Fast & Slow Thinking vs. Faster Talking

It'll Be Grand!

Recently I've been reading an interesting book about Behavioral Economics - in plain terms it can be thought of as a branch of social science which studies how human beings make decisions and form impressions.

Fundamentally, when we are going about our daily lives, we use two distinct systems in our decision-making. System 1 is a fast and automated system (a type of autopilot if you like) which makes determinations and forms opinions unconsciously without any effort. Examples of this would be instantly knowing someone is angry from their facial expression or knowing the direction of a loud noise as soon as the sound is registered. We don't need to exercise any conscious effort in these examples –– they’re rapid and automatic.

On the other hand, System 2 is slow and requires conscious effort and control. Examples would include trying to multiply 37 x 14 in your head, or keeping count of how many people wearing blue jumpers pass by the café window in one minute. One important characteristic of System 2 is that because it requires effort and attention, usually only one task can be done at a time with System 2 and it can lead to System 1 being less effective while it's in use. This makes sense intuitively as our brain power is limited, so the more you focus on one task the less room you have to devote your attention to other things. This is something my wife knows well if she tries to talk to me while I'm tied up battling aliens on a far-away planet (in a video game, of course…).

When considering these two Systems as they apply to the job of interpreting, I can't help wondering at how the brain is allocating the various tasks. The interpreter might typically be required to juggle the following activities:

• Listen to the speaker (not just their words but also their tone of voice to identify jokes or sarcasm);

• Watch the speaker (their facial expressions or hand gestures might be important to understand their meaning);

• Look at/read slides being referred to in a speech or presentation;

• Take notes to assist in recalling the content when outputting the translation;

• Actively consider appropriate translations for words or phrases used by the speaker;

• Understand the overall point/message of what the speaker is trying to convey;

As someone starting out with interpreting only recently, I can avouch that most of these activities require proper attention (I can probably leave observing the speaker's facial expressions to System 1 but that's about it). So, if System 2 can only do one task at a time, and most of these things require System 2……

According to the highly experienced veterans in the field, the trick seems to be to acquire sufficient proficiency in these various tasks that they can be offloaded to System 1, but that seems a fairly monumental task. It's still hard to imagine all these things being handled on autopilot in my head, but for now I'll just keep my System 2's nose to the grindstone and hope that my System 1 eventually grows up and takes on some more responsibility!

by GG

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