I have designed these slides to train conference and public service interpreters. How does your memory work?

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London Metropolitan
University / ddh 1
How does our memory work?

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Where do we store
information?
 Many parts of our brain:
 Sensorial memory - perception
 Working memory - filing and retrieving information

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How does our memory work?
 Memories are formed
when certain
connections
(synapses) are
strengthened.

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Laying down new memories
Information Senses Cortex Hippocampus

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Memory
 A huge filing system!

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Why is memory important for
interpreters?
 Consecutive
Interpreting?
 Simultaneous
Interpreting?
 Remote Interpreting?
 Research?
 Vocabulary?

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How good is your memory?
 Look at the following
phone numbers and try
to remember them
 0 5 1 2 8 9 9 3 6 4 5 7

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Short term memory-Immediate
memory
 Information is stored for immediate use
 With regular stimulation:long term memory

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Short term memory
 Can store information for less than a minute
 It is limited in capacity to about:
 7 items when they are not connected, however difficult
they are
 10 to 20 items when they are connected (sentence…)
 Uses auditive memory
 Distraction will immediately erase the information
stored in our immediate memory

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Short term memory
 Best friends:
 Concentration
 Relaxation
 Adrenaline
 Worst ennemies:
 Distraction (external
and internal)
 Fear

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Short term memory and
interpreting
 Used in:
 Simultaneous Interpreting
 Chuchotage
 Short Consecutive
Interpreting (ad hoc, over
the telephone…)

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Long term memory
 Memories of events,
 How to do things
 Facts.

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Storing information long term
Memory 3 hours later 3 days later
Auditive 70% 10%
Visual 72% 20%
Combination of
the 2
85% 65%

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Storing information long term
 A few secrets:
 Stimulate your memory
often on the same topic
 Use all memory
combinations for optimum
results
 Understand your favourite
sensory channel

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Working memory
 The ‘blackboard of
our mind'.

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What is your earliest memory?
 Usually at 3 or 4 years
old
 Not accessible before
speaking

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Improving your memory
 Association of facts
with meanings

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Ancient memory tricks
.
 Cicero
recommended
breaking a
long text into
bits.

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Testing, testing…
 Listen to the text
carefully
 Concentrate
 Answer questions on
the handouts on your
own
 Do not speak

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Improving your memory with
medication
 Smart drugs: positive
help on rebuilding
memory after a stroke
or Alzheimer disease

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Right and left brain
 In most people, the
left side of the
brain - which
controls the right
side of the body -
deals more with
language.

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Conference Interpreters
 Usually we listen with
our right ear and
 Uncover our left ear to
listen to our delivery
 When you phone,
which ear do you use
spontaneously?

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To get the whole picture
 We actually need both
sides of our brain to get
the 'whole picture'.

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What about interpreters?
 We need to build
bridges between
listening and
understanding

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Speaking words
 We use the part of our
brain called Broca's
area.

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Understanding words
 When we listen to (or
read) words, we are using
a part of our brain known
as Wernicke's area.

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Language pathways in our
brain
 a complex network between speaking
(Broca's area) and understanding words
(Wernicke's area).
 When we speak a word that we have read or
heard, the message goes to the parts of our
brain concerned with seeing or hearing, and
then to both language areas before an
instruction is sent to other areas concerned
with movement of the tongue and lips.

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However…how much do we
understand?
 10% comes from the
words (conscious level)
 40% comes from the
tone of the speaker’s
voice
 50% comes from non
verbal attitude
(unconscious level)

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Emotional memory
 When remembering an
emotional event, we
recall not only what
happened, but also how
we felt - an emotional
memory.

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Feedback from the memory test
 3 possible channels
 Visual memory
 Auditive memory
 Kinetic memory

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Who are we?
 Results for the test are not
rigid, they can change
depending on life styles
and new skills (playing a
new musical instrument…)
 There is no right or wrong
result, the ideal is to have a
balanced result in all 3.
 Once we understand our
strong channel, we can
consciously encourage the
storage of new information

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Visual memory
 Use colours, space,
harmony, elegance and
order
 Look at people’s
outlook when you
speak to them
 Visualise events like
sequences of a film or
a cartoon

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Auditive memory
 Concentrate on the
intonation and the intensity
of the voice of the speaker
 Learn new vocabulary
reading words out loud,
using intonation or tune
 Use silence or a light
musical background when
studying

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Kinetic memory
 Use movement to
concentrate
 Remember emotions felt
at the time you were
exposed to new
information
 Use your sense of humour
 Use your common sense
when listening to
understand how facts
interact with one another

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Combination of memories
 We remember:
 10% of what we read
 20% of what we listen to
 30% of what we see
 50% of what we listen
and see at the same time
 80% of what we say
 90% of what we say and
do at the same time

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Remembering information:
3 stages
1. Exposure to information
2. Recording of information
3. Recalling information

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Exposure to information
 You hear info for the
first time:
 Concentrate
 Avoid distraction
 Use passive listening
skills
 Use your sensory
channels (visual,
auditive, kinetic
memories combined)

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Recording of information
 Create word-idea
associations . It is vital to
think in terms of ideas
 Use mental images
involving senses (touch,
smell..)
 Use your own words
 Organise ideas in
sequences (film)
 Take notes

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Recalling information
 Remember information in
order, from the beginning
(sequence 1, 2, 3 etc…)
 Use your notes
 Remember senses triggered
during stage 1 (emotion,
colour of the room, voice
of speaker etc..)

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London Metropolitan
University / ddh 40
To conclude
What will you remember about
memory?