What Affects the Awareness of the

Affect?

Presented by: Stephanie Weiss INT 346 Final

Project Professor Paul HarrelsonMay 6, 2013

Table of Contents Definition Examples Causes

A). Hemispheres within the Brain B). Background Information C). Schema

Interviewers Profile Different Scenarios Conclusion Discussion References

DefinitionWhat is Affect?

psychological term for an observable expression of emotion and feelings

displayed to others through… facial expressions, hand gestures, voice tone, and other emotional signs such as laughter or tears

varies from culture to culture, and even within a culture Hearing World: hand gestures and voice tone Deaf World: hand gestures and facial expressions

Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Examples We are NOT always Mind Readers!

CausesWhat makes us think the way we do? How can we determine the affect?Can we misinterpret the meaning by being

confused on the affect of the speaker? A). Hemispheres within the BrainB). Background InformationC). Schema

A). Hemispheres within the Brain

…continuation!ASL is similar to spoken English, but its meaning is transmitted in a much different way.Hemispheres

Left Hemisphere Spoken English & ASL Producing Language (Sakai, 2005)

Right Hemisphere ASL High-level Vision and Motion Processing (Chen 2007) Visuospatial Processing (Sakai, 2005) According to a study from Aaron J. Newman and his colleagues at the University of

Oregon, their research shows that the right angular gyrus is highly activated during ASL processing in people who learned the language from birth (native ASL signers), but not in those people who learned it after puberty (non-native ASL signers)

It seems that for both spoken and signed languages, the age at which the language is learned affects how the brain will be organized.

(Newman et, al. 2002)

B). Background Information

Interpreting Experience and Knowledge

Native & Not Native ASL Users

Familiarity of both Auditory & Visual Languages

Deaf Exposure

Personality

Recognizing Accents

C). SchemaUpon entering an interpreting assignment, it’s important and beneficial for interpreters to know the… 1). Content

Topic, Issues, and/or Area of Concern Recognition of Surroundings

2). Participants and Audience Who? Familiarity

3). Communication Who? What? Where? When? Why? Register and Goal

4). Location/Environment Are you comfortable or uncomfortable? Position/Stance Peripheral Vision

Interviewer’s ProfileDiversityProfessional Interpreting Experience = 10 to 33+ YearsHearing People & Codas Certified & Not CertifiedMajored in Interpreting and/or Deaf Education (not in

interpreting program)PhD Students, Mothers, etc. All Women

Different ScenariosI will explain 4 different scenarios!

1). International Conference Calls

2). Stage Interpreting3). VRS Interpreting

4). Experienced Consumer

Scenario #1International Conference CallsWho’s Who? Can you hear the different voices for the different

speaker? Inform speaker to say name before he/she starts to

utterUsage of Speaker Phone Identifying the Affect, Context, and RegisterAccents – Do you understand them?

Scenario #2Stage Interpreting“Are you being serious right now or what?”Can be directed towards Codas and/or HearingYou can’t see speaker Peripheral Vision may be neededMust relay on your auditory hearing – some are weak

in this area

Scenario #3VRS InterpretingWho’s Sam? RegisterLocation

Scenario #4Experienced Consumer“Pssh, yeah right!”Known person/consumer for many years Recognition of the Context, Personality and

Historical Style! Predictions and Expectations You can identify their affect!

ConclusionAll interpreters have different ways for identifying

the affect upon their consumers. It’s normal for interpreters to struggle within a

certain area either auditory and/or visually, depending on how they were raised to determine the kind of affect being presented.

“Interpreters must not only be willing to make decisions that are most appropriate for the situation but also to analyze the situation and the options in order to choose the best option” (Macnamara, 2012).

DiscussionWhat affects your affect?

Are you more auditory or visual?

Which scenario would be most challenging for you? Which one would impact you the most? Which one would be your strength? Which one would be your weakness?

References Affect - person, people, mood, Definition, Description. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Mental

Disorders. Retrieved May 6, 2013, from http://www.minddisorders.com/A-Br/Affect.html

Chen, L. (2007). Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Retrieved May 6, 2013, from http://lcn.salk.edu/lm_index_Previous.html

Newman, A.J., Bavelier, D., Corina, D., Jezzard, P. and Neville, H.J. (2002). A critical period for right hemisphere recruitment in American Sign Language processing. Nature Neuroscience, 5:76-80. Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sign.html

Sakai, K. L. (2005). Language acquisition and brain development. Science, 310(5749), 815-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213593616?accountid=27346

Macnamara, Brooke (2012) "Interpreter Cognitive Aptitudes," Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 19: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/joi/vol19/iss1/1