Cognitive Load and Translation Accuracy in Technology Assisted Simultaneous Interpreting Enabled by Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This paper uses eye-tracking research to examine the cognitive load and translation accuracy of simultaneous interpretering with and without technology-assisted in the direction of Chinese-to-English translation and to explore the moderating role of simultaneous interpreting ability. It was found that the new type of simultaneous interpreting assisted by speech recognition technology and machine translation technology can significantly reduce the cognitive load of student interpreters and improve the accuracy of translation. However, the advantages of technology-assisted simultaneous interpreting are not significant enough for professional interpreters compared with student interpreters. This paper explains the results of the study from the perspectives of memory pressure, bilingual switching pressure, and the “ceiling effect”.