Information processing during simultaneous interpretation: a three-tier approach

This article offers a general overview of a wider experimental research project on simultaneous interpretation (SI). Contrary to previous assumptions, the results suggest that when working from English to Spanish, both lexical and syntactical forms, as well as automaticity, play a more than substantial role in the choices made by interpreters, rather than being systematically dictated by the underlying meaning of the original utterances. The experimental data appear to corroborate several intuitions already put forward by other researchers, further allowing for the identification of a series of highly specific and previously unknown interpreters' strategies, as well as flows of interferences. These results led to the formulation of a tentative model of information processing during SI, suggesting the concurrent interplay of three complementary and overlapping systems: literalness, automatic responses and meaning construction. This new proposal is not without consequences for many of the pillars of the profession, by re-opening the debate surrounding aspects such as language specificity and directionality, literalness, issues related to interpreting to or from one's first language, etc. This proposal may therefore have implications for interpreter training and for the future developments of the profession.