14.3. Memory and Interpretation

Everybody needs good memory but interpreters need it especially, first of all – those who are specialized in consecutive interpretation. The use of note-taking facilitates our life greatly, but still highly developed memory or just the ability to keep in head for some time the things necessary for a given moment – is helpful for our work.

Explanative model of memory is the process of acquiring, storing and using information, which includes a number of successive stages of processing.

Information is perceived by one (or several at a time) of five sense organs and for a short period of time is kept in sensory form.

This first memory block is called sensory register, each of sense organs having their own sensory register. It serves for a short-term retention of the data received. Our ear perceives the word pronounced and in the ear sensory register all nuances of the word heard are fixed: sequence of sounds, sound pitch, volume, pronunciation feathers, intonation, etc.

At the same time pattern recognition (розпізнавання образів) takes place: information kept in sensory register can freely correspond with the information accumulated in the past. The image or pattern is considered recognized if one manages to establish correspondence of its sensory characteristics to some notions or ideas (concepts). Thus, recognition process is close to naming any notion.

Short-term memory (короткочасна пам’ять) is the second block of information processing and is often called basic (primary) or scratch (working memory), and operational memory. This type of memory is of a special importance for the interpretation. Here the information is kept for a few seconds, but not a sensory form now. As opposed from the previous block the material can remain in short-term memory any time thanks to repetition and transition of information into long-term memory. Without repetition the information is lost, as if it dissolves.

Process of forgetting. There is no consensus of opinion yet regarding the mechanisms of forgetting. Some people think that the traces gradually fade away, others – that they are “blocked up”, displaced by the following elements.

What is the essence of limitations, imposed on our activity by short-term memory?:

a) time when the unit of information (bit) can be retained in short-term memory without repetition, is limited (for verbal element – 30 seconds).

b) number of stimuli – units of information, which can be simultaneously retained in short-term memory with the help of repetition is limited.

The volume of short-term memory of an average adult is known to equal 7+2, i.e. it may vary from five to nine elements (say, seven letters, words, pictures, etc., not connected with each other in meaning). At the same time one can remember much more, if they (letters, words, pictures, etc.) are put together into familiar words or semantic fields (associations). The volume of the information unit itself can vary considerably from the whole phrase to a page.

Long-term memory is the third block of storing information. The part of material from short-term memory is moved into deeper levels – into long-term memory, where information can be kept without time limits and where a huge amount of the most versatile information – everything we know about surrounding world, is contained. The ability of our memory immediately to find the necessary things is just amazing! This block is studied the worst: it is not known yet, who all the received information is coded and how forgetting occurs. Some scholars think that in the course of time the traces fade away, other experts state, that our memory keeps all the material, and forgetting is only incapability to retrieve the information needed. Therefore we may maintain that input is absolute, output is relative.

In the process of interpretation the main thing is not to remember (it almost always happens naturally) but in time and quickly retrieve and process the data received, producing a ready result.

Questions for discussion:

1. What are the basic qualities of the interpreter?

2. In what ways is the work of translator different from that of interpreter?

3. How to achieve interpretation adequacy?

4. What are the recommendations for the beginning interpreter as regards “packing the info up”?

5. How much time does interpretation take versus original text?

6. How should the international words be treated in interpretation?

7. How should the interpreter behave when working for two or more competing parties?

8. Why shouldn’t the pragmatic aspect be overlooked in interpreting?

9. What is “kitchen of translation”?

10. What types of memory are involved in interpretation?

Practise sight translation of the text: