Table Of ContentThe Tip of the
Tongue State
ESSAYS IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
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The Tip of the
Tongue State
ALAN S. BROWN
Psychology Press
New York London
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chapter 1 historical background 1
Chapter 2 defining a ToT 5
Chapter 3 Eliciting and measuring ToTs 3 1
Chapter 4 manipulating ToT Probability 6 5
Chapter 5 Partial Target Word Information 8 1
Chapter 6 dimensions of ToT Target Words 9 9
Chapter 7 Interlopers 111
Chapter 8 resolving ToTs 123
Chapter 9 Etiology 153
Chapter 10 Individual differences 171
Chapter 11 summary 195
references 207
Author Index 221
subject Index 227
v
PrEfACE
memory problems are both fascinating and frightening. Fast and effi-
cient retrieval of information is personally satisfying. When retrieval
fails, it can be disturbing, confusing, and challenging, but it also provides
research scientists with valuable clues into the complexities of routine
cognitive experience. A personal fascination with the peripheral edges of
memory function has led me to examine phenomena such as unconscious
plagiarism (brown & murphy, 1989), transient amnesic states in normal
adults (brown, 1998), losing track of hidden valuables (brown & rahhal,
1994), déjà vu (brown, 2003, 2004), and the tip of the tongue (ToT) experi-
ence (brown, 1991). This book is a continuation of an earlier quest to better
understand ToTs, one that began over two decades ago.
some suggest that ToTs reflect an aberrant event, “… telling us about
what happens on the rare occasions that lexicalization falters or fails,
rather than about what happens when it succeeds” (harley & bown, 1998,
p. 165). however, I believe that it embodies a normal function that is dra-
matically sidetracked, slowed, stalled, or incomplete. As such, ToTs pro-
vide a unique picture of an otherwise very rapid and automatic behavior,
“… similar to how slow-motion photography clarifies the dimensions of a
hummingbird’s flight” (brown, 1991, p. 204).
my prior review covered the first 25 years of published research on the
ToT experience (brown, 1991). since then, the literature on this topic has
quadrupled and continues to grow at an ever-increasing pace. The num-
ber of published articles with “tip of the tongue” or “ToT” in the title has
essentially doubled decade by decade, expanding from 7 articles in the
1970s to over 70 in the 2000s.
A previous book on the ToT experience by bennett schwartz (2002b)
provides an excellent summary of the state of the field at that point, and
mine adds to his in several ways. First, over 85 new articles have appeared
since schwartz’s book was published, and entire new areas of investigation
have opened up, such as drugs that might be related to ToTs, the influence
of gestures in eliciting and resolving ToTs, what areas of the brain light up
during ToTs, and how the grammatical class of an interloper influences
vii
viii Preface
a ToT, just to name a few. A second difference is that schwartz’s primary
focus is on the theoretical speculation related to ToT states, whereas my
main emphasis is on empirical findings. Although theory and etiology
are important, I believe that we can better understand this phenomenon
by focusing primarily on the functionalistic aspects of the experience
(cf. Watkins, 1990).
Alan S. Brown
1
C H A P T E R
Historical Background
It is fitting to begin this book with the oft-cited description of the ToT
experience written over a century ago by James (1893). he compellingly
describes the manner in which we fail to grasp something just beyond our
momentary linguistic reach, like having a stepstool too short to reach an
item that we know to be up there, on the top shelf.
suppose we try to recall a forgotten name. The state of our conscious-
ness is peculiar. There is a gap therein; but no mere gap. It is a gap
that is intensively active. A sort of wraith of the name is in it, beck-
oning us in a given direction, making us at moments tingle with
the sense of our closeness, and then letting us sink back without the
longed-for term. If wrong names are proposed to us, this singularly
definite gap acts immediately so as to negate them. They do not fit
into its mould. And the gap of one word does not feel like the gap of
another, all empty of content as both might seem necessarily to be
when described as gaps. … The rhythm of a lost word may be there
without a sound to clothe it; or the evanescent sense of something
which is the initial vowel or consonant may mock us fitfully, without
growing more distinct. (James, 1893, pp. 163–164)
Incidentally, this description appeared in a chapter on “the stream
of consciousness,” rather than one on memory. In contrast to this rather
poetic view of ToTs, Angell (1908), who was a contemporary of James,
presents a more jaded perspective on what ToTs mean:
I know my friend’s middle name perfectly well, and yet when asked
for it a moment ago, I could not command it. some momentary stop-
page of the associated pathways in the cortex checked the attempt
at recall. many of the most serious disorders of insanity involve this
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