Tip of the tongue (also known as ''lethologica'') is the phenomenon of failing to retrieve a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
or term from
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
, combined with partial
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
and the feeling that retrieval is imminent.
The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
The tip of the tongue phenomenon reveals that
lexical access occurs in stages.
People experiencing the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon can often recall one or more of the target word, such as the first letter, its
syllabic stress, and words similar in sound, meaning, or both sound and 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.
While many aspects of the tip-of-the-tongue state remain unclear, there are two major competing explanations for its occurrence: the ''direct-access view'' and the ''inferential view''. Emotion and the strength of the emotional ties to what is trying to be remembered can also have an impact on the TOT phenomenon. The stronger the emotional ties, the longer it takes to retrieve the item from memory.
TOT states should be distinguished from FOK (feeling of knowing) states. FOK, in contrast, is the feeling that one will be able to recognize—from a list of items—an item that is currently inaccessible. There are still currently opposing hypotheses in the psychological literature regarding the separability of the process underlying these concepts. However, there is some evidence that TOTs and FOKs draw on different parts of the brain. TOTs are associated with the anterior cingulate, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and right inferior cortex while FOKs are not.
FOKs can be assessed through memory-monitoring testing in which a test subject is asked to "estimate the likelihood" of recognizing when "prompted with a cue" or information that they previously failed to remember.
[Yu, Hui, Wang, Kai, Zhong, Ping, Cheng, Huai-Dong, Lv, Xin-Yi, Yuan, Li-Li. Investigations of memory monitoring in individuals with subjective cognitive decline and amnestic mild cognitive impairment. ''Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.'' 2020;33(3):201-207. doi:10.1097/WNN.0000000000000242.] This test aims to measure a test subject's accuracy of memory monitoring during the "memory extraction stage".
An occasional tip-of-the-tongue state is normal for people of all ages; however, it becomes more frequent as people age.
TOT can be referred as an actual medical condition, but only when it becomes frequent enough to interfere with learning or daily life. This disorder is called
anomic aphasia
Anomic aphasia (also known as dysnomia, nominal aphasia, and amnesic aphasia) is a mild, fluent type of aphasia where individuals have word retrieval failures and cannot express the words they want to say (particularly nouns and verbs). By contra ...
when acquired by brain damage, usually from a
head injury
A head injury is any injury that results in trauma to the skull or brain. The terms ''traumatic brain injury'' and ''head injury'' are often used interchangeably in the medical literature. Because head injuries cover such a broad scope of inju ...
,
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
, or
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
.
The tip of the tongue phenomenon has implications for research in
psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind ...
,
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
, and
metacognition
Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word '' meta'', meaning "beyond", or "on top of".Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). ''Metacognition: knowi ...
.
History
![Wm james](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Wm_james.jpg)
The term "tip of the tongue" is borrowed from colloquial usage,
and possibly a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
from the French phrase ''avoir le mot sur le bout de la langue'' ("having the word on the tip of the tongue"). The tip of the tongue phenomenon was first described as a psychological phenomenon in the text ''
The Principles of Psychology
''The Principles of Psychology'' is an 1890 book about psychology by William James, an American philosopher and psychologist who trained to be a physician before going into psychology. There are four methods from James' book: stream of consciousne ...
'' by
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
(1890), although he did not label it as such.
[James, W. (1890). ''Principles of Psychology''. Retrieved from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/]
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
also discussed
unconscious
Unconscious may refer to:
Physiology
* Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli
Psychology
* Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...
psychological factors, such as unconscious
thoughts
In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...
and
impulses that might cause forgetting familiar words.
[Freud, S. (1965). '']The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
''Psychopathology of Everyday Life'' (german: Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens) is a 1901 work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Based on Freud's researches into slips and parapraxes from 1897 onwards, it became perhaps the ...
''. New York: Norton.
The first
empirical research
Empirical research is research using empirical evidence. It is also a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empiricism values some research more than other kinds. Empirical evidence (the record of one ...
on this phenomenon was undertaken by
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
researchers
Roger Brown and
David McNeill
Glenn David McNeill (born 1933 in California, United States) is an American psychologist and writer specializing in scientific research into psycholinguistics and especially the relationship of language to thought, and the gestures that accomp ...
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.
[Baddeley, A, Eysenck, M., & Anderson, M. (2009). ''Memory''. New York: Psychology Pres Inc.]
In their study, Brown and McNeill read out definitions (and ''only'' the definitions) of rare words to the study participants, and asked them to name the object or concept being defined. When 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 and McNeill:
# The participant recognized the word read by the experimenter as the word he had been seeking.
# The participant correctly recalled the word before it was read by the experimenter.
# The 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 both men and women, and is known to occur in young adulthood, middle age, and older adulthood. TOT experiences in childhood have not been studied. Education level is not thought to be a factor in the experience of TOT states. Monolinguals, bilinguals, and multilinguals all experience tip of the tongue states, although with varying frequencies (see
§Effects of bilingualism below).
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
An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...
referring to the tip of the tongue phenomenon that references the tongue, mouth, or throat as a
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
.
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 (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
,
Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
,
Icelandic,
Kalenjin Kalenjin may refer to:
* Kalenjin people
The Kalenjin are a group of tribes designated as Highland Nilotes and are descended from Maliri people ''(thus related to Daasanach of Ethiopia.)'' The Kalenjin are cousins with Datooga people of Tan ...
, and
Kiswahili
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili ...
.
However, tip of the finger experiences are reported by signers.
Causes
The causes of TOTs are largely unknown but numerous explanations have been offered. These explanations mainly fall within the realms of two overarching viewpoints: the
direct-access view and the
inferential view.
Direct-access view
The direct-access view posits that the state occurs when memory strength is not enough to recall an item, but is strong enough to trigger the 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.
In other words, TOTs occur when plausible but incorrect responses to a query come to mind quickly. The person 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
hypothesis
A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...
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.
The hypothesis that blockers act more like retrieval cues is mainly supported by the idea of phonological similarities between the target word and the blocker word. Phonological blockers are words that sound similar to the target word. According to Bown & Harley, "phonological neighbors (of blockers) usually act as support in lexical retrieval rather than as a hindrance". In contrast, an alternative argument suggests that phonological blockers hinder the ability to retrieve the target word causing a tip of the tongue state.
There is more support for the idea that blockers act as neither primers nor enhancers, but rather more like a side effect. In Metcalf & Kornell's research the incubation period helped participants to retrieve the word by the same amount for the original non-blocked TOTs and the blocked TOTs.
This suggests that blockers have no effect on the retrieval or the causes of tip of the tongue states.
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
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
and
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
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.
According to cognitive psychologists Deborah M. Burke, of
Pomona College
Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...
, and Donald G. MacKay, of the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, this phenomenon occurs due primarily to three reasons, all based on weakened neural connection: the lack of frequent use of a word, the lack of recent use of a word, and aging.
Inferential view
The inferential view of TOTs claims that TOTs aren't completely inaccessible, but arise from clues about the target that the rememberer can piece together.
This is to say that the rememberer
infers their knowledge of the target word, and the imminence of retrieval depends upon the information that they are able to access about the target word from their memory. 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
heuristic
A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, ...
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.
Phenomenon in the brain
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
magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (s ...
(MEG)
and event-related
functional magnetic resonance imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...
(fMRI).
Neurological activation in the TOT state
![Gray727 anterior cingulate cortex](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Gray727_anterior_cingulate_cortex.png)
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 cortex
In the human brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a "collar" surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33.
It is involved ...
(ACC)
*
Posterior cingulate cortex
The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is the caudal part of the cingulate cortex, located posterior to the anterior cingulate cortex. This is the upper part of the " limbic lobe". The cingulate cortex is made up of an area around the midline of th ...
(PCC)
* Right
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC or DL-PFC) is an area in the prefrontal cortex of the primate brain. It is one of the most recently derived parts of the human brain. It undergoes a prolonged period of maturation which lasts until adultho ...
(DLPFC)
* Right inferior
prefrontal cortex
In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, ...
(RIPC)
* Bilateral anterior
frontal cortex
* Posterior medial
parietal cortex
The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus.
The parietal lobe integrates sensory inform ...
* Bilateral lateral parietal cortex
* Bilateral superior
prefrontal cortex
In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, ...
*
Supramarginal gyrus
The supramarginal gyrus is a portion of the parietal lobe. This area of the brain is also known as Brodmann area 40 based on the brain map created by Korbinian Brodmann to define the structures in the cerebral cortex. It is probably involved wit ...
*
Superior temporal gyrus
*
Supplementary motor area
The supplementary motor area (SMA) is a part of the motor cortex of primates that contributes to the control of movement. It is located on the midline surface of the hemisphere just in front of (anterior to) the primary motor cortex leg representa ...
* Left
insular cortex
The insular cortex (also insula and insular lobe) is a portion of the cerebral cortex folded deep within the lateral sulcus (the fissure separating the temporal lobe from the parietal and frontal lobes) within each hemisphere of the mammalian bra ...
It was also shown
that in TOT state the activation of the
parahippocampal gyrus
The parahippocampal gyrus (or hippocampal gyrus') is a grey matter cortical region of the brain that surrounds the hippocampus and is part of the limbic system. The region plays an important role in memory encoding and retrieval. It has been inv ...
is decreased.
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
The fusiform face area (FFA, meaning spindle-shaped face area) is a part of the human visual system (while also activated in people blind from birth) that is specialized for facial recognition. It is located in the inferior temporal cortex ( ...
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.
Influential factors
Effects of bilingualism
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.
Specifically, when adjusted for the degree of use of the dominant and less-dominant language, bilinguals have more TOTs with the less-dominant language.
In a task of picture-naming, bilingual speakers were slower than monolinguals, even when they could use their first and dominant language. This could possibly be the result of bilinguals using the words less often than monolingual speakers.
Bilinguals also represent virtually twice as many words and additional cognitive mechanisms for activation and inactivation of languages. Such mechanisms introduce added processing burden that monolinguals do not face. In addition, even when a task seems monolingual, bilingual system is never functionally "off."
Effects of drugs
Lorazepam
Lorazepam
Lorazepam, sold under the brand name Ativan among others, is a benzodiazepine medication. It is used to treat anxiety disorders, trouble sleeping, severe agitation, active seizures including status epilepticus, alcohol withdrawal, and c ...
is a type of
benzodiazepine
Benzodiazepines (BZD, BDZ, BZs), sometimes called "benzos", are a class of depressant drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. They are prescribed to treat conditions such as anxiety disorders, ...
, a
psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. ...
used for the short-term treatment of
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
,
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
, acute
seizures
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or neural oscillation, synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much o ...
inducing a state of
sedation
Sedation is the reduction of irritability or agitation by administration of sedative drugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure or diagnostic procedure. Examples of drugs which can be used for sedation include isoflurane, diethyl ether, ...
in 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 question. 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
Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is mainly used recreationally as a cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional performance. Caffeine acts by blocking binding of adenosine t ...
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 may refer to:
* Priming (agriculture), a form of seed planting preparation, in which seeds are soaked before planting
* Priming (immunology), a process occurring when a specific antigen is presented to naive lymphocytes causing them to d ...
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. Throughout adulthood, the frequency of TOTs increases, especially during the advanced years.
Compared with young adults, older adults generally report having more TOT states, fewer alternate words, and less phonological information about the target word. The underpinnings of TOT with regard to age have focused on neurological brain differences. Current research using
neuroimaging
Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...
compared the brain patterns of younger and older individuals experiencing TOT states. It appears that both older and younger individuals employ a similar network of brain regions during TOT states such as the
prefrontal cortex
In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, ...
, 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
Grey matter is a major component of the central nervous system, consisting of neuronal cell bodies, neuropil (dendrites and unmyelinated axons), glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes), synapses, and capillaries. Grey matter is distingui ...
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 may refer to:
* Priming (agriculture), a form of seed planting preparation, in which seeds are soaked before planting
* Priming (immunology), a process occurring when a specific antigen is presented to naive lymphocytes causing them to d ...
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 is a method for searching associative networks, biological and artificial neural networks, or semantic networks. The search process is initiated by labeling a set of source nodes (e.g. concepts in a semantic network) with weig ...
model, where neural connections are strengthened when used more.
Although older people experience more tip of the tongue states more often than any other category, recent studies have shown that frequent tip of the tongue states are not linked at all to dementia, which is common in the elderly.
[Salthhouse, Timothy, and Arielle Mandell. "Do Age-Related Increases in Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences Signify Episodic Memory Impairments?." ''Psychological Science'' 2013; 10: n. pag. Sage Journals. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.] Despite the association of increased age with lower levels of episodic memory and more frequent TOT states, the two phenomena seem to be largely independent of one another.
Effects of emotion
It is well documented that
emotion
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
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 the cognitive system if the information one is trying to
recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...
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 are not 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 is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...
has also found activation in some areas that are associated with emotion; specifically in the
anterior cingulate cortex
In the human brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a "collar" surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33.
It is involved ...
.
Effects of disorders
If the inability to recall words, phrases, or names is a temporary but debilitating disorder, it is known as lethologica.
Anomic aphasia
Anomic aphasia
Anomic aphasia (also known as dysnomia, nominal aphasia, and amnesic aphasia) is a mild, fluent type of aphasia where individuals have word retrieval failures and cannot express the words they want to say (particularly nouns and verbs). By contra ...
is the inability to recall words and names and is a common symptom of patients with
aphasia
Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...
and
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
(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 name 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.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...
, which is a reading disability in which a person is unable to read and interpret words, letters, and symbols, has also been known to have an effect on the frequency of TOT experiences. In one study, dyslexic children experienced TOT states more often than children who read normally as well as showed "more errors in the phonological ... step of word retrieval." However, dyslexic children were still able to recall the semantic meaning behind each word that induced a TOT state.
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
priming
Priming may refer to:
* Priming (agriculture), a form of seed planting preparation, in which seeds are soaked before planting
* Priming (immunology), a process occurring when a specific antigen is presented to naive lymphocytes causing them to d ...
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 word has similar
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
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.
Effects of gestures
It is unknown whether gesturing is helpful in finding the elusive word in a TOT experience. It is difficult to determine if the participant is using gestures as their regular form of communication or if they are using gestures in order to help them overcome their TOT experience and retrieve the target word.
Effects of age of acquisition
The speed and accuracy with which speakers retrieve a word is influenced by the age in life at which that word was first learned. Specifically, early-acquired words tend to be named more quickly and accurately than late-acquired words (age of acquisition effect). It has been observed that the probability of experiencing a TOT state depends on the age at which the word is acquired in life: more TOT states are obtained with late-acquired than with early-acquired words.
See also
*
Memory and aging
Age-related memory loss, sometimes described as "normal aging" (also spelled "ageing" in British English), is qualitatively different from memory loss associated with types of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease, and is believed to have a differe ...
*
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind ...
*
Neurolinguistics
Neurolinguistics is the study of neural mechanisms in the human brain that controls the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methods and theories from fields such as n ...
*
Metamemory
Metamemory or Socratic awareness, a type of metacognition, is both the introspective knowledge of one's own memory capabilities (and strategies that can aid memory) and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memor ...
*
Aphasia
Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...
and in particular
anomic aphasia
Anomic aphasia (also known as dysnomia, nominal aphasia, and amnesic aphasia) is a mild, fluent type of aphasia where individuals have word retrieval failures and cannot express the words they want to say (particularly nouns and verbs). By contra ...
*
Neuroanatomy of memory
*
TOTimal
References
{{memory
Cognitive psychology
Memory
Figures of speech
English-language idioms