Impact of Memory on Consecutive Interpretation Quality

Abstract

Having its status in communication process, consecutive interpreting is generally assumed to be demanding with a vast number of skills. This research aimed at investigating the impact of memory quotient on consecutive interpretation quality. To this end, using a convenience sampling method, fifty-five English students in Master of Art were recruited after passing an English language proficiency test. Then Wechsler Memory Scale test was taken. Next, the participants were asked to interpret consecutively an 8-minute speech from English into Persian to assess their interpretation quality. To assess the quality of the participants’ interpretation, the adapted version of the grid developed by the South African Translators’ Institute in their interpreter-accreditation exams was used. To investigate the hypotheses, inferential statistics including Pearson correlation, one-sample T-test were used. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between memory quotient and consecutive interpretation quality. The results also showed that there was no need of excellent memory quotient for interpreters. However, by improving memory quotient, the quality of interpretation will be improved too.