Short―term Memory in Simultaneous Interpeting.docVIP

Short―term Memory in Simultaneous Interpreting 　　Introduction 中国论文网 /1/viewhtm 　　This is an epoch of cross-culture communication and exchanges. We have never been so close than any period in the history. A large number of international conferences are being held every year， from World Economic Forum to the UN Climate Change Conference， from political leaders’ state visits to casual luncheon speeches. Furthermore， the idea of time-saving leads to people’s preference for simultaneous interpreting（SI）. The job of SI is the product of our information age， indispensable and ungently needed， arousing the public curiosity and excitement when talking about it. To better illustrate the short-term memory（STM） and its influence factors， this paper begins with the definition of STM， and then analyses several factors which can affect the duration and quality of the STM. It mainly analyse the effects on STM caused by several factors， including storage capacity， concentration， stress and emotion. The main purpose of this paper is to help readers understand how STM works， through demonstrating why STM is not ever-lasting and the internal and outer causes of the loss of information， and to give a basic but useful guideline for the interpreters to take good advantage of and improve STM for better SI performance. 　　Atkinson and Shiffrin（1968） concluded that human beings’ memory can be divided into two models， short-term memory（STM） and long-term memory（LTM）. According to Susan E. Gathercole’s（1996） analysis of the four processes of interpreting task， after two steps of stimulus recoding and speeches articulatory processes， there follow the other two： short memory search and the retrieval of information. As we can clearly see， STM is the hinge， connecting input and output， in other words， listening and interpreting. The interpreter has to remember the source language immediately when heard and at the same time convert it into the target language by using his or her LTM. P