Science Behind Tip-of-The-Tongue Phenomenon

Have you ever experienced recalling a word but failed miserably? This often leads to infuriation but grants us sense of relief once we got the word we needed.

This strange phenomenon is called Presque Vu. Presque vu, also known as “tip of the tongue” (TOTs), is a phenomenon where a person knows the name of something i.e. a film, an actor, a place etc but for some reason, they can’t remember it. It’s said to be on the tip of their tongue. This happens to most of us at least once a week and increases to become daily as we age.

How does this happen?

The blocking hypothesis

One theory explaining why this momentary lapse in memory occurs is the blocking hypothesis. This theory suggests that in order to help remember the word, the brain blocks all other words that are similar. However, as the brain simultaneously block all similar words, it blocked the word you were actually looking for.

This theory explains why this phenomenon happens in a group environment. People will start shouting out similar blocking words, meaning everyone in the group will start blocking the word they are trying to remember so nobody can recall it. This also explains why leaving the subject helps remember the word a little while after. Not thinking about it helps the brain stop blocking all similar words because the more you think of it, the brain won't stop blocking the words.

Direct access view

The direct access view is linked to the blocking hypothesis. It suggests that memory strength for an item is strong enough to create a tip of the tongue phenomenon, however not strong enough to actually recall what is necessary. This leads to a feeling of knowing you know something, but not being able to fully remember it.

To further more understand this phenomenon, scientist used the connectionist model which used combined theories of neuroscience and computer science. This model is used to simulate how neurons handles language.

In this model, the brain is represented as connective nodes/processing centers that are like individual computers

In 1949, Donald Hebb proposed a theory how neurons in the brain changes through experience to encode new information, it's how we learn.

Particular clusters of neurons are activated. They start sending signals to each other. Activation then spreads to higher complex cluster to lower in unpredictable patterns but it turns out simple after a while. Activating certain cluster actually changes the connection between them making them more likely to activate again.

Retrieving the knowledge starts at the highest level of cluster which contains the meaning information (SYNTAX). Then it goes down to the middle cluster which is the morphology or the structure of the word you are recalling, ie: number of syllables, first letter, number of letters, etc. Then the lower cluster which contains the sound information.

For example, you wanted to remember the last name of your classmate John Paul Lopez. First a higher level of cluster would light up which is the meaning information. The brain would know that it is a name. Secondly, a middle cluster would lit up and make you know that it has 5 letters and starts with the letter L. And lastly is the sound information. It will trigger similar sounding sounds such as gomez and other more until you arrive at the surname Lopez.

A Tip-of-the-tongue states is what happens when the meaning cluster lights up, but the sound cluster dont activates because the signal in your brain does not follow the right path. Thats why you can often describe characteristics of the word but not the word itself.

-salle c,j.

sources :

Stevens, M. (Vsauce). (2011, November 05). What is Déjà vu?