Francisca Padilla

Articulatory Suppression in Language Interpretation: Working Memory Capacity, Dual Tasking and Word Knowledge.

How do interpreters manage to cope with the adverse effects of concurrent articulation while trying to comprehend the message in the source language? In Experiments 1–3, we explored three possible working memory (WM) functions that may underlie the ability to simultaneously comprehend and produce in the interpreters: WM storage capacity, coordination and word knowledge. In Experiments 1 and 2, interpreters, high span individuals and control participants performed free recall tasks under normal, articulatory suppression conditions (Experiment 1) or while performing a secondary task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, professional interpreters free recalled nonwords or words in their first (L1) and second language (L2). The results indicated that the ability of the interpreters to simultaneously comprehend and produce is related to word knowledge rather than to an increased WM storage capacity or to an enhanced ability to coordinate processes and tasks.

Simultaneous interpretation selectively influences working memory and attentional networks

Recent research has shown that becoming an expert in a certain domain may lead to a transfer of the acquired skills to other domains requiring similar abilities. Thus, the cognitive skills acquired by professional interpreters after intensive training may also transfer to other domains. Simultaneous interpreters are known to develop high working memory capacity (e.g., Christoffels, de Groot, & Kroll, 2006; Signorelli, Haarmann, & Obler, 2012). However, little is known about transfer of other processes such us updating and some aspects of attention also involved in interpretation. In Experiment 1, we found that interpreters outperformed a control group in updating skills, as measured through a dual version of the n-back task (Jaeggi et al., 2007). In Experiment 2, use of the ANTI-V allowed us to reveal that interpreting differentially modulates the interactions between attentional networks. Thus, we found no group differences in conflict resolution, but the interaction between the alertness and orienting networks differed between interpreters and non-interpreters. Taken together, these results suggest that experience in simultaneous interpreting transfers to other domains, but this transfer seems specific to the cognitive processes more closely involved in the interpreting tasks.

Representación mental y programación de ordenadores

espanolEl objetivo de este estudio es explorar la relacion entre representacion del conocimiento y aprendizaje de programacion en ordenadores. Nuestra hipotesis de trabajo era que la adquisicion de una habilidad como la de programar ordenadores puede ser facilitada por la adquisicion de un buen modelo mental del ordenador. A un grupo de 24 estudiantes novatos se les enseno el sistema operativo msdos y se midio su aprendizaje en el uso de los comandos del sistema y la representacion mental adquirida durante el proceso de aprendizaje. Para medir la representacion mental se utilizaron tecnicas indirectas de adquisicion del conocimiento. Los resultados mostraron que los estudiantes que mejor aprendian adquirieron tambien una mejor representacion mental del sistema, mas similar a la que tienen los expertos programadores. Concluimos que, con la metodologia utilizada, es posible establecer la relacion entre representacion mental y aprendizaje que las teorias de modelos mentales postulan. EnglishThe purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between knowledge representation and learning computer programming. Our working hypothesis was that the acquisition of procedural skills such as programming would be facilitated by a good understanding and mental representation of the computer. A group of 24 novice subjects learned the operating system MSDOS and then were tested on it. After learning, subjects were assessed in their ability to use MSDOS and in their knowledge of the relations among the main learned concepts. Indirect measures of knowledge elicitation were used to assess subjects´ mental representation. Results showed that better performed students were not only better at solving MSDOS problems, but also had mental representations closer to those of the experts. These results provide support to the general claim in the computer learning literature that good performance is supported by richer and more complete mental representations of the system involved

Variables estructurales en el recuerdo de palabras concretas y abstractas

espanolLas explicaciones ofrecidas al efecto de concrecion se pueden clasificar segun se centren en la facilidad para generar imagenes, en la accesibilidad a la informacion contextual o en diferencias en la estructura semantica de ambos tipos de palabras. La investigacion presentada en este articulo esta dirigida a dilucidar la importancia de variables estructurales / contextuales en la aparicion del efecto de concrecion. El algoritmo Pathfinder de creacion de redes (Schvanevelt, Durso y Dearholt, 1987) se utilizo para extraer la estructura asociativa de palabras concretas y abstractas y explorar la relacion de esta estructura con el efecto de concrecion. Los resultados de un primer estudio correlacional mostraron que aunque algunas variables estructurales (ej), el numero de punteros, la densidad estructural) no correlacionaron con concrecion, otra variable estructural como la fuerza media del conjunto de asociadas correlaciono significativamente con concrecion. Dos experimentos adicionales mostraron que el efecto de concrecion se ve drasticamente reducido si se controla la fuerza media del conjunto. Estos resultados apoyan solo parcialmente las teorias estructurales, y son mas congruentes EnglishExplanations for the concreteness effect vary depending on whether they focus on the relative easiness for generating images for concrete words, on their greater contextual availability or on their different structural representations. The research presented on this paper explores the impact of structural/contextual variables on the concreteness effect. The Pathfinder algorithm (Schvanevelt, Durso and Dearholt, 1987) was used to construct structural/network representations for concrete and abstract words, and to explore the relationship of this structure to concreteness. Results of a preliminary correlational study showed that, although some structural variables (e.g., number of direct links, density) did not correlate with concreteness, the mean strength or proximity of the associative set correlated significantly with concreteness values. Results from two experiments also showed that the concreteness effect is strongly reduced when the mean strength of the set is controlled. This finding provides only partial support for structural hypotheses, and is consistent with theoretical frameworks in which both imagery and structural factors jointly function to produce concreteness effects.