The skilled performance of conference interpreters has aroused some interest of late, both on the part of interpreters interested in studying their own complex skills, and of psychologists interested in cognitive behavior. Recent theories in this field have concentrated on information processing aspects of the task, and on the role of anticipatory processes in understanding the source language speaker. These theories are discussed in the light of current approaches to the role of the organization of knowledge and inference processes in the understanding of discourse. It is suggested that conference interpreters are highly skilled professional bilinguals who constitute a potentially valuable source of data for testing theories of cognitive aspects of bilingualism. (Author)