Embodiment in tests of cognitive functioning: A study of an interpreter-mediated dementia evaluation

Abstract

This study explores how manners of mediation, and the use of embodiment in interpreter-mediated conversation have an impact on tests of cognitive functioning in a dementia evaluation. By a detailed analysis of video recordings, we show how participants-an occupational therapist, an interpreter, and a patient-use embodied practices to make the tasks of a test of cognitive functioning intelligible, and how participants collaboratively put the instructions of the tasks into practice. We demonstrate that both instructions and instructed actions-and the whole procedure of accomplishing the tasks-are shaped co-operatively by embodied practices of all three participants involved in the test situation. Consequently, the accomplishment of the tasks should be viewed as the outcome of a collaborative achievement of instructed actions, rather than an individual product. The result of the study calls attention to issues concerning interpretations of, and the reliability of interpreter-mediated tests and their bearings for diagnostic procedures in dementia evaluations.

Methodological explorations of interpreter-mediated interaction: novel insights from multimodal analysis

“…Regarding the first dimension, i.e. settings explored, there is a predominance of research in the medical field, ranging from doctor-patient encounters (Pasquandrea, 2011, 2012; Ticca, 2008, 2010; Krystallidou, 2012, 2014, 2016) to psychotherapeutic (Wadensjö, 2001; Vranjes, forthcoming, Vranjes et al, 2017), mental health (Bot, 2005) and dementia evaluation settings (Majlesi and Plejert, 2018). These are followed by studies in legal settings, including police interviews (Monteoliva García, 2017) and courtrooms (Licoppe, 2015; Licoppe and Verdier, 2013, 2015; Licoppe and Veyrier, 2017); alongside pedagogical settings (Davitti, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016; Davitti and Pasquandrea, 2017).…”

“…Studies that have investigated the diversity of semiotic resources used in interaction have mostly focused on the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of primary parties (a key analytical focus in encounters that are characterized by a certain level of power differential) and on how the coordinating role of the interpreter manifests itself (one of the main themes in DI research). This research has highlighted the embodied nature of how shifts between triadic and dyadic interactional formats are negotiated (Davitti and Pasquandrea, 2017; Monteoliva García, 2017) and how specific actions are achieved collaboratively, for example when giving instructions (Majlesi and Plejert, 2018), providing assessments (Davitti and Pasquandrea, 2017), explaining administrative procedures (Ticca and Traverso, 2017) or revisiting phenomena already explored through verbal resources only, such as interpreter-produced expansions (Davitti, 2013).…”

“…Focusing on the embodied resources dimension, gaze and head orientation have been integrated with analysis of verbal interaction, with Bot (2005), Mason (2012) and Davitti (2016) highlighting striking differences in how participants engage in mutual gaze and gaze aversion, and Wadensjö (2001) noting how participants' seating arrangement and relative position to one another impact on the rhythmic regularity of talk and construction of joint narratives. Recent studies have integrated gesture and proxemics (Pasquandrea, 2011(Pasquandrea, , 2012Krystallidou, 2012Krystallidou, , 2014, and handling of artefacts (Davitti and Pasquandrea, 2017;Majlesi and Plejert, 2018;Ticca and Traverso, 2017) in the analysis of interactional dynamics.…”

Pathways Within Dementia Diagnosis

“…Van De Mieroop et al, 2012), and even fewer on the specific environment of memory clinic encounters. However, in two case-studies of interpretermediated dementia evaluations, Plejert et al (2015), and Majlesi and Plejert (2016) investigated the interplay between interlocutors in this particular setting. Whereas the first study (Plejert et al, 2015) highlighted particular challenges associated with the lack of cultural and linguistic adaptation of a test of cognitive functioning to the patient, and how this lack of adaptation played out in interaction, the second one (Majlesi & Plejert, 2016) investigated how the clinician and interpreter used various embodied resources (e.g.…”

“…Heritage & Maynard, 2006;Lecouturier et al, 2008;Maynard & Frankel, 2006). Recent research has also highlighted specific aspects of dementia evaluations for ethnic minority patients, where an interpreter is needed in order to mediate talk between clinical staff and patients and their companions (Plejert et al, 2015;Majlesi & Plejert, 2016). It is through a social scientific lens that we approach the pathways within dementia diagnosis that are the focus of this chapter.…”