a deterministic manual dissection procedure. Automated probabilistic tractography demonstrated overall reduced mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased radial diffusivity (RD) in SIs in the fiber tracts of the left hemisphere (LH). Furthermore, SIs exhibited reduced mean FA in the bilateral AF. However, according to manual dissection, this effect was limited to the anterior AF segment and accompanied by increased mean RD. Deterministic AF reconstruction also uncovered increased mean FA in the right and RD in the left long AF segment in SIs compared to controls. These results point to a relationship between simultaneous interpreting and white matter organization of pathways underlying speech and language processing in the language-dominant LH as well as of the AF.

Predicting Fluency With Language Proficiency, Working Memory, and Directionality in Simultaneous Interpreting

Simultaneous interpreting (SI) is a complex bilingual verbal activity that poses great challenges for working memory (WM) and language proficiency. Fluency is one of the crucial indicators in evaluating SI quality, the violation of which is characterized by disfluency indicators such as interruptions, hesitations, repetitions, corrections, and blanks. To uncover factors underlying fluency in SI, 22 interpreting students performed a battery of tasks to test their language proficiency and WM. Two SI tasks, both from Chinese to English and from English to Chinese, were also conducted, and fluency was evaluated according to the five indicators. Two factors (language proficiency and WM) and the five objectively measured disfluency indicators were then used as input for a regression analysis in both directions to model factors underlying fluency in SI performance. The results reveal that, with fluency measured as a whole, WM and directionality yield a significant effect on fluency, and that WM is the only variable that predicts fluency in both directions, accounting for 50 and 51% of the variation in the occurrence of disfluencies in Chinese-English and English-Chinese interpreting, respectively. The findings clarify for the first time the role of language proficiency, WM, and directionality upon fluency in SI, indicating the critical role of WM capability as compared with language skills in fluent production. The research also supports the position that, for interpreting students, interpreting performance tends to be more fluent in the non-native to native language direction.