FEATURE ARTICLE
Tip-of-the-Tongue States Yield Language Insights
Probing the recall of those missing words provides a glimpse of how we turn thoughts into speech and how this process changes with age
Lise Abrams
TOT States and Language
The study of TOT states and their resolution supports interactive activation theories of speech production. Our data show that phonological processing can strengthen the connections between a word's phonology and its lemma. The finding that parts of speech determine the benefit or cost of phonological cues tells us that grammatical class constrains the words we can produce. In the midst of a TOT state, a phonologically related word in the same class can compete for, rather than aid, retrieval. It is as if the retrieval process, having encountered a word with the right phonology (the first syllable) and syntax (part of speech), has difficulty moving on to find the word that has these attributes plus the right semantics.
With respect to practical implications, people spontaneously resolve TOT states many times a day. It seems as if the desired word suddenly pops into mind. However, these resolutions are not accidental. The TOT word's phonology became available for some reason—you heard it, you thought it or you said it. These pop-up resolutions become more important as we age because word-finding problems have negative effects for older adults: They disrupt conversations, create a perception of incompetence and ultimately discourage older people from talking, which only makes the problem worse. Understanding the factors that influence pop-up resolutions is critical for facilitating older adults' communication. Clearly, speech production isn't as simple as producing whatever words come to mind. The next time you have a frustrating tip-of-the-tongue experience, try to appreciate its significance in helping us to understand the complex processes that underlie our ability to speak.
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