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The role of semantically related gestures in the language comprehension of simultaneous interpreters in noise

Arbona, Eléonore ; Seeber, Kilian G. and Gullberg, Marianne LU orcid (2024) In Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 39(5). p.584-608
Abstract
Manual co-speech gestures can facilitate language comprehension, especially in adverse listening conditions. However, we do not know whether gestures influence simultaneous interpreters’ language comprehension in adverse listening conditions, and if so, whether this influence is modulated by interpreting experience, or by active simultaneous interpreting (SI). We exposed 24 interpreters and 24 bilinguals without interpreting experience to utterances with semantically related gestures, semantically unrelated gestures,or without gestures while engaging in comprehension (interpreters and bilinguals) or in SI (interpreters only). Tasks were administered in clear and noisy speech. Accuracy and reaction time were... (More)
Manual co-speech gestures can facilitate language comprehension, especially in adverse listening conditions. However, we do not know whether gestures influence simultaneous interpreters’ language comprehension in adverse listening conditions, and if so, whether this influence is modulated by interpreting experience, or by active simultaneous interpreting (SI). We exposed 24 interpreters and 24 bilinguals without interpreting experience to utterances with semantically related gestures, semantically unrelated gestures,or without gestures while engaging in comprehension (interpreters and bilinguals) or in SI (interpreters only). Tasks were administered in clear and noisy speech. Accuracy and reaction time were measured, and participants’ gaze was tracked. During comprehension,semantically related gestures facilitated both groups’ processing in noise. Facilitation was not modulated by interpreting experience. However, when interpreting noisy speech,interpreters did not benefit from gestures. This suggests that the comprehension component, and specifically crossmodal information processing, in SI differs from that of other language comprehension. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
gesture, multimodality, simultaneous interpreting, bilingualism, second language comprehension, eye-tracking, integrated-systems hypothesis, noise
in
Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
volume
39
issue
5
pages
25 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85192154877
ISSN
2327-3798
DOI
10.1080/23273798.2024.2346924
project
Embodied bilingualism (a Wallenberg Scholar project)
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bbc95243-9c1c-4f3a-ad89-21df03c91e84
date added to LUP
2024-04-16 22:18:49
date last changed
2024-05-22 15:08:03
@article{bbc95243-9c1c-4f3a-ad89-21df03c91e84,
  abstract     = {{Manual co-speech gestures can facilitate language comprehension, especially in adverse listening conditions. However, we do not know whether gestures influence simultaneous interpreters’ language comprehension in adverse listening conditions, and if so, whether this  influence  is  modulated  by  interpreting  experience,  or  by  active  simultaneous interpreting  (SI).  We  exposed  24  interpreters  and  24  bilinguals  without  interpreting experience to utterances with semantically related gestures, semantically unrelated gestures,or without gestures while engaging in comprehension (interpreters and bilinguals) or in SI (interpreters  only).  Tasks  were  administered  in  clear  and  noisy  speech.  Accuracy  and reaction time were measured, and participants’ gaze was tracked. During comprehension,semantically related gestures facilitated both groups’ processing in noise. Facilitation was not  modulated  by  interpreting  experience.  However,  when  interpreting  noisy  speech,interpreters  did  not  benefit  from  gestures.  This  suggests  that  the  comprehension component, and specifically crossmodal information processing, in SI differs from that of other language comprehension.}},
  author       = {{Arbona, Eléonore and Seeber, Kilian G. and Gullberg, Marianne}},
  issn         = {{2327-3798}},
  keywords     = {{gesture; multimodality; simultaneous interpreting; bilingualism; second language comprehension; eye-tracking; integrated-systems hypothesis; noise}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{584--608}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Language, Cognition and Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{The role of semantically related gestures in the language comprehension of simultaneous interpreters in noise}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2024.2346924}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/23273798.2024.2346924}},
  volume       = {{39}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}