TOT 
Tip-of-the-tongue States Metacognitive Awareness
Melinda Ortiz
Florida International University
Word Count: 913
Have you ever had a feeling of forgetting a word or name you desperately want to say but can not quite get your thought wrapped around the actual word? This phenomenon is called tip-of the-tongue, or TOT. As stated in the text, TOT describes your subjunctive experience of knowing a target word in which you are searching, but cannot recall what the subjunctive word is at that very moment (Matlin, 2014). Individuals whom experience a TOT moment can recall several phonological features of the target word such as a first letter, syllables, or other words that are similar, although the whole phonology is not available (Brown & McNeill, 1966). Many people are said to feel tormented when they cannot figure out the word, but then feel a sense of relief when the word later comes to them. TOT is a kind of metacognition. Metacognition is the knowledge, awareness, and thought of our cognitive processes. Since TOT is usually an involuntary event that can occur several times a week within a lifetime it is considered as having a breakdown in the lexical retrieval stage. The lexical retrieval stage is a search for words in memory storage. Therefore, it is possible that the Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a lexical retrieval failure.
William James, a psychologist and philosopher described the a tip-of-the-tongue state as:
“The state of our consciousness is peculiar. There is a gap therein; but no mere gap. It is a gap that is intensely active. A sort of wraith of the name is in it, beckoning 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” (as cited in Schwartz & Metcalfe, 2011)
James is describing in his quote that every individual has a unique open mind that we are so close to what we want to say but cannot quite grasp it. The Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon has a
Melinda Ortiz
Florida International University
Word Count: 913
Have you ever had a feeling of forgetting a word or name you desperately want to say but can not quite get your thought wrapped around the actual word? This phenomenon is called tip-of the-tongue, or TOT. As stated in the text, TOT describes your subjunctive experience of knowing a target word in which you are searching, but cannot recall what the subjunctive word is at that very moment (Matlin, 2014). Individuals whom experience a TOT moment can recall several phonological features of the target word such as a first letter, syllables, or other words that are similar, although the whole phonology is not available (Brown & McNeill, 1966). Many people are said to feel tormented when they cannot figure out the word, but then feel a sense of relief when the word later comes to them. TOT is a kind of metacognition. Metacognition is the knowledge, awareness, and thought of our cognitive processes. Since TOT is usually an involuntary event that can occur several times a week within a lifetime it is considered as having a breakdown in the lexical retrieval stage. The lexical retrieval stage is a search for words in memory storage. Therefore, it is possible that the Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is a lexical retrieval failure.
William James, a psychologist and philosopher described the a tip-of-the-tongue state as:
“The state of our consciousness is peculiar. There is a gap therein; but no mere gap. It is a gap that is intensely active. A sort of wraith of the name is in it, beckoning 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” (as cited in Schwartz & Metcalfe, 2011)
James is describing in his quote that every individual has a unique open mind that we are so close to what we want to say but cannot quite grasp it. The Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon has a
References: Biedermann, B., Ruh, N., Nickels, L., & Coltheart, M. (2008). Information retrieval in tip of the tongue states: New data and methodological advances. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 37, 171-198. DOI 10.1007/s10936-007-9065-8 Brown, R., & McNeill, D. (1966). The 'tip of the tongue ' phenomenon. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 5, 325-337. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(66)80040-3 Caramazza, A. (1997). How many levels of processing are there in lexical access?. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 14, 177-208. doi:10.1080/026432997381664 Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual 's two lexicons compete for selection?. Journal of Memory And Language, 41(3), 365-397. doi:10.1006/jmla.1999.2651 Matlin, M. W. (2012). Cognitive Psychology (8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1997). Retrieval of lexical–syntactic features in tip-of-the tongue states. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23, 1410-1423. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.23.6.1410 James, W. (1950). The principles of psychology. Oxford England: Dover Publications. Schwartz, B. L., & Metcalfe, J. (2011). Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states: retrieval, behavior, and experience. Memory & Cognition, 39, 737-749.