Chapter 3 - Tip-of-the-Tongue States in the Lab and in the World

Summary

TOT states are a common experience across all human beings regardless of age, language, culture, or ethnicity. Furthermore, there is overlap between our technical use of the term “tip of the tongue” and the everyday usage of the phrase and its accessibility to people regarding what it means when it is described to them. The universality of the experience makes the TOT state an ideal window onto human consciousness. Other “tip-ofs” exist too. The tip-of-the-finger phenomenon refers to the experience that sign-language users have when they are sure that they know a hand sign for a word but cannot retrieve it. The tip-of-the-nose phenomenon refers to the experience that one knows a particular odor but cannot retrieve the name for it in that moment. The tip-of-the-pen phenomenon refers to the experience among readers of Chinese languages of being able to recall the word but not being able to recall the character that represents that word in written Chinese. From diary studies, we know that most real-world TOT states are for proper names, that most naturally occurring TOT states are resolved, and that TOT states increase in frequency with age.