Simultaneous interpreting experience enhances the use of case markers for prediction in Turkish

Abstract

This study investigated individual differences in prediction during language comprehension in professional and student Turkish (A)–English (B) simultaneous interpreters as a function of simultaneous interpreting (SI) experience and working memory capacity (WMC). A Turkish visual-world eye-tracking prediction task examined whether the accusative versus the nominative case markers on the initial nouns of sentences could be used as cues to predicting an upcoming argument. The participants’ WMC was measured using an automated operation span task. We found a prediction effect (a significantly higher increase in fixations to the plausible agent with time in the accusative than in the nominative condition) for the professionals, but not for the students. WMC contributed positively to the prediction effect in the professionals. Our findings indicate an SI-related advantage for prediction in professional versus student interpreters. Importantly, the present findings revealed an SI-related advantage in a prediction task that did not require interpreting.

Student interpreters predict meaning while simultaneously interpreting - even before training

“…For instance, Liu, Hintz, Liang and Huettig (2022) found that untrained bilinguals form predictions when listening in their L1 and interpreting simultaneously into their L2 (although this is not the direction in which most simultaneous interpreters work); and Amos, Seeber and Pickering (2022) found that both trained interpreters and untrained bilinguals predict when they interpret from their L2 into their L1. Özkan, Hodzik and Diriker (2022) found a difference between professional and trainee interpreters, with interpreters only appearing to predict -but this was in a listening-only task.…”