O papel das pausas cognitivas e da experiência tradutória na interpretação consecutiva

Abstract

This undergraduate thesis aims to investigate the role of cognitive pauses in consecutive interpreting, examining how translation experience influences their occurrence, type, and duration. To this end, the performance of two groups —experienced professional interpreters and translation students in training — was compared through a consecutive interpreting task based on a segmented TED Talk-style lecture. The research focuses on silent pauses (SIL) and filled pauses (FIL and HES), drawing from Zellner’s (1994) distinction between physiological and cognitive pauses. The theoretical framework is grounded in the models of Seleskovitch and Lederer (1984), Gile’s Effort Models (1995), and recent empirical research in interpreting studies (Bakti; Bóna, 2023; Freitag, 2019). The methodology combines qualitative analysis (observing the contextual occurrence of pauses) and quantitative analysis (measuring duration, frequency, and variation of pauses), using the Praat software for segmentation and data extraction. The results show relevant differences between the groups: experienced interpreters produced shorter pauses, greater consistency in hesitation duration, and fewer excessively long pauses, suggesting stronger cognitive control and fluency. In contrast, the students displayed greater variability in pause duration and higher averages for certain pause types. It is concluded that the analysis of cognitive pauses can offer valuable contributions both to understanding the mental processes involved in consecutive interpreting and to improving interpreter training.