Attention Network in Interpreters: The Role of Training and Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship found between interpreting training and experience and the attentional network components: Alerting, orienting, and executive attention using the Attention Network Test (ANT). In the current study we tested three groups of interpreting students, translation students, and professional interpreters as specific forms of multilingual expertise. The student groups were tested longitudinally at the beginning and the end of their Master's programme. The professional interpreters were tested only one point in time. The results showed different attention network dynamics for the interpreting students compared to the translation students regarding alertness and executive network. First, the interpreting students showed a higher conflict effect when the alert cue was presented as well as a reduced accuracy compared to translation students. Second, the interpreting training had less effect on alerting than the translation training. Finally, two student groups showed a faster response time in conflict effect than the professional interpreters. In contrast, the professional interpreters scored a higher accuracy than two-student groups specifically in an incongruent alert condition, which confirms that they used a different responding strategy.

Keywords: alerting; attention network; bilingualism; executive functioning; inhibition; interpreting; orienting; translation.

Figure 1

Example trial in the attention network test (ANT): The sequence of events for a trial with spatial cue for congruent trial (A), cue conditions (B), flanker type (C).

Figure 2

Attention network scores for response times (RTs). Error bars indicate standard error.