The tip of the tongue state
By: Alan S. Brown
Series: Essays in cognitive psychology
Publisher: Psychology Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
ISBN-13: 9781841694443
Subjects: Recollection (Psychology); Metacognition; Memory disorders
Description: This book brings together the body of empirical findings and theoretical interpretations of the tip of the tongue (TOT) experience - when a well-known or familiar word cannot immediately be recalled. Although research has been published on TOTs for over a century, the experience retains its fascination for both cognitive and linguistic researchers. After a review of various research procedures used to study TOTs, the book offers a summary of attempts to manipulate this rare cognitive experience through cue and prime procedures. Various aspects of the inaccessible target word are frequently available - such as first letter and syllable number - even in the absence of actual retrieval, and the book explores the implications of these bits of target-word information for mechanisms for word storage and retrieval. It also examines: what characteristics of a word make it potentially more vulnerable to a TOT; why words related to the target word (called "interlopers") often come to mind; the recovery process, when the momentarily-inaccessible word is recovered shortly after the TOT is first experienced; and efforts to evaluate individual differences in the likelihood to experience TOTs.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Historical background; title: Defining the TOT state; title: Eliciting and measuring TOTs; title: Manipulating TOT probability; title: Partial target word information; title: Dimensions of TOT target words; title: Interlopers; title: Resolving TOTs; title: Etiology; title: Individual differences; title: Summary.