The interpreter’s aging
A unique story of multilingual cognitive decline?
This article reports part of the first phase of the AIIC Lifespan Study, for which ten conference interpreters
over 70 years old were interviewed to learn how interpreters’ professional language experiences interact with their cognitive
functions and, specifically, if they demonstrate different patterns of cognitive decline regarding language use. The interview
transcripts were coded to identify examples that matched the items in the research-informed interview guide or any emerging
patterns that informed the theme of cognitive changes. The interviewees experienced some aging-induced cognitive challenges, such
as comprehension difficulties in less than optimal environments, concentration and memory issues, and slowness in lexical
retrieval. Some of these challenges had an impact on some interviewees’ decision to quit interpreting.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Bilingualism, cognitive aging and cognitive reserve
- 3.The AIIC Lifespan Study: Methodology
- 3.1The interviewees
- 3.2Interview guide
- 3.3Procedure, data preparation and analysis
- 4.The AIIC Lifespan Study: Results and discussion
- 4.1Difficulty in comprehension
- 4.2Distractibility and noise
- 4.3Concentration and memory
- 4.4Output production and word retrieval
- 4.5Compensatory strategies
- 4.6Decision to quit
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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