Assessing mental demand in consecutive interpreting: Insights from an fNIRS study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Linguistics

Background:

• Consecutive interpreting is a cognitively demanding task.
• Mental workload (MWL) is critical for interpreter performance and can lead to errors.
• Existing research often uses a global MWL score, neglecting individual component impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the specific components of MWL affecting consecutive interpreting quality.
• To explore the relationship between MWL, brain activity, and interpretation performance in novice interpreters.
• To examine the mediating role of brain activation in the MWL-performance relationship.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 20 novice postgraduate interpreters for consecutive interpreting tasks.
• Utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to monitor brain hemodynamic responses.
• Employed the NASA-TLX questionnaire to measure six MWL components and expert assessment for interpretation quality.

Main Results:

• Mental demand was identified as the strongest contributor to interpretation quality.
• A positive correlation was found between mental demand and brain activation in three brain areas.
• Increased brain activation mediated by mental demand negatively correlated with interpretation quality.

Conclusions:

• Mental demand significantly predicts consecutive interpretation quality through brain activation.
• The identified brain areas (inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus) align with Gile's effort model.
• Findings offer insights for optimizing interpreter training and learning strategies.