Tip of the tongue
Encyclopedia
The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (TOT or presque vu, from the French for "almost seen") is the failure to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall
and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
People in a tip-of-the-tongue state can often recall one or more features of the target word, such as the first letter, its syllabic stress
, and words similar in sound and/or meaning. Individuals report a feeling of being seized by the state, feeling something like mild anguish while searching for the word, and a sense of relief when the word is found. Just by having a memory, does not necessarily mean it can be remembered. However, one can always relearn. Furthermore, one can match up the context to get better retrieval In order to recall, it needs to be placed in your memory. With that said, it will be retrievable.
An occasional tip-of-the-tongue state is normal for people of all ages. TOT becomes more frequent as people age. TOT is only a medical condition when it becomes frequent enough to interfere with learning or daily life. This disorder is called dysnomia when it is a learning disability present since childhood, and called anomia when acquired by brain damage, usually from a head injury
, stroke
, or dementia
.
The tip of the tongue phenomenon has implications for research in psycholinguistics
, memory
, and metacognition
.
The term "tip of the tongue" is borrowed from colloquial usage. The tip of the tongue phenomenon was first described as a psychological phenomenon in the text Principles of Psychology
by William James
(1890), although he did not label it as such.
Sigmund Freud
also discussed unconscious
psychological factors, such as unconscious thoughts and impulses that might cause forgetting familiar words.
The first empirical research
on the tip of the tongue phenomenon was undertaken by Harvard researchers Roger Brown
and David McNeill and published in 1966 in the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. Brown and McNeill wanted to determine whether the feeling of imminent retrieval experienced in the tip of the tongue state was based on actual retrieval ability or was just an illusion.
In their study, Brown and McNeill read out the definitions of rare words to the study participants and asked them to name the object being defined, and the target word was later read by the experimenter. Participants were instructed to report whether they experienced a tip of the tongue state. Three types of positive TOT states were identified by Brown & McNeill: 1) the participant recognized the word read by the experimenter as the word he had been seeking, 2) the participant correctly recalled the word before it was read by the experimenter, and 3) subject recalled the word they were seeking before the target word was read by the experimenter, but the recalled word was not the intended target. If a participant indicated a tip of the tongue state, they were asked to provide any information about the target word they could recall. Brown and McNeill found that participants could identify the first letter of the target word, the number of syllables of the target word, words of similar sound, words of similar meaning, syllabic pattern, and the serial position of some letters in the target word better than would be expected by chance. Their findings demonstrated the legitimacy of the feeling of knowing experienced in a tip of the tongue state. This study was the foundation for subsequent research about tip of the tongue phenomenon.
Many languages other than English have equivalent colloquial terms for the tip of the tongue experience, suggesting that it is a common experience across cultures. In a study by B. L. Schwartz (1999), 45 of the 51 languages surveyed have an idiom
referring to the tip of the tongue phenomenon that references the tongue, mouth, or throat as a metaphor
. The direct English translations of these idioms are "on the tongue", "on the tip/point/head of the tongue", "on the top of the tongue", "on the front of the tongue", "sparkling at the end of the tongue", and "in the mouth and throat". Notably, the languages studied that did not have an equivalent idiom for the tip of the tongue were American Sign Language
, Amharic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kalenjin
, and Kiswahili. However, tip of the finger experiences are reported by signers.
is minimal as it is difficult to measure. Most research that takes on this approach give participants blockers and see if they produce TOT states. This method is controversial as it is unclear if the blockers given produce TOT states or act as retrieval cues.
states that TOTs are elicited by the quantity and strength of the information that is retrieved from memory when the target word itself is not. When searching for a target word, the more information that is retrieved from memory, and the more the information retrieved is perceived to be related to the target word, the more likely a TOT state will be elicited.
(MEG) and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI).
Not much is known about the exact function of these areas in the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. The areas activated during TOT may vary depending on the nature of the target word. For example, if the target word is a person's name, the fusiform face area
will likely show activation as the rememberer processes the person's face. Problems like this make it difficult to determine what areas are specifically implicated in TOT states, and which are a byproduct of other cognitive functions. However, some inferences can be made about the roles of these structures based on theories of their functions derived from other studies of these structures, unrelated to TOT. It is hypothesized that the anterior cingulate cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex operate as a circuit to detect conflict, and may perform this role in detecting the conflict between the feeling of knowing the target word and the recall failure. The anterior cingulate cortex is also implicated in emotion and may show activation because of the emotional response to the tip of the tongue state. The posterior medial parietal cortex, bilateral lateral parietal cortex, and the bilateral superior prefrontal cortex are involved in retrieval and evaluation, and therefore may play a role in the metacognitive processes involved in the tip of the tongue phenomenon such as the evaluation of one's own knowledge and the probability of retrieval.
Evidence has shown that there is a significant difference in the amount of TOTs experienced by monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilinguals seem to report the same amount of TOTs as monolinguals for proper names but significantly more TOTs for other words. Similar findings were found in Hebrew-English bilinguals where they showed an increased rate for TOTs. However, the same subjects produced similar rates of spontaneous resolution and comparable ability to access partial information about target words. Findings such as these led researchers to ask the question: is lexical access in the first and dominant language of bilingual speakers less efficient than in monolinguals? Recent research suggests that this is in fact the case. In a study conducted by Ivanova and Costa, they found that monolinguals name pictures faster than bilinguals. The effect was present when bilinguals used their first and dominant language for picture naming as well as when they used their weaker second language. Bilingual disadvantages may stem from their ability to represent multiple forms for individual meanings. This was not the case with proper names as these are essentially the same across languages.
Lorazepam
is a type of benzodiazepine
, a psychoactive drug
used for the short-term treatment of anxiety
, insomnia
, acute seizures including status sedation
of hospitalized patients, as well as sedation of aggressive patients. Research has been conducted to investigate the effects of lorazepam on TOT states in response to general knowledge questions. In a recall task, participants who received lorazepam showed the same number of total recall answers to participants who had not received lorazepam. However, the lorazepam participants produced more incorrect recall responses to their TOT states. Lorazepam may inhibit the retrieval of the correct response. Participants under the influence of lorazepam did not experience the subjective
feeling that they were in a TOT state (i.e., the feeling of being on the verge of recalling the word). These participants experienced the subjective feeling of a TOT state only after they were told that their response was incorrect. As a result, it appears that these participants are not aware that their answer is incorrect and only experience the subjective feeling of TOT states if they are told their answer is incorrect. Lorazepam may create conditions where alternative answers come to mind more easily. Furthermore, lorazepam suppresses emotions, which may be why participants taking this drug do not experience the subjective feelings that accompany TOT states; thus enabling the recall of alternative responses. These findings suggest that lorazepam does not increase the probability of TOT states but it does inhibit the retrieval of correct responses and the subjective feeling of TOT states, leading participants to give incorrect answers without being aware.
Caffeine
Caffeine
can have multiple effects at the cellular level but is primarily notable for the alertness effect that it has on people. Research has been performed involving phonological priming and TOTs in which participants took either 200 mg of caffeine or a placebo. The participants answered 100 general knowledge questions, each with one correct answer. For each question, participants read 10 priming
words that were displayed on a monitor for a short period of time. Each list of 10 priming words had between two and eight words that were phonologically related to the correct answer of the question, with the remaining words being unrelated. Caffeinated participants had fewer TOT experiences than the placebo group, suggesting better memory recall. However, in the unrelated condition, the caffeinated group did not do as well as the placebo group in their ability to retrieve words. The results suggest that this dose of caffeine (equivalent to two cups of coffee) can temporarily hinder a person’s short-term recall of certain words. Moreover, the general advantageous effect of caffeine on attention can be ruled out.
methods to access the presence of different brain patterns when a younger and older individual is experiencing a TOT state. It is found that older and younger individuals employ a similar network of brain regions during TOT states such as the prefrontal cortex
, left insula
and sensorimotor cortex. However, older individuals show differences in activity in some areas compared to younger individuals. TOTs increase with age-related gray matter
loss in the left insula for older individuals. This is accompanied by less activity in the left insula and is related to higher frequency of TOTs. Furthermore, it was found that older individuals have over-activation in their prefrontal cortex when experiencing TOT states. This may indicate a continued search when the retrieval process fails and a TOT state is experienced. More specifically, greater activation in the sensorimotor cortex in older individuals and less in younger adults may reflect differences in the knowledge that is used to retrieve the target information. Priming
words during word retrieval tests generally reduces the frequency of TOTs and improves the retrieval of the target word and has been shown to have a larger benefit for older adults. This is consistent with the spreading activation
model, where neural connections are strengthened when used more.
influences many memory variables such as the amount of memory recalled and attributions of nostalgia. The issue regarding emotion and TOT is how it influences the tip-of-the-tongue state and the information that is trying to be recalled. It is common for individuals to ascribe emotions to TOTs. It is suggested that the majority of individuals experience TOTs negatively. It has been shown that experiencing an emotion predicts TOT memory performance later. Emotional TOTs are more likely to be recalled later than TOTs that had no emotional experience attached. Emotion and TOT are related to the metacognitive theory
that is mentioned above. In this theory, TOTs inform our cognitive system if the information we are trying to recall
is accessible. Thus, emotions may play a role in experiencing TOT. Some research has shown that questions that elicit emotional arousal create TOTs more so than questions that aren’t emotionally arousing. It has also been found that emotional arousal can extend to subsequent questions or information being recalled even if they are not emotionally arousing themselves. It was found that emotional arousal increased the likelihood of experiencing TOT. Neuroimaging
has also found activation in some areas that are associated with emotion; specifically in the anterior cingulate cortex
.
and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Research has been conducted to find out how these particular diseases affect TOTs in these individuals. In a study by Beeson, Holland, and Murray (1997), participants with Alzheimer's disease and three classic aphasic syndromes (Broca’s, anomic, and conduction aphasia) were instructed to name famous people. Those with anomic aphasia showed to be superior to the other groups in their ability to naming famous people that were presented. This finding was expected as the group has relatively mild aphasia. However, the Broca’s conduction and AD groups did not differ in immediate or delayed naming of famous faces. All of the groups provided some basic identifying semantic information for at least half of the items presented, suggesting a fair number of items potentially in TOT. Conduction and Broca’s groups showed strongest evidence of TOT, performing better than the other groups in identification of initial letters.
If the inability to recall words, phrases, or names is a temporary but debilitating disorder, it is known as lethologica
.
and practice in reducing TOT states is that most information in TOT states is low-frequency; that is, it has not been used or recalled for some time. The recency of information use can influence the retrieval process of that information. The presentation of a prime is only needed once for it to facilitate TOT state resolution. Support for priming has been found in that when individuals are given the first letter of the word they are trying to recall, they are more likely to overcome their TOT state. When the prime is a related word instead of the first letter, an interesting effect occurs: When the prime word has similar phonology
to the target word, an increase in the frequency of TOT states and a higher frequency of correctly recalled words when the TOT state is resolved is observed. Incorrect words come to mind involuntarily that share similar phonological features with the target word. Thus, phonological similarity can both decrease and increase TOT states. However, it is possible to fix this problem by changing the syntactic class
of the priming word. Priming words that are in the same syntactic class as the target word create no difference in TOT state resolution. The TOT state resolution was the same for priming words in the same syntactic class and unrelated priming words. If the priming word is being listed in conjunction with other unrelated priming words, then the position is of importance. The earlier in the list the priming word is, the less likely it is to help resolve the TOT state.
Recall (memory)
Recall in memory refers to the retrieval of events or information from the past. Along with encoding and storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: free recall, cued recall and serial recall...
and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
People in a tip-of-the-tongue state can often recall one or more features of the target word, such as the first letter, its syllabic stress
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
, and words similar in sound and/or meaning. Individuals report a feeling of being seized by the state, feeling something like mild anguish while searching for the word, and a sense of relief when the word is found. Just by having a memory, does not necessarily mean it can be remembered. However, one can always relearn. Furthermore, one can match up the context to get better retrieval In order to recall, it needs to be placed in your memory. With that said, it will be retrievable.
An occasional tip-of-the-tongue state is normal for people of all ages. TOT becomes more frequent as people age. TOT is only a medical condition when it becomes frequent enough to interfere with learning or daily life. This disorder is called dysnomia when it is a learning disability present since childhood, and called anomia when acquired by brain damage, usually from a head injury
Head injury
Head injury refers to trauma of the head. This may or may not include injury to the brain. However, the terms traumatic brain injury and head injury are often used interchangeably in medical literature....
, stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, or dementia
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
.
The tip of the tongue phenomenon has implications for research in psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
, memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
, and metacognition
Metacognition
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving...
.
History
Principles of Psychology
The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written by William James and published in 1890.There were four methods in James' psychology: analysis , introspection , experiment The Principles of Psychology is a monumental text in the history of psychology, written...
by William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
(1890), although he did not label it as such.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
also discussed unconscious
Unconscious mind
The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
psychological factors, such as unconscious thoughts and impulses that might cause forgetting familiar words.
The first empirical research
Empirical research
Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empirical evidence can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively...
on the tip of the tongue phenomenon was undertaken by Harvard researchers Roger Brown
Roger Brown (psychologist)
Roger William Brown , an American social psychologist, was born in Detroit.-Early Life and Education:...
and David McNeill and published in 1966 in the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. Brown and McNeill wanted to determine whether the feeling of imminent retrieval experienced in the tip of the tongue state was based on actual retrieval ability or was just an illusion.
In their study, Brown and McNeill read out the definitions of rare words to the study participants and asked them to name the object being defined, and the target word was later read by the experimenter. Participants were instructed to report whether they experienced a tip of the tongue state. Three types of positive TOT states were identified by Brown & McNeill: 1) the participant recognized the word read by the experimenter as the word he had been seeking, 2) the participant correctly recalled the word before it was read by the experimenter, and 3) subject recalled the word they were seeking before the target word was read by the experimenter, but the recalled word was not the intended target. If a participant indicated a tip of the tongue state, they were asked to provide any information about the target word they could recall. Brown and McNeill found that participants could identify the first letter of the target word, the number of syllables of the target word, words of similar sound, words of similar meaning, syllabic pattern, and the serial position of some letters in the target word better than would be expected by chance. Their findings demonstrated the legitimacy of the feeling of knowing experienced in a tip of the tongue state. This study was the foundation for subsequent research about tip of the tongue phenomenon.
Universality
Tip of the tongue experiences occur in people regardless of gender. The tip of the tongue phenomenon is known to occur in young adulthood, middle age, and older adulthood. Tip of the tongue experiences in childhood have not been studied. Education level is not thought to be a factor in the experience of tip of the tongue states. Monolinguals, bilinguals, and multilinguals all experience tip of the tongue states, although with varying frequencies (see Effects of language).Many languages other than English have equivalent colloquial terms for the tip of the tongue experience, suggesting that it is a common experience across cultures. In a study by B. L. Schwartz (1999), 45 of the 51 languages surveyed have an idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
referring to the tip of the tongue phenomenon that references the tongue, mouth, or throat as a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
. The direct English translations of these idioms are "on the tongue", "on the tip/point/head of the tongue", "on the top of the tongue", "on the front of the tongue", "sparkling at the end of the tongue", and "in the mouth and throat". Notably, the languages studied that did not have an equivalent idiom for the tip of the tongue were American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
, Amharic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kalenjin
Kalenjin language
The Nandi languages, or Kalenjin proper, are a dialect cluster of the Kalenjin branch of the Nilotic language family.In Kenya, where speakers make up 18% of the population, the name Kalenjin, a Nandi expression meaning "I say ", gained prominence in the late 1940s and the early 1950s, when several...
, and Kiswahili. However, tip of the finger experiences are reported by signers.
Causes
The causes of TOTs are largely unknown but several theories have been put forth. These theories fall under two general doctrines: the direct-access view and the inferential view.Direct-access view
The direct-access view of the cause of tip of the tongue phenomenon suggests that TOTs occur because the memory strength for the item, while not strong enough to be recalled, has sufficient strength to signal a TOT state. That is, the rememberer has direct access to the target word's presence in memory, even though it cannot be immediately recalled. Theories of the causes of tip of the tongue phenomenon that adopt direct-access views include the blocking hypothesis, the incomplete activation hypothesis, and the transmission deficit model.Blocking hypothesis
The blocking hypothesis states that retrieval cues elicit the retrieval of a word related to the target that then blocks the retrieval of the correct word and causes the tip of the tongue phenomenon to occur. The rememberer recognizes that the related words are incorrect but cannot retrieve the correct word because it is inhibited. These related words are termed blockers because they block the ability to retrieve the correct word. This accounts for why TOTs predict memory performance. Once the inhibition of the correct word is removed or the blockers are forgotten, the TOT will be resolved. Evidence for this hypothesisHypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
is minimal as it is difficult to measure. Most research that takes on this approach give participants blockers and see if they produce TOT states. This method is controversial as it is unclear if the blockers given produce TOT states or act as retrieval cues.
Incomplete-activation hypothesis
The incomplete activation hypothesis states that TOTs occur when the target word in memory is not sufficiently activated to be recalled but rememberers can sense its presence nonetheless. The accessibility of the target word fluctuates due to factors that increase its activation level, such as cues. The target word's activation level may fluctuate to a level that is high enough for it to be retrieved and the TOT state to be resolved.Transmission-deficit model
The transmission deficit model is based on a multi-component theory of memory representation that suggests that semantic and phonological information is stored in memory and retrieved separately. The transmission deficit model posits that TOTs occur when there is activation of the semantic component of the target word memory but this activation does not pass on to the phonological level of the memory of the target word. Thus, TOTs are caused by the deficit in transmission of activation from the semantic memory store to the phonological memory store.Inferential view
The inferential view of TOTs posits that TOTs arise from clues about the target that the rememberer can piece together. That is, the rememberer infers their knowledge of the target word, and the imminence of retrieval is based on the information that they are able to access from memory about the target word. These views disregard the presence of the target word in memory as having an effect on creating tip of the tongue states.Cue-familiarity theory
Cue familiarity theory suggests that the strong feelings elicited by recognizing a familiar cue about the target word cause the tip of the tongue phenomenon. A familiar cue should create a TOT state, whether or not the target word is known. When one encounters a cue for a target word, the level of recognition is assessed, and a strong level of recognition will elicit a tip of the tongue state. It has been found that cues that are repetitive tend to create more TOTs than if one single cue is given. This might suggest that cue factors can play a role in causing TOT states.Accessibility heuristic
The accessibility heuristicHeuristic
Heuristic refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, where an exhaustive search is impractical...
states that TOTs are elicited by the quantity and strength of the information that is retrieved from memory when the target word itself is not. When searching for a target word, the more information that is retrieved from memory, and the more the information retrieved is perceived to be related to the target word, the more likely a TOT state will be elicited.
Neuroimaging techniques used in the study of TOT
The body of research on the neurological mechanisms of the tip of the tongue phenomenon is limited. The research in this area has used magnetoencephalographyMagnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography is a technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using arrays of SQUIDs...
(MEG) and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI is a type of specialized MRI scan used to measure the hemodynamic response related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals. It is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging...
(fMRI).
Neurological activation in the TOT state
Several areas of the brain show increased activation in a TOT state. The following is a list of the specific structures that show increased activation during a tip of the tongue state:- Anterior cingulate cortexAnterior cingulate cortexThe anterior cingulate cortex is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex, that resembles a "collar" form around the corpus callosum, the fibrous bundle that relays neural signals between the right and left cerebral hemispheres of the brain...
(ACC) - Right dorsolateral prefrontal cortexDorsolateral prefrontal cortexThe dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , according to a more restricted definition, is roughly equivalent to Brodmann areas 9 and 46. According to a broader definition DL-PFC consists of the lateral portions of Brodmann areas 9 – 12, of areas 45, 46, and the superior part of area 47. These regions...
(DLPFC) - Right inferior prefrontal cortexPrefrontal cortexThe prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior...
(RIPC) - Bilateral anterior frontal cortex
- Posterior medial parietal cortex
- Bilateral lateral parietal cortex
- Bilateral superior prefrontal cortexPrefrontal cortexThe prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior...
- Supramarginal gyrusSupramarginal gyrusThe supramarginal gyrus is a portion of the parietal lobe. It is probably involved with language perception and processing, and lesions in it may cause Wernicke's aphasia or transcortical sensory aphasia.-External links:...
- Superior temporal gyrusSuperior temporal gyrusThe superior temporal gyrus is one of three gyri in the temporal lobe of the human brain, which is located laterally to the head, situated somewhat above the external ear.The superior temporal gyrus is bounded by:* the lateral sulcus above;...
- Supplementary motor areaSupplementary motor areaThe supplementary motor area is a part of the sensorimotor cerebral cortex . It was included, on purely cytoarchitectonic arguments, in area 6 of Brodmann and the Vogts...
- Left insular cortexInsular cortexIn each hemisphere of the mammalian brain the insular cortex is a portion of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus between the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe. The cortical area overlying it towards the lateral surface of the brain is the operculum...
Not much is known about the exact function of these areas in the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. The areas activated during TOT may vary depending on the nature of the target word. For example, if the target word is a person's name, the fusiform face area
Fusiform face area
The fusiform face area is a part of the human visual system which might be specialized for facial recognition, although there is some evidence that it also processes categorical information about other objects, particularly familiar ones.-Localization:...
will likely show activation as the rememberer processes the person's face. Problems like this make it difficult to determine what areas are specifically implicated in TOT states, and which are a byproduct of other cognitive functions. However, some inferences can be made about the roles of these structures based on theories of their functions derived from other studies of these structures, unrelated to TOT. It is hypothesized that the anterior cingulate cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex operate as a circuit to detect conflict, and may perform this role in detecting the conflict between the feeling of knowing the target word and the recall failure. The anterior cingulate cortex is also implicated in emotion and may show activation because of the emotional response to the tip of the tongue state. The posterior medial parietal cortex, bilateral lateral parietal cortex, and the bilateral superior prefrontal cortex are involved in retrieval and evaluation, and therefore may play a role in the metacognitive processes involved in the tip of the tongue phenomenon such as the evaluation of one's own knowledge and the probability of retrieval.
Effects of language
BilingualismEvidence has shown that there is a significant difference in the amount of TOTs experienced by monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilinguals seem to report the same amount of TOTs as monolinguals for proper names but significantly more TOTs for other words. Similar findings were found in Hebrew-English bilinguals where they showed an increased rate for TOTs. However, the same subjects produced similar rates of spontaneous resolution and comparable ability to access partial information about target words. Findings such as these led researchers to ask the question: is lexical access in the first and dominant language of bilingual speakers less efficient than in monolinguals? Recent research suggests that this is in fact the case. In a study conducted by Ivanova and Costa, they found that monolinguals name pictures faster than bilinguals. The effect was present when bilinguals used their first and dominant language for picture naming as well as when they used their weaker second language. Bilingual disadvantages may stem from their ability to represent multiple forms for individual meanings. This was not the case with proper names as these are essentially the same across languages.
Effects of drugs
LorazepamLorazepam
Lorazepam
Lorazepam is a high-potency short-to-intermediate-acting 3-hydroxy benzodiazepine drug that has all five intrinsic benzodiazepine effects: anxiolytic, amnesic, sedative/hypnotic, anticonvulsant, antiemetic and muscle relaxant...
is a type of benzodiazepine
Benzodiazepine
A benzodiazepine is a psychoactive drug whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring...
, a psychoactive drug
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
used for the short-term treatment of anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
, insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
, acute seizures including status sedation
Sedation
Sedation is the reduction of irritability or agitation by administration of sedative drugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure or diagnostic procedure...
of hospitalized patients, as well as sedation of aggressive patients. Research has been conducted to investigate the effects of lorazepam on TOT states in response to general knowledge questions. In a recall task, participants who received lorazepam showed the same number of total recall answers to participants who had not received lorazepam. However, the lorazepam participants produced more incorrect recall responses to their TOT states. Lorazepam may inhibit the retrieval of the correct response. Participants under the influence of lorazepam did not experience the subjective
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
feeling that they were in a TOT state (i.e., the feeling of being on the verge of recalling the word). These participants experienced the subjective feeling of a TOT state only after they were told that their response was incorrect. As a result, it appears that these participants are not aware that their answer is incorrect and only experience the subjective feeling of TOT states if they are told their answer is incorrect. Lorazepam may create conditions where alternative answers come to mind more easily. Furthermore, lorazepam suppresses emotions, which may be why participants taking this drug do not experience the subjective feelings that accompany TOT states; thus enabling the recall of alternative responses. These findings suggest that lorazepam does not increase the probability of TOT states but it does inhibit the retrieval of correct responses and the subjective feeling of TOT states, leading participants to give incorrect answers without being aware.
Caffeine
Caffeine
Caffeine
Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. Caffeine is found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves, and fruit of some plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants...
can have multiple effects at the cellular level but is primarily notable for the alertness effect that it has on people. Research has been performed involving phonological priming and TOTs in which participants took either 200 mg of caffeine or a placebo. The participants answered 100 general knowledge questions, each with one correct answer. For each question, participants read 10 priming
Priming (psychology)
Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. It can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition...
words that were displayed on a monitor for a short period of time. Each list of 10 priming words had between two and eight words that were phonologically related to the correct answer of the question, with the remaining words being unrelated. Caffeinated participants had fewer TOT experiences than the placebo group, suggesting better memory recall. However, in the unrelated condition, the caffeinated group did not do as well as the placebo group in their ability to retrieve words. The results suggest that this dose of caffeine (equivalent to two cups of coffee) can temporarily hinder a person’s short-term recall of certain words. Moreover, the general advantageous effect of caffeine on attention can be ruled out.
Effects of age
Age is an important factor when considering TOT states. There are complaints that problems recalling information increases with age. The frequency of TOTs increases in adulthood and even more so during the elderly years. The underpinnings of TOT with regard to age have focused on neurological brain differences. Current research uses neuroimagingNeuroimaging
Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/pharmacology of the brain...
methods to access the presence of different brain patterns when a younger and older individual is experiencing a TOT state. It is found that older and younger individuals employ a similar network of brain regions during TOT states such as the prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior...
, left insula
Insular cortex
In each hemisphere of the mammalian brain the insular cortex is a portion of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus between the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe. The cortical area overlying it towards the lateral surface of the brain is the operculum...
and sensorimotor cortex. However, older individuals show differences in activity in some areas compared to younger individuals. TOTs increase with age-related gray matter
Gray Matter
"Gray Matter" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the October 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift. It is set in the same area as King's novel Dreamcatcher.-Setting:...
loss in the left insula for older individuals. This is accompanied by less activity in the left insula and is related to higher frequency of TOTs. Furthermore, it was found that older individuals have over-activation in their prefrontal cortex when experiencing TOT states. This may indicate a continued search when the retrieval process fails and a TOT state is experienced. More specifically, greater activation in the sensorimotor cortex in older individuals and less in younger adults may reflect differences in the knowledge that is used to retrieve the target information. Priming
Priming (psychology)
Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. It can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition...
words during word retrieval tests generally reduces the frequency of TOTs and improves the retrieval of the target word and has been shown to have a larger benefit for older adults. This is consistent with the spreading activation
Spreading activation
Spreading activation is a method for searching associative networks, neural networks, or semantic networks. The search process is initiated by labeling a set of source nodes with weights or "activation" and then iteratively propagating or "spreading" that activation out to other nodes linked to...
model, where neural connections are strengthened when used more.
Effects of emotion
It is well documented that emotionEmotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
influences many memory variables such as the amount of memory recalled and attributions of nostalgia. The issue regarding emotion and TOT is how it influences the tip-of-the-tongue state and the information that is trying to be recalled. It is common for individuals to ascribe emotions to TOTs. It is suggested that the majority of individuals experience TOTs negatively. It has been shown that experiencing an emotion predicts TOT memory performance later. Emotional TOTs are more likely to be recalled later than TOTs that had no emotional experience attached. Emotion and TOT are related to the metacognitive theory
Metacognition
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving...
that is mentioned above. In this theory, TOTs inform our cognitive system if the information we are trying to recall
Recall (memory)
Recall in memory refers to the retrieval of events or information from the past. Along with encoding and storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: free recall, cued recall and serial recall...
is accessible. Thus, emotions may play a role in experiencing TOT. Some research has shown that questions that elicit emotional arousal create TOTs more so than questions that aren’t emotionally arousing. It has also been found that emotional arousal can extend to subsequent questions or information being recalled even if they are not emotionally arousing themselves. It was found that emotional arousal increased the likelihood of experiencing TOT. Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/pharmacology of the brain...
has also found activation in some areas that are associated with emotion; specifically in the anterior cingulate cortex
Anterior cingulate cortex
The anterior cingulate cortex is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex, that resembles a "collar" form around the corpus callosum, the fibrous bundle that relays neural signals between the right and left cerebral hemispheres of the brain...
.
Effects of disease
Anomia is the inability to recall words and names and is a common symptom of patients with AphasiaAphasia
Aphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....
and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Research has been conducted to find out how these particular diseases affect TOTs in these individuals. In a study by Beeson, Holland, and Murray (1997), participants with Alzheimer's disease and three classic aphasic syndromes (Broca’s, anomic, and conduction aphasia) were instructed to name famous people. Those with anomic aphasia showed to be superior to the other groups in their ability to naming famous people that were presented. This finding was expected as the group has relatively mild aphasia. However, the Broca’s conduction and AD groups did not differ in immediate or delayed naming of famous faces. All of the groups provided some basic identifying semantic information for at least half of the items presented, suggesting a fair number of items potentially in TOT. Conduction and Broca’s groups showed strongest evidence of TOT, performing better than the other groups in identification of initial letters.
If the inability to recall words, phrases, or names is a temporary but debilitating disorder, it is known as lethologica
Lethologica
Lethologica is a psychological disorder that inhibits an individual's ability to articulate his or her thoughts by temporarily forgetting key words, phrases or names in conversation.-History:...
.
Effects of priming
Research on priming and practice use single word tests to assess for the presence of TOT states. The first letter of the target word or a similar sounding word is given in order to prime for the target word. Evidence that comes from the usefulness of primingPriming (psychology)
Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. It can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition...
and practice in reducing TOT states is that most information in TOT states is low-frequency; that is, it has not been used or recalled for some time. The recency of information use can influence the retrieval process of that information. The presentation of a prime is only needed once for it to facilitate TOT state resolution. Support for priming has been found in that when individuals are given the first letter of the word they are trying to recall, they are more likely to overcome their TOT state. When the prime is a related word instead of the first letter, an interesting effect occurs: When the prime word has similar phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
to the target word, an increase in the frequency of TOT states and a higher frequency of correctly recalled words when the TOT state is resolved is observed. Incorrect words come to mind involuntarily that share similar phonological features with the target word. Thus, phonological similarity can both decrease and increase TOT states. However, it is possible to fix this problem by changing the syntactic class
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
of the priming word. Priming words that are in the same syntactic class as the target word create no difference in TOT state resolution. The TOT state resolution was the same for priming words in the same syntactic class and unrelated priming words. If the priming word is being listed in conjunction with other unrelated priming words, then the position is of importance. The earlier in the list the priming word is, the less likely it is to help resolve the TOT state.
See also
- Memory and agingMemory and agingOne of the key concerns of older adults is the experience of memory loss, especially as it is one of the hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. However, memory loss is qualitatively different in normal aging from the kind of memory loss associated with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's...
- PsycholinguisticsPsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
- NeurolinguisticsNeurolinguisticsNeurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methodology and theory from fields such as neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive science,...
- MetamemoryMetamemoryMetamemory, one component of metacognition, is about one’s memory capabilities and strategies that can aid memory, as well as the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memory has important implications for how people learn and use memories...
- Dysnomia (disorder)
- Neuroanatomy of memoryNeuroanatomy of memoryThe neuroanatomy of memory encompasses a wide variety of anatomical structures in the brain.- Hippocampus :The hippocampus is a structure in the brain that has been associated with various memory functions. It is part of the limbic system, and lies next to the medial temporal lobe...