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Abstract
Findings about interpreter advantages in cognitive flexibility have been discrepant. To examine whether task differences and interpreters’ L2 proficiency contributed to the discrepancy, we tested two groups of university students (interpreting trainees vs. control participants) with two color-shape switching tasks differing in stimulus valence (univalent vs. bivalent). The results showed that: (1) only the univalent task detected a switch cost advantage for the interpreter group, indicating the task condition for observing interpreting trainees’ early advantage in local switching ability (as indexed by switch cost); (2) only the interpreter group with an advanced L2 proficiency showed a marginally significant mixing cost advantage over the control group, indicating a tendency toward an advantage in more global and sustained control. These findings suggest tentative explanations for the discrepant results in the literature and conditions for the presence and development of interpreter advantages in cognitive flexibility.
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