Van der Linden Lize, Van de Putte Eowyn, Woumans Evy, Duyck Wouter, Szmalec Arnaud
Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2018 Oct 23;9:1998. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01998. eCollection 2018.
There is currently a lively debate in the literature whether bilingualism leads to enhanced cognitive control or not. Recent evidence suggests that knowledge of more than one language does not always suffice for the manifestation of a bilingual cognitive control advantage. As a result, ongoing research has focused on modalities of bilingual language use that may interact with the bilingual advantage. In this study, we explored the cognitive control performance of simultaneous interpreters. These highly proficient bilinguals comprehend information in one language while producing in the other language, which is a complex skill requiring high levels of language control. In a first experiment, we compared professional interpreters to monolinguals. Data were collected on interference suppression (flanker task), prepotent response inhibition (Simon task), and short-term memory (digit span task). The results showed that the professional interpreters performed similarly to the monolinguals on all measures. In Experiment 2, we compared professional interpreters to monolinguals and second language teachers. Data were collected on interference suppression (advanced flanker task), prepotent response inhibition (advanced flanker task), attention (advanced flanker task), short-term memory (Hebb repetition paradigm), and updating (-back task). We found converging evidence for our finding that experience in interpreting may not lead to superior interference suppression, prepotent response inhibition, and short-term memory. In fact, our results showed that the professional interpreters performed similarly to both the monolinguals and the second language teachers on all tested cognitive control measures. We did, however, find anecdotal evidence for a (small) advantage in short-term memory for interpreters relative to monolinguals when analyzing composite scores of both experiments together. Taken together, the results of the current study suggest that interpreter experience does not necessarily lead to general cognitive control advantages. However, there may be small interpreter advantages in short-term memory, suggesting that this might be an important cognitive control aspect of simultaneous interpreting. The results are discussed in the light of ongoing debates about bilingual cognitive control advantages.
目前，文献中关于双语是否能增强认知控制存在着激烈的争论。最近的证据表明，掌握不止一种语言并不总是足以表现出双语认知控制优势。因此，正在进行的研究集中在可能与双语优势相互作用的双语语言使用方式上。在本研究中，我们探讨了同声传译员的认知控制表现。这些高度熟练的双语者在使用一种语言理解信息的同时，用另一种语言进行表达，这是一项需要高水平语言控制的复杂技能。在第一个实验中，我们将专业口译员与单语者进行了比较。收集了关于干扰抑制（侧翼任务）、优势反应抑制（西蒙任务）和短期记忆（数字广度任务）的数据。结果表明，专业口译员在所有测量指标上的表现与单语者相似。在实验2中，我们将专业口译员与单语者和第二语言教师进行了比较。收集了关于干扰抑制（高级侧翼任务）、优势反应抑制（高级侧翼任务）、注意力（高级侧翼任务）、短期记忆（赫布重复范式）和更新（n-back任务）的数据。我们发现了一致的证据支持我们的发现，即口译经验可能不会带来更好的干扰抑制、优势反应抑制和短期记忆。事实上，我们的结果表明，专业口译员在所有测试的认知控制指标上的表现与单语者和第二语言教师相似。然而，当我们将两个实验的综合分数放在一起分析时，确实发现了一些轶事证据，表明口译员在短期记忆方面相对于单语者有（微小的）优势。综上所述，本研究结果表明，口译经验不一定会带来一般的认知控制优势。然而，口译员在短期记忆方面可能有微小的优势，这表明这可能是同声传译中一个重要的认知控制方面。我们将根据关于双语认知控制优势的持续争论来讨论这些结果。
